Second year Day 174 - Wednesday June 5, 2013

Bridgett is still feeling miserable today.  It is just so sad!  I am giving her everything I can think of to ease her symptoms.  The sneezing still continues and every time she sneezes I am just praying that we don't start up with horrible neck pain again.  Like I said, sneezing is hard on those with neck problems.  Remember we went through that period of time where her neck was in a spasm when she sneezed.  Luckily that isn't happening (yet!).  I found out today that Geri, a wonderful lady that I visiting teach, has a brain tumor and only has three months to live.  She called her yesterday and asked Mark to give her a blessing which he has done before.  She was headed into the hospital, because they thought she might have had a stroke.  It turns out that it's an inoperable brain tumor.  I cried a lot about the whole thing.  I really have gotten close to Geri and I have been her visiting teacher almost since I moved to Bigfork. 

Second year Day 173 - Tuesday June 4, 2013

A busy day, filled with trying to get unpacked and caught up!  I forgot to mention that off and on during the trip I thought about my azaleas.  We have some beautiful azalea plants just off the front porch, and along the front of the house.  It is apparently unusual that they grow so well in the Flathead Valley.  I had an arborist out here a few times, and he was just really shocked to see how well they do. Anyway, they only bloom for a couple of weeks each year and I was really hoping that I hadn't missed them this year.  I got home to find that they were just starting to try to open--just a little bit of dark pink peeking out!  I was so happy about that!  So, we will get to enjoy every day of the azaleas!  Bridgett is just miserable with this cold.  They babies were apparently sick when we saw them Saturday and Jenn and Tyler got sick as well.  Anyway, it is so sad to see Bridgett just look miserable.  She kind of whimpers from time to time and can't get comfortable at all.  And to top it off, she is sneezing off and on, which is miserable for her neck as well.  Darn it!  Let's hope she gets better soon! 

Second year Day 171 - Sunday June 2, 2013

What a day!  I got up early and said we'd see how Bridgett was doing before deciding to leave today or not.  She was doing surprisingly well so I woke up Arrianne.  She was NOT doing well (having terrible cramps) and I could see that we wouldn't be leaving any time soon.  I let her rest for a while and in a few hours when she was doing better, I woke up Stephany and she was NOT doing well either.  Then Bridgett's neck started to hurt.  Everyone took pain reliever and rested and about 12:00 suddenly we had a window when everyone was OK, and I ran to Jenn's to say goodbye and drop some little dinosaur shirts off to the boys.  The girls had packed up by time I got back and so we checked out and headed to Salt Lake (by way of the health food store for homeopathics and Panda for some food to eat in the car!).  I wanted to stop in Salt Lake at the cemetery and put flowers on dad's grave.  It was a hard thing to fit in, but I was so glad that I took the time.  We had a very quiet and wonderful time at the cemetery and I only cried for a while (which I needed to do).  We left some very beautiful pink roses on dad's grave, as well as one for Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary.  Then, we hit the road about 2:00.  We drove as far as Butte and then I decided to stay the night there as I was really tired.  I don't drive the Swan Highway at night anyway, so thought we'd just sleep and get up in the morning and leave.  Oh....one reason to push to leave today.....I remembered that my temporary license expired today!  I was hoping to make it home before I got pulled over.  I will cross my fingers for tomorrow!

Second year Day 170 - Saturday June 1, 2013

After seeing Faith last night, Bridgett was able to go right to sleep and slept comfortably all night. We saw faith about 9:00 this morning, after checking out of the hotel.  We then hit a cute little bakery that has only been open for about a month, called the Sugar Bean Bakery.  They make like 20+ different kinds of cupcakes from chocolate to root beer float to pina colada.  This morning they had maple bacon cupcakes for breakfast.  Stephany got one and said it tasted like pancakes with syrup and bacon!  Interesting!  We got some cinnamon rolls and hit the road, headed to Provo to see Jenn and the family.  We had lots of fun with Jenn and the kids!  I was so glad that we got to see them, as this was the first time of this trip (since they were camping).  After visiting at Jenn's, the girls headed to American Fork.  Stephany had a date and Arrianne was meeting a friend to visit.  Bridgett and I decided to rest a bit, which was a good choice as I was exhausted!   I fell asleep and slept for like an hour!  The girls got back somewhat early and then we all decided to get some sleep before tomorrow. 

Second year Day 169 - Friday May 31, 2013

Of course, Mark and I aren't together today for our 33rd anniversary, which was a bummer.  As we all learn in life, you do what you have to do--you take care of the needful things.  When I get home we will plan to spend some time together and celebrate a little late.  After we saw Faith today, we grabbed some dinner to go and headed out on a little excursion, because everyone was feeling good and getting a little restless.  About 20 minutes away there is the Freemont State Indian Park (I think that's what it's called!) and we drove there and looked as some of the pictographs and a little old cabin.  Arrianne and Stephany hiked up the side of a hill to some to the writings and took pictures while I stayed with Bridgett.  Afterwards we drove about 10 minutes further to the Big Rock Candy Mountain. We got some pictures and then hit the gift shop.  The girls picked out some cool rocks that look like Kryptonite and Bridgett got a necklace.  I got some nifty books with pioneer stories in them.  It will be fun reading them aloud to the kids.  About the time that we got to Big Rock Candy Mountain, Bridgett started feeling dreadful.  She looked dreadful too.  She was so nauseated and just not feeling good. I gave her Zofran and that helped somewhat. Then after we got back to the hotel, Bridgett started feeling really terrible.  She began to have some really strong pain in the chest, lungs, heart, throat (trach) and kidneys. I sent a text to Faith and she let us run over about 9:30 at night and she worked on Bridgett.  All of this pain is coming from the brain not the organs themselves.  Some of it is just working out of the body since the wreck.  It was interesting that Bridgett told me that her heart felt like someone was twisting it and when we got to Faith's, she said that Bridgett's brain was untwisting from that side to side motion from the wreck.  I told her about Bridgett's description of her heart pain, which was the same.  Weird, right!  Anyway, as soon as she started working on the brain, the terrible pain stopped immediately.  Faith showed up two places by the ear where we could use the tuning forks--the right frequency one.  I'm so glad that Arri was here to help.  She did the tuning forks all the way to Monroe from Richfield while I drove.  It was quite the night!  Of course, all of this makes me nervous about leaving after our appointment tomorrow morning.  Hummmmmm.......

Second year Day 168 - Thursday May 30, 2013

Things are still getting better.  Bridgett is making other comments about things that she has not remembered before and is remembering now and that's just exciting.  Unfortunately,after the dizziness passed it was replaced by a feeling of nausea. Actually the nausea got so bad that I had to give Bridgett Zofran.  I don't like giving it to her, but sometimes we have to use it.  It does help with nausea, but it of course interferes with the brain. Faith said that these sensations of dizziness and nausea were in the same part of the brain, in the area where she is working right now.  We talked a little more in depth about brain work today.  She said that so far she has been working on repositioning the brain in the skull itself.  After the wreck and of course from the impact, her brain shifted in the skull and had not returned to the original position yet.  There are adhesions in the area as well.  So, this week is the first time that she has been able to start working deeper than the gross positioning of the brain.  As she is able to work deeper, it increases the blood flow to those areas and helps with reconnecting severed connections in the brain.  The brain is just the most interesting and fascinating thing ever, not to mention the entire body!  What a miracle!  I truly have learned to have so much respect and awe for the brain! The nausea was better as long as she was on Zofran all of the rest of the day and evening but tonight Bridgett started having those terribly strong pains in her heart and lungs.  Luckily we were able to get that under control using the tuning forks.  Yesterday I ordered a set of our own, since we will have to return Faith's.  Today she offered me the entire set of six that I had ordered, just to take to try out.  She of course has a much larger set and in fact has two large sets and that's why she could lend me some.  Anyway,  I thought to myself that we wouldn't need them, then tonight when the pain started up we tried some of the other ones and they worked great.  So, it was just one of those great things that she was inspired to send them all with us and that I didn't say no to her (even though I thought it!).

Second year Day 167 - Wednesday May 29, 2013

Today I asked Bridgett what was important to our family about May 31st and she said, isn't it yours and dads marriage day?  Yes, it's our anniversary I said.  She couldn't remember the name anniversary but she did remember the date.  I was so excited and told Mark about it on the phone and then I called Jenn and told her too.  Bridgett heard me and thought I was giving her a bad time about not remembering the name so I had to explain that I was just so excited that she remembered the date!  Today Bridgett asked for her ipod, and started listening to her old music!  She has never spontaneously done that yet!  Also, she was sitting on the couch in the lobby with her legs crossed like she used to and just acting like her old self!  It was very fun and exciting!  The only negative thing today is that because of the area of the brain where Faith is working, Bridgett was dizzy for about 24 hours.  Luckily it got better after that.  Dizzy is NOT fun!