Day 321 - Tuesday October 30, 2012

Even when Bridgett is having a bad day with lots of pain if you ask her how she is doing, she is always doing terrific, wonderful, or whatever word she's on for the week.  Today she was in just terrible pain and we were working through it with mag phos, rice bags, pain relievers, etc.  Mark came in the room and asked her how she was today and she said WONDERFUL!  I said even when she's in pain she's wonderful and she said....how can I not be wonderful?  I'm alive!!  We should all have such a great attitude!

Day 320 - Monday October 29, 2012

Update on using the arm bicycle.....Bridgett woke up with neck pain on Sunday morning although it was just a one.  Then today she woke up with neck pain at a two.  This morning we had a craniosacral appointment with Kari which went well.  By evening Bridgett was hurting everywhere.  It's that time of month and she is always miserable then...ever since she had her right ovary removed in Dec. 2010.  She is having kidney pain, neck pain, and ovary pain so it's hard to tell if it's the arm bicycle flaring things up or just the regular hurt everywhere pain. We will see in a couple of days.  The endocrinologists checked out the left ovary (looks great!) and the right ovary removal site by ultrasound and they say that they believe that scar tissue is causing the problem and there is nothing they can do about it.  Hummm......

Day 319 - Sunday October 28, 2012

Today was a rare day when Mark, Stephany and I got to go to church together and Tyler stayed home with Bridgett.  The occasion was the dedication of the Calgary Temple and we headed into Kalispell for a broadcast of the event.  It was a wonderful meeting and it was just so fun to spend some alone time with Stephany as well.  We really don't get to do that much--be alone with Stephany--although we need to start setting some time apart for that very thing!  Afterwards we stopped at Scott, Jaclyn and Weston's house to switch vehicles (Mark had Scott's truck to get wood for someone and so Scott had the Lexus) and it was so nice to get to see them!  It seems like such a long time since we got to really visit.  We didn't stay long as Tyler already had responsibility with Bridgett for about four hours and it was important to relieve him.  However, overall it was such a wonderful and spiritual day!  I really needed that!  Ginny Reed made it a point to come up and give me a hug and I really appreciated that so much!  She said she'd been thinking about me and how much my life has changed.  I started to cry a bit--I'm just fine if we don't talk about things! (Well, I'm fine if I plan ahead to be talking about the situation--to therapists, doctors, etc.)  Anyway it was so nice of her to be thinking about me and to take the time to talk to me. 

Day 318 - Saturday October 27, 2012

I got a call from my mom today and she reminded me about how good it is for the brain to do puzzles.  We went through quite a few weeks where we did puzzles every day, back when Arrianne was home.  It's been quite a while now and it's definitely time to get the puzzles back out and get to work!  Thanks mom!

Day 317 - Friday October 26, 2012

Today was one of those nice days when we could just stay home and get things done.  Bridgett is back to helping around the house, in a small way right now; we are taking it slowly so as not to flare up her neck.  She is helping unload the top rack of the dishwasher, helping with some cooking and baking, etc.  Today the arm bicycle showed up and Bridgett was so excited to use it.  I only let her do it for like one minute (her max was five minutes at the PT) and we will see how things are tomorrow.  For the past week she has pretty much had no pain in her neck--yippee!  We don't want to rush anything and have a flare up of the muscle spasm!

Day 316 - Thursday October 25, 2012

One of the hard things is that most people don't realize how Bridgett is really doing; I know because I am with her 24/7.  For example, the speech therapist yesterday was thinking of some goals for Bridgett.  She suggested that Bridgett babysit for Connor (4) and Caden (2), her nephews, alone for 30 minutes.  Well, that's just not a good idea at all!  Since we were just all sitting there together and I don't say certain things in front of Bridgett I just said Bridgett tell Lynne where they live and she said Provo.  So, that took care of that.  But, in the long run I need to talk to Lynne and get her to realize that Bridgett is doing great and doing better all the time, but she is still not totally aware of herself yet and can't be in charge of someone else when she can't really be in charge of herself!  It will come, just give it time---another one of Bridgett's favorite sayings these days!  She tells us all this when we are frustrated about anything.  I think many people see Bridgett and because she's funny and quick with her responses they think she is farther along in the healing process of the brain; she is still trying to remember who she is and her past right now; we just need to give it time.

Day 315 - Wednesday October 24, 2012

Today Bridgett had speech therapy with Lynne.  She really likes Lynne so that's helpful.  Lynne is wanting to have Bridgett set some goals, with our help.  Bridgett said her ultimate goal is to return to college.  She has decided (for the time being) that she doesn't want to return to Provo College for Personal Training but instead go to UVU and major in psychology or child development.  Of course, things may easily change but this has been on her mind for the past three or so weeks.  She is interested in working with people with brain injuries and trying to help them recover.  She has asked a lot of questions about different degrees that people have that work with her but has narrowed it down to these two fields right now.  Now we have to set some short term goals to help her get back to college.  In many ways she is doing just great, but of course there is a long way to go to get back to college, listening to lectures, note taking, passing of exams etc.  But, one step at a time.  Some days I hear the little tune in my mind...take two steps forward and one step back...but most of the time I just focus on the direction we are headed.  Bridgett is headed in a great direction and we just need to help her continue that trajectory!