Hey there.

It's been a good day! Had my driving assessment today. Got a little worried about it - mostly just nervous. The man showed up and I did one neuropsych-type test with him. I think I did pretty well. Only got a few answers wrong. It was a weird visual, spatial test. One part of it you had to look at these pictures and there were similar ones below with holes missing. You had to be able to tell which one was exactly the same if the holes were filled in. And there was another part where there were four pictures and three were exactly the same but rotated and the other was exactly the same picture only the mirror image. You had to choose the mirror image. Whoo - talk about enough to wear your brain out. Then we did the driving part of the assessment and we took our car. Glad I've been practicing a little with Josh. I was pretty comfortable. We started out just on the neighborhood streets and worked our way up to arterial roads. Then the instructor told me to get on the West Seattle Bridge! I've not driven above 35mph yet so that was all new. Then once we were on the bridge I was about to ask where on 1st Ave S he wanted me to get off and he actually said, "Get on I-5 North." Holy you-know-what! I DID IT! I drove on the freeway! And I went all the way down to Olive and got off the freeway just to get back on going south! So back home we went. And then, the best part, once I was home and parked (not a small victory) we went back in the house and guess what the instructor told me?!?! He said I don't need any adaptive equipment for my car AND he said I don't need any lessons to improve my driving! Freakin' Sweet! He said I'm okay to drive! He's going to write a report that talks about his assessment of my driving skills and send it to me by the end of the week. I was freaked this whole driving thing was going to be a big pain in the butt. I was afraid that the assessment would be followed by seemingly endless lessons. But NO! All I need is this guy's report, a signature from my doctor that it's to officially make me okay to drive. The DMV might still want me to re-take the driving test but now I'm not scared even if I have to.

And Josh let me take the car solo to the bank today. Big step! In the desired direction! And I had to go to the bank because I got my Meow his birthday present today. Awesome! And we just pretended that today was his birthday so he got his treat today and he really liked it. Oh yeah, I'm the best wifey ever!

Really looking forward to our little Spo-Compton get away this weekend. Can't wait!

That's my big news. Talk at y'all later.

Ang

Hi.

Not much today - for real. Had a pretty laid back weekend. Got to have a whole date day Saturday. Josh and I got up in the morning and went to the Greenwood car show. It was neat. And has really grown! I remember when we went a few years ago and it seemed like it was only a few blocks long. This year it went from 67th to 90th! And I walked the entire way! There and back! It totaled up to about 3 miles! Holy you-know-what! That is no joke! And I have to say my favorite car was a black with red stripes Barracuda. Oh - the drool happens even just thinking about it.

After the car show we went out for dinner and saw a movie. Delish dinner and then we went and saw Johah Hex. At least Josh saw Jonah Hex. I fell asleep. :) I think all the walking at the car show wore me out. Then by the time we got home I sat on the couch for all of five minutes before I just caved in and retired to bed. And slept like the dead.

Got to practice driving a bit too this weekend. It was alright. My left arm seems mostly unusable in the car. I have my driving assessment tomorrow. We'll see what they say.

Then I was back at it at work this morning. Spent some time reviewing old experimental reports for the project I was working on when I got hurt. Wow! What a ton of work was done on this project! But it all seems to make sense so far so that's good.

That's about it.

Any questions?

Bye,

Ang

Hi.

Don't have much for ya today. Just been chugging along. That's a lie - I've got a HUGE thing to share today.

Thanks to Uncle Taub, I mean Uncle Mark, I've got a whole new challenge going strong today. I am now eating some with my left hand!!! It all started Thursday night when we had a big family dinner at Epulo. I was sitting next to Uncle Mark (who is a PT in Pennsylvania) and he wrapped a napkin around a spoon and asked me if I was willing to try out my dessert with my left hand. My dessert was a bunch of cut up strawberries in a pile of rosemary whipped cream so I decided to give it a shot. The spoon was WAY easier to use when it was wrapped with the napkin. Thanks, Uncle Mark! Anyways, I DID IT! And I didn't even spill. So as not to overstate what it was like, it was not dainty in the least. It was pretty much me holding the spoon in my fist and then opening my mouth as wide as I could and just barely managing to get the spoon in at a weird angle. It's not pretty but it works! And since then I've done it with applesauce Friday morning and night and I ate my yogurt Friday morning with my left hand too! Success? I think so. In a BIG way!

