Third year Day 153 - Thursday May 15, 2014

This morning Bridgett had an appointment with Dr. Bret Lindsay in Kalispell.  We really like him.  Bridgett was funny as always.  First of all, the nurse was a man and when we got into the examination room, there were two of those stools that roll.  He went to sit on one and she said she wanted to sit on the other one instead of the regular chair.  Then she proceeded to just have a great time rolling around the room and chatting, and laughing with the nurse. When Dr. Lindsay came in, she had a great time talking to him.  I was remembering when she first met with him, how she couldn't sit for more than like five minutes.  Then every time she has been better about sitting and talking.  The last time we saw him, about nine months ago, she probably sat for like 20 minutes and talked to him.  So today we were there for like almost an hour and she sat for the entire time and talked to him.  I even offered to have Mark walk with her (so I could take alone with Dr. Lindsay) but she declined and said that she was doing just fine and could stay in the room.  So, I didn't talk alone with him!  Anyway, we talked about more physical therapy for Bridgett.  I told him that for the past two months, Bridgett has been telling me that she wants to swim this summer, twice every day, out to the sand bar in our bay.  Of course, she can't swim without more physical therapy, because of her neck. Really, her neck is doing so much better, but the muscles are weak and need to be strengthened. He gave us a prescription for that.  Next we talked about speech therapy, which at this point we would do strictly for help with memory and cognition.  He gave us a prescription for that. He said that Lynn Beauclair, who we saw before, is probably the best in the valley in that regard. Next we talked about medication.  The Aricept did not work out for her so he gave us another prescription to try called Namenda, which he said had fewer side effects.  However, he did say that with her intermittent dizziness problems, it might not work.  I will go home and read more about it.  We asked him about a psyiatrist that Richard Taylor told us about, and he said he'd set up an appointment with her for us.  She apparently does some kind of brain stimulation.  We don't know much about it, but we will meet with her and talk about it.  We briefly talked about weight issues, and he said that many people have problems with weight after a brain injury.  He had no other suggestions about that.  So ended our appointment with Dr. Lindsay.  Later in the evening I had an appointment at the stake center for an interview;  I met with President Thorderson.  He started out by saying that he had just had a text message from Brita.  That got me thinking about Bridgett and texting.  I really miss those days of talking on the phone with her and texting her about things.  It made me sad to think about it and so I tried not to dwell on it too much.  At the stake center, I saw several of my friends and got to visit really quick with them, including Meridel Barden (big hugs!), Jill Reichner, Anita Bergman and Bob and Ginny Reed.  Oh, right before my interview, I stopped and got some beautiful tulips and went to the Conrad Cemetery and tried to find Chris's grave.  Remember that I was here when he passed, but the funeral was delayed and I had to leave and take Bridgett to Utah as she was in such pain.  Otherwise I would have cancelled and stayed here.  Anyway, I never have been to the cemetery, and I have been thinking about it for about a month and wanting to go.  I tried to follow Mark's description, but couldn't find the grave.  I finally left and will try again with Mark.