On Sunday Ray had what a lot of people describe as a "turn". He called out, when I got into the bedroom he looked like a rag doll, arms outstretched, eyes wild, he looked frightened. When I tried to get him up he had no muscle power. I managed to sit him up, then tried to stand him up as he wanted to go to the bathroom. As I got no help from him and I realised he was a dead weight I eventually sat him on the floor and he flopped back.

By this time I was panicking and so I ran around the house looking for Trev, then remembered he was down the road with friends. I rang his mobile then remembered he lost it last week. Rang our other son to see if he remembered the number of the "old" mobile he would be using. As I was doing that Trev came home . I got him to lift Ray up onto the bed. That is when I realised the bed was soaked through and so was Ray.

We hauled him out to the shower and I cooled him off, cleaned him up, redressed him and got him onto my bed, then when I had it all changed back onto his. Took me half an hour or so to do all of this.

Ray slept for about three hours and then when he got up seemed fine. As this was not like any of the strokes I did not call an ambulance. Taking hm to a hospital on Sunday afternoon would not have been a positive move anyway as weekend staff are often rushed off their feet and the patients don't get to see a specialist etc until the middle of the following week.

I left it till today to take him to our local doctor. He called what Ray had a "brain infarct". He also called it a brain fit. He said Ray has had many of these and the dementia and continuing weakness is the result. There is basically no treatment and the medication he is on is all that he can take right now. I am amazed that I have never witnessed one of these infarcts but apparently they mainly occur during sleep so the result is just a person who is much slower getting dressed, more tired, lacking apetite for a day or so etc.

So maybe for some of you that will explain the lack of progress, those one step forward , two steps back days. On a MRI these tiny infarcts look like white dots so if that is the xray you have that is multiple infarcts. The cause seems to be mostly unknown as yet and therefore untreated. Another one of those things you just rest up after and hope the full strength comes back again.

Ray also has a mild chest infection so I got medication for that. You can hear him coming by the rattling noise...lol.

Apart from that life goes on. It was Trev's birthday yesterday, my "baby" is 33. We took him out last night for dinner. It was not the world's greatest meal, I think the chef was having an off night. Just barely edible. No cake either but he said he didn't want a fuss and will go out with the mates on Friday night. Guess 33 seemed a nothing birthday for him.

It is times like this I realise I am not getting any younger either. Picking Ray off the floor takes me a couple of days to get over now as my back muscles stiffen. I know, get help, call the paramedics, take care of yourself etc.