Didn't take up much space on the blog, but if I was telling you in person you'd know how big of a deal it is to me. This is HUGE! So maybe you should all just read it again. I'd probably repeat myself if you were listening to me, so that might be a good idea. :)

And that accomplishment has just been the tip of the iceberg in the near future. Yesterday morning I tried and was able to brush some of my hair with my left hand. Some I still can't reach because of the elbow, but I was able to reach some. And I think my plan is to start trying to brush my teeth with my left hand at night. And this morning I'm going to make the attempt to get all my medes out and ready with my left hand using my right hand as the helper. It'll be a big switch-a-roo but I think my brain needs to be reminded that I want more than helper status out of that left hand.

So that is my BIG news. Hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to ask me to show you something new and crazy with my left hand when you see me next.

I guess another cool thing I can report is that I found out Monday last week in yoga that I can touch the back of my head with my left hand. I have to have my right hand help my left hand to get there, but I can reach. Putting my hair in a ponytail is not going to me a stretch goal for long! Woo hoo!

Hope this finds you all well. Have a great weekend.

Ang

Hey there.

It has been a GREAT few days! Especially today!

Today I got up at 5 o'clock (like usual on work days) but this morning was all together different. This morning I didn't feel like I was dragging ass. I felt well rested and awake. Awesome! And, duh, it was because I actually heeded my husband's advice finally. I went to bed at 9 last night. Boy oh boy, that Josh guy really knows what he's talking about. :) He's been telling me to go to bed at 9 for at least a week and last night I finally listened. Before I had been laying down at 9 but screwing around until 10:30ish. Last night I actually went to bed at 9. Wow! What a difference getting enough sleep makes! Thanks, Meow.

Then the bus driver was on crack or something this morning because she got us downtown super fast. Thus I was able to catch an earlier shuttle and get all my arm exercises done before yoga even started. And it was another FANTASTICAL day of yoga. Thank you, Stacie!

And I got to pick up my tickets to go see Demico fight at the Rumble on the Ridge cage fights next month. Thank you, Dan! I'm super excited about that! Should be a great time! And, as weird as it sounds, Demico is my only visual memory from all my time in the hospital. The only thing that I can picture in my head from the whole three months in the hospital/nursing home is the picture that Demico sent me hanging up at the foot of my bed in Harborview Inpatient Rehab. I can still see where he wrote on it "Keep Fighting" like he really knew me. I'm hoping to get the chance to meet him after the fight in July and thank him for the picture. I think it really helped me. Nothing like an MMA fighter telling you to "keep fighting" to keep you motivated while relearning how to walk, etc.

Then when I got into work I gave a talk about brain injury to my department and it went really well. Lots of questions and discussion. And lots of "wow"s. Now there's a whole department of scientists that know more than they ever wanted to about brain injury. And my mom came too! She was able to answer all the questions about the time I don't really remember.

After my talk I got to go help with Take Your Kid To Work Day. What fun! I manned a shrinky dink station and made trinkets for kids.

Yesterday was a good day too. I got to have lunch with some friends and it was great! Thanks, ladies! I also made another step forward on the neurofeedback front. Looks like my insurance will at least partially cover it! I got all the billing details worked out with the receptionist yesterday. Yeah! Hopefully that'll be coming soon.

And Monday contained a HUGE success! I am now officially done with my HBOT treatments! I think it was a pretty big help. It really made possible multitasking and dramatically improved my ability to sequence. And most people have seen marked improvements for about a month after their treatments are completed. So we'll see what's coming next. I'll certainly keep you updated.

Another AWESOME thing from Monday was when Josh and I planned to go visit Nate and Rebecca over 4th of July. Perfect! We've been wanting to go see them since the accident. They have been such a huge support for us through this whole thing. Don't think we could have asked for anything more from them, really. So excited! And Mom helped us get a hotel room so we don't even have to take up a bunch of space in their house. Yessssssss. Can't wait to see you guys!

That's about it.

Have a good one.

Ang

Hi.
Wow! This is a whole new trip! I'm actually writing this blog entry with my NaturallySpeaking program at work. No need to be worried, I've already completed my four hours of work for the day. I am not doing this on company time.

Things are going well for me. Had a good weekend filled with potlucks. The multicultural one had a bunch of delicious food, most of it I didn't know what it was, but that's never stopped me from eating anything before. The potluck on Sunday was accompanied by a riveting game of Apples to Apples. What fun!

And today at work I got to try something all new. I went in the lab, was able to get gloves on, and wandered around and checked stuff out. It was sort of like getting reacquainted with where everything is. Went really well if you ask me. None of my coworkers were in the lab so I didn't get to help out with any actual lab work but I think that is coming in the near future. Feel free, Jimmy, to load me up with work. He hee hee.

Tomorrow's a big exciting day as well. I have OT in the morning and then I'm getting to meet up with some friends for lunch at my favorite little restaurant, make that dive bar, in West Seattle. My mom has offered to be super sweet and be the clan babysitter while me and the two mamas enjoy some lunch. Should be a good time.

