J.D. Scott, older brother of HGTV’s Jonathan and Drew Scott, is thanking his fiancée, Annalee Belle, for her love and care as he deals with an ongoing mystery illness.
The 43-year-old TV personality, who’s appeared alongside his brothers on “Property Brothers at Home” and “Brother vs. Brother," revealed last week that he's been struggling with health issues for the past 14 months.
Now, in a heartfelt post he's shared on Instagram, J.D. Scott is calling Belle his "hero" for how she's taken care of him and the couple's business affairs while he's been sick.
"I see you. Tired and anxious but determined. Getting up earlier than you should to give yourself that brief workout that helps get you through the day. Going to bed much later than you need to finish just one more thing from the list that never ends," he wrote next to a video filled with photos of the pair.
Scott went on to mention the "countless errands" Belle has run as well as the "days on end of food prepping and researching so that I will actually eat and not fade away."
His list of observations included not only the endless doctor visits, phone calls, and business obligations Belle has taken charge of, but also the moments she's dealt with the emotional pain of watching her partner suffer.
"The moments when you cry on the floor of your closet because you feel like you aren’t doing enough. The times you walk quietly to let me sleep as you know it is so hard for me to reach. The little notes you leave me hidden throughout our home that tell me how much you care. The life that you have chosen to keep that is not always what you saw for yourself in the past," he wrote.
"I see that you are carrying the weight of us both and for that you are my hero. I love you," he added.
Belle took to the comments to respond to Scott's message.
"Okay, well, I'm in tears now," she wrote. "This isn't the life I saw for myself ...This is so much better than anything I could have ever dreamed. A life with you is everything and more."
On July 8, the couple shared a lengthy Instagram video detailing Scott's health issues, which first surfaced when he checked into a hospital last May.
"That event there was so bad that I thought I was dying, actually," he said. "It was really bad, and I was preparing all my estate, and I was writing out passwords for (Belle)."
Scott's condition seems to have baffled doctors. Some thought maybe it was lupus or a brain aneurysm, while one neurosurgeon told Scott that maybe there was “a new pathway (that) had formed” in his brain, which can happen, but is not fatal.
His symptoms have run the gamut from a "crawly feeling" in his head to temperature sensitivities.
However, lately he's been on the mend. He noted in his video that antibiotics have helped him, as has eliminating wheat, dairy, soy, gluten and sugar from his diet.
"It's not all better by any stretch," Scott shared. "I don't want you think, like, 'He's cured!' but this sort of thing does take time."