Day 245 - Wednesday August 15, 2012

We finally had a day when we didn't have to be anywhere and boy was it nice to be home!!  We all kind of kicked back and relaxed a little.  Back in February when Bridgett had to go from Provo to Salt Lake for rehab it was far too much for her to be in the car that long.  Now we regularly drive to Kalispell and it's at least 35 minutes to any appointment--and she does just great!  I have been thinking back on many things since the accident.  I remember asking if Bridgett would have to learn everything again, including the names of things, or if she would eventually remember things or what to expect.  They said both things would happen--she would remember some things and re-learn others.  I was thinking about how she had to learn to get dressed, to wash her face, to eat, to walk straight, holding her head up, etc.  How far we have come really.  Its good to think back from time to time and to realize how much progress there has been.  Initially she couldn't name anything, although we did discover that she couldn't see hardly anything so it wasn't just that she couldn't remember the name of anything.  Once we had that figured out we realized that she really did remember the names of many things, or with very little prompting could come up with those names.  She spontaneously remembered how to read--and not everyone is able to do that.  She thankfully remembers how to spell most everything--which is good because with limited short term memory this would be challenging.  She is remembering times tables.  And it's weird what the mind remembers and what it doesn't.  For example I asked her what she wore to church because she was thinking about where Tyler is and she said wasn't it an animal with a trunk?  So, it's weird that the mind remembers that instead of remembering the word elephant.  After thinking for 30 seconds or so she remembered that it was an elephant--but strange how the mind remembers things!  And she could remember she was wearing an elephant but couldn't remember that it was a necklace and wondered if it was on her clothes somewhere--like a print or something.  Odd!  Then randomly she will remember something we told her months ago--like Mark told her to hold her hands to her sides and shake them to try to get them warm when they feel cold (which is very often).  Every now and then she will comment that her hands are so cold and that she already tried to shake them to get them warm and she will demonstrate.  We haven't said anything about that since we got back to Montana, and that was three months ago.  So, why does the mind remember this fact and not others?  Odd.  As I have said before--the mind is an amazing thing.