Don't know if I've mentioned it before or not but along with going back to work I've also been able to go back to yoga. This morning's class was great! Stacie is pretty much my hero. This morning Byron, my left hip, was enjoying himself greatly at yoga class. He was getting more action than he's seen in quite some time. My pectorals were pretty happy too!

I think that's about all I've got. Have a good one.

Ang

Hey there.

Well, a few big things in the past the few days. The biggest of which was a Thursday event where I came to a new "Duh!". I had a FANTASTICAL doctors appointment on Wednesday that I'll tell you about in a minute but Thursday was the real goods. Thursday I was thinking about how good the doctors appointment was the day before and it just hit me like a ton of bricks - that was a God thing. Duh! But it was a huge deal for me to recognize that this was such an efficacious way of Him slow-pitching to me that He is involved in ALL of it! He really cares like a dad. He is involved and cares about even the minutia and not just the big stuff. Yeah, he woke me up from the coma and made sure I didn't die in the accident itself, but He's not done there! He cares about and is even involved in the day-to-day stuff like follow-up doctors appointments! And if you'd have asked me about this before I'd have given you the same answer, but it would have been just from my head. I knew in my head that He operated this way, but Thursday that transitioned and now I know it in my heart. It's so weird the difference between knowing something in your head and KNOWING something in your heart. Cool, huh?!?!

So the TBI follow-up appointment on Wednesday - better than my wildest dreams could have imagined. I had the stretch goal of talking about getting off my prescribed medications and not only did I get that accomplished but even more than that, I got a doctor's referral to get Botox injections in my hand to help with the muscle tone! I had asked about that before and gotten shot down so I didn't even think that was a path I was going to get to try. And I didn't even bring it up, she did! Holy you know what! Excellent!

And thanks for the questions too.

The story about my unknown sister is she came from my Dad's girlfriend between wife #2 and #3. I only remember meeting her once when she was 1 or so. Just sort of disappeared after that. Seemingly randomly she re-connected with my dad about a month ago and from that came our re-hook-up. Fantastic! I think it's the beginning of a life together. I really like her!

As for the "what I'm doing at work" question - I'll be doing pretty much the same thing. My boss is working REALLY well with me to let me try it at my own pace. I'm going to try getting back in the lab next week. Then I'll add stuff back in little by little as I'm comfortable. I've just been doing desk stuff and meetings so far, but lab-work is to come. On the very near horizon. So my job will remain a mystery to pretty much everyone as me doing "weird science stuff". But that is great news! Especially to me!

Just one more big thing then I'll let you go. Had an amazing little date night last night! Josh and I got to go walking in Lincoln Park just like before the accident. It was stellar! He's been wanting to do that, and by that I mean pretty much dreaming about it, since I was in my coma. So it was a BIG step! In the direction we like even!

Maybe I lied about that ONE more bit. My bad. I've got a few more big things. One is that I almost done with HBOT. I'll be done on Monday. And I think it's really helped. Multitasking and sequencing are no longer things I hope will come back some day. THANK YOU JOSH! For doing all the research and finding HBOT as an option and then making it a reality for me!

And speaking of that, Josh isn't done yet. He found neurofeedback too as something that could really help me. It's a kind of biofeedback that can be used to treat TBI. And not only did he find out about it but he found a reputable place in Bellevue that does it. So we went out there and had an informational meeting with that doc Thursday. Think that will be my next treatment option. I'll let you know more about it once I start.

And this upcoming week will be an exciting one too. I get to give a presentation at work. Oh it's so Amgen related - NOT! I made a talk about my kind of brain injury to bring all my co-workers up to speed. The talk is on Wednesday, I'll let you know how it goes.

And one last thing. I mean it this time. Just one more. This is proof of my big success in PT last Tuesday. I successfully walked the balance beam! You read correctly, THE BALANCE BEAM! Wow! Here's a little video if it will work...

That's pretty much what I've got for now.

Have a good one.

Ang

Hi.

Sorry I've been AWOL lately. Life has just gotten pretty busy. Oh boy, another step closer to "normal". God knows I was always going sixty miles a minute before the accident. To try to catch you up in the order things happened is probably the easiest way for me to try and stay quasi-organized.

