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Care Partner of the Month -September/October
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Ted Levy
Jupiter, Florida

Helaine can’t open a bottle of medicine with her one good hand, or remember what she should take at what time. She can’t make a doctor’s appointment or tell the doctor in detail what is wrong. Sometimes she is childlike, but other times she is the same old Helaine. She has three personalities, the third is a combination of the other two. A stroke is a brain attack. After a heart attack the heart is never the same. So, after a brain attack (a stroke), the brain is never the same either. One learns to work around everything, and try to get the most out of life.

When I was able to get Helaine out of the house after about a year and a half, she was in a wheel chair and could only say a few words. She was still quite lethargic. Her own father and his girlfriend put so much pressure on her for money that she had a double grand mal seizure one day and was admitted back to the hospital. Helaine loves her father and does not accept the fact that he was responsible for her prior seizures -- he can do no wrong. I love my wife very much and I do not want her to be upset, so I let the matter drop.

I set up a trust to protect Helaine from her own family. Can you believe that they would take her last dime; well believe it! I worry about Helaine. She will probably outlive me. She will need local professional management of money and medical matters. Our son lives 1,500 miles away and will not be able to take care of these matters from such a distance. We are lucky because God sent us guardian angels that love Helaine.

Helaine got her first grand mal seizure at home. It was the first of many seizures. She was hospitalized for tests to determine the cause of the seizure. No staff member in the hospital explained about seizures. I was referred to the neurologist. She went on seizure medication. It worked, and then it didn’t work. They increased her medication. She has had many seizures over the past 7 years. The problem was that there is no advanced warning when a seizure is about to occur. When a seizure happens, she just collapses and then goes stiff as a board. She shakes and gasps for air -- the muscles in her neck are expanded but stiff like metal rods. Her mouth is clenched shut. Sounds of wheezing suffocation fill the room while she gags and struggles to breathe. It all sounds like it comes from the depths of hell. As she comes out of it her eyes stare into space; she is not aware of what just happened. The stress on her body causes her to be exhausted for three days after the seizure. I can never get use to Helaine having a seizure. She gets one about every year or two; we never know when it is coming as they have no real answers as to what brings it on, they called it a break through seizure.

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