Jekyll & Hyde

I love the sun. It's peeking out from March's fast moving cloud cover, hinting at something better coming. The air is still brisk...cold enough to turn your exposed skin to toe-cicles, or finger-cicles, whichever you have been foolish enough to leave uncovered. The sun warms the inside parts of me which have been yearning for its attention all winter. I feel easier and yet in some ways more tense. The changing weather affects me as does my own journey experience. I am much easier with him but he is much worse. I suspect those two things are related. As his behavior gets more bizarre, I react in a more maternal way, less like a partner who has been stood up.
Last night we went to a small party to celebrate my brother's birthday with him. There was a nice crowd and good food and conversation. Stew brightened visibly with the social stimulation and I felt free. I drank a little too much, uncharacteristic of me...but it felt good! I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions, the social exposure, the fun. I also enjoyed the feeling that he was happy and watched over without my direct involvement. Freedom.
When we got home, he went immediately into his latest behavior, which mimics a seizure, or an over stressed nervous system. It might be a result of the latest drug we are trying; it might be a result of over stimulation; it might be a natural part of the progression of this disease. But he shakes as if he's having a seizure and becomes very agitated. He searches manically for something that is not missing, that he can't describe or explain. I have learned to help him dress for bed and to get him there quickly, as his ability to climb stairs and even to walk is impaired severely in this condition.
I feel whiplashed by the contrasts in my own emotional state. I have often described these feelings as being "bi-polar". I am not, of course, actually bi-polar, but the severe mood swings so easily affected by his condition, our environment, the weather, all seem to mimic what I have heard of this condition.
I am getting more tense over the degree and speed of change I see in his condition. The decline in his ability to figure out how to dress and undress and use the toilet are harbingers of impending negative change in the stage of the disease. But I am heartened by the softening of my attitude toward him that seems to accompany these changes.
I have managed to be very angry at my partner in life because his behavior indicated a kind of leaving me. It is finally becoming very hard to muster up any anger with someone who is this lost.