First things first - last Friday I got moved into my new office at work. Holy toledo IT IS NICE!!! I got my boss' old office and it is actually a shared office that I am just not going to share. So that alone means it is HUGE! And it doesn't just have a window - one whole wall is windows! AWESOME!!! I kinda feel like I'm being spoiled. But I started with my voice activated software on Monday and it really makes sense. I cannot even begin to describe how distracting/annoying/irritating it would be to have to be sitting next to someone using that software. I'm really relieved that I have a separate space so not only can I focus but so can others around me. Good thinking, doc. It's like doctors make these sorts of recommendations all the time. Like it's their job or something. :)

Then Saturday - a good and devastating day all wrapped up in one. Good day because our community group went out and invited people in Highpoint to the potluck we're hosting this Saturday. Met lots of people. It was fun. Devastating day because Chuck is done fighting in the UFC. Watching him and Franklin fight was fun but it was hard to see him get knocked out. I think it would have been a tough fight seeing either one of them lose.

On to Sunday. Sunday was great. I got to go to the Tacoma Dome and see my sister's high school graduation. That's right, my SISTER'S! It was pretty neat to get to meet her. She is unbelievably witty! And so darn pretty too. Wow! Makes me wish I would have known her while she was growing up. Probably would've made life even more fun. But hey, at least I get to know her now.

Now to Monday. Another good but busy day. I had a wonderful new experience Monday. I got up early and went to the 7am yoga class at the gym at work. WOW! It was fantastic! The teacher was so great and she came and helped me specifically when I couldn't do a pose. All I could do was think over and over again that this would have been so great to do when I was learning to walk. Stacie was amazing! And I'm really excited because it is scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Cool! I get to do it three times a week!

And finally, on to today. I have a checkup with my TBI doc this morning and I think I made a big step in progress this morning. Sounds weird, I know, but I had an itch in the arch of my left foot this morning when I was getting out of the shower. I don't think my left foot has itched in almost 10 months. Step in the right direction. Irritating step, but step nonetheless.

That's all I've got. Have a good day.

Ang

Hello.

Not too much up here. Just keep doing the do. Only a few little things to talk about.

First things first, I think I made a pretty big step back to normalcy today. I worked this morning had a pretty stressful day because I felt like I was in a rush and not terribly productive all day. Now I kinda see this as a good thing because I actually got stressed about something non-accident related. Not a fun step to take but still a step in the desired direction. I just felt like I was late all morning and was perpetually chasing my tail. Always working hard but never quite accomplishing anything. Grrrrr.

On another not quite so nice note I sorta feel like I'm moving in the wrong direction recovery-wise. Over the past four days or so I've noticed my pins and needles actually becoming more pronounced. I don't know if they're actually getting worse or if I'm just paying more attention to them. Either way not something I want. They were so much better for the last month and a half that I was really not being bothered by them until I was lying in bed at night. But not any more. Now they bug me constantly like it was before. Especially in my face. And I can't put my finger on anything that's really changed to go along with this. Bummer. Oh well, I have another TBI checkup next Wednesday so we'll see what the doc says about it.

Also in the land of wrong direction - I feel like my walk is actually getting tougher. I feel like my left knee is a lot more wobbly. Like the clonus is kicking in and my leg is bouncing with pretty much every step I take. In case you're up for it and wondering, here's a reasonable definition of clonus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonus. At any rate it is just feeling a lot sketchier to walk around. My mom suggested that maybe I should go back to using my cane. That is something I certainly don't want to do but maybe it's a good idea. Better than falling. I have an appointment with my PT on Tuesday. If it's still harder then I'll definitely talk to him about it. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing and will be gone by then.

I think that's about it.

I signed up to give a talk at work today. I made a slide deck on brain injury for my speech pathologist when I first came home. Don't know when I'll actually get on the schedule. But I did practice it last night.

Really, that's all I've got.

Talk at ya soon.

And I am still soliciting questions so send away.

Ang

Hi.

Not much, just doing the do. Had a nice weekend. Saturday I got to love on Josh a little since he just finished his Master's. We went for a couples massage at Alki View Massage. Freakin' SWEET! Never knew a good rub down could be so great. And not only did we get good massages but we got to pet a delightful hound too. Emma is a St. Bernard and she is wonderful!

Got to have good dinner with a friend Thursday night too. And with a dearly loved couple of friends Friday night. It was some of the first times we've hung out with people and not just talked about how I'm doing or other accident related stuff. It was nice. Almost felt "normal".

And went to the psychologist on Friday too. Got good info / confirmation about the whole trying to remember thing. Pretty much think I will not pursue that path. Actually, pretty much sure I will not pursue that path. If it comes to me in the future I'll deal with it then. And if not then I'll just trust that it is a little gift from God and my body's way of protecting itself by not remembering and leave it at that.

And got to go to a weird party today. Weird because it feels sort of Twilight Zone-ish and makes me feel old. The party was a graduation party for my cousin. She's graduating from high school. I remember when she was a baby. Wow - she's graduating from high school! When it all boils down that proves that I am old. Oh well