Second year Day 209 - Wednesday July 10, 2013

I'm still really tired, but I'm trying to get a nap every day and so I can be ready to drive this weekend.  Really, I think I have been tired for 19 months now!  It's the kind of tired you get from worrying about your child, and helping them with almost everything.  It's very infrequently that I get a break.  It's kind of different with an adult woman--I can't just leave her many times because she might need personal help and her dad or brother can't do that.  When her neck is hurting badly she can't take off her shirt or anything.  Perhaps your neck has been hurt before and so you know the many challenges that it entails. 

Second year Day 208 - Tuesday July 9, 2013

Now since Bridgett has been on the Robaxin we are able to start dropping off the double doses of Lortab.  She still has to take double doses as the day wears on, into the evening.  But, any time we can get by with just one Lortab, it's a good thing.  One thing that Bridgett does on a regular basis is asks if she's pretty or not.  Of course, we all assure her that she is very beautiful.  Then she smiles with a cute embarrassed smile, puts her hands up over her mouth and looks so shy.  It's cute. She asks Arrianne if she's half as pretty as her and Arrianne always answers that she's twice as pretty. She sometimes asks if she was still beautiful when she was in a coma and bald.  It's funny what she thinks about.

Second year Day 207 - Monday June 8, 2013

Thankfully we got some Robaxin today.  That really helps to relax the muscles and helps with pain.  Unfortunately it also seems to make her kidneys hurt, but sometimes she just has to take it anyway and put up with the kidney pain for a while.  I give her the choice always to not take things and really she hates taking any medications.  She always tells me that she's not a drug addict and doesn't want to get hooked on medication.  So, that's good. 

Second year Day 206 - Sunday July 7, 2013

I forgot to mention that Dave and family left yesterday.  We all had a great time while he was here, but now I'm beat!!!  I also realized that I had forgotten to take my thyroid pills for the last five days, so that's probably another reason why I'm so tired.  I put them in a pill minder box every Sunday and then take then.  Very occasionally I miss one day.  I've never missed a bunch of days like this.   Bad timing!! I need to get some extra rest before next weekend, when we leave to Utah again.  It's been great to be home, but hard on Bridgett.  She really needs to see Faith!  Our new home teachers came over this evening.  It was very nice to see them and to spend some time in gospel discussion.  I miss going to meetings where I can study, learn and discuss.  Thanks, guys!

Second year Day 205 - Saturday July 6, 2013

Today I got an email from Deb, which was a forward of a facebook message.  It was from a friend of Bridgett's, who hadn't heard from her and so was going to facebook her and saw that she was in an accident.  There are still friends of Bridgett's who haven't heard about her accident.  It was nice of him to contact Deb and try to get in touch with Bridgett though.  Really we had no good way to let everyone know, so some people just didn't find out for a while.  Yesterday I was talking about things that Bridgett didn't remember.  This is another thing.  We were talking about doctors and I said somethings about a PA.  What's a PA Bridgett asked.  I said a physician's assistant.  What's a physician she asked.  It still surprises me when she doesn't remember things like that.  I said a doctor and later on today I asked her what a physician was and she remembered.  With some things it's like that....she doesn't remember until we remind her and then she doesn't forget.  Other things she still struggles with. 

Second year Day 204 - Friday July 5, 2013

I called about the Robaxin and Walgreens said they were still waiting to hear back from Michelle Helwig.  I tried the office and they were closed from Wednesday at noon until next Monday and apparently the prescription didn't get approved before they closed.  So, Bridgett will do without the Robaxin until we can get our hands on some more, hopefully Monday.  Bummer!  It does seem to help when she takes the Robaxin (muscle relaxant). However, as I have mentioned before, when we use it very much, Bridgett's kidneys start to hurt.  So, we save it for when the pain is pretty bad.  Initially, they told us that Bridgett would have a lot of speech difficulties, because of the nature of her injury.  Well, she really had very little problems actually.  It has taken a while for her to remember things, but she had no "speech problems" per se.  But, talking about remembering the names for things.  As far as common things go, she it at the point where she remembers the names of things very well.  She still doesn't have her full memory back yet, but that's coming slowly.  But, I'm always surprised when she can't name common things.  Like today.  We went shopping and she saw some avocados and wondered what they were called.  Hummmm....

Second year Day 203 - Thursday July 4, 2013

First thing this morning, Mark headed up to the church to cook for the annual Fourth of July breakfast.  Arrianne and I went up about 9:00, as she was asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner, like she did last year.  Stephany and Tyler stayed at home with Bridgett.  Arrianne's singing was beautiful as always.  After that we headed right home.  Dave had said that he would follow us up to the breakfast, but never did show up to go with us and we left late.  When we got home, Tyler said that they had just come over (like 45 minutes late) and said they were headed up there.  So, we missed them.  I called Dave and he said that Jackson and Elodie were also wanting to come and asked me to give them directions, which I did.  It ended up that they couldn't find a close parking place, so grabbed lunch at Burger Town:).  It's been really hot here and we've turned on the air conditioning several times this past week already.  Usually we don't resort to air conditioning until August, but this summer has been weird all around.  It got unusually hot early in the summer, then cooled down and now it's hot again.  Anyway, at least we have an air conditioner, so that's a blessing.  Scott, Jaclyn and Weston came out today.  I am still amazed every time I see Weston at how tall he is getting!  He will be passing Arrianne soon and then or course, he will pass Stephany and I not long afterwards.  He turned 11 in February, so he is getting to be quite the young man these days.  He knows everything about basketball it seems!  He can tell you who plays for who and how long they have played, who is the best at everything, etc.  He knows so many basketball trivia facts that you'd be amazed!  He knows a lot of other sports facts as well, but since basketball is his first love, that's what he knows the most about.  Mark spent a lot of time taking everyone on the boat for tubing, skiing, wake boarding, and just plain riding.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs for a very late lunch (everyone was at the lake and just didn't come up until they were STARVING).  Later on in the evening we made kabobs, which everyone enjoyed as well.  Of course, the brownies were especially good at the end of the evening.  Scott and Jaclyn left about dark.  Then, even though we have had a couple of years without this, the neighbor down the bay started his fireworks off his dock.  A bunch of boats were in the lake to watch.  Usually we take our boat out, but this year we didn't.  Bridgett had just gone to bed when the fireworks started, but fell asleep even with the noise.  This guy put off professional fireworks for about one hour--amazing!  He used to do about an hour and a half.  I mean, these are every bit as good as a city display!  It's fun to just sit on the couch and enjoy them from inside, although I really love watching from the boat.  However, since I couldn't go out in the boat anyway, it was nice that everyone was in the house with me.  Really, Mark had been on the lake a bunch this week already, and then after the morning up at the breakfast, he was beat and just too tired to go out.  So, it all worked out just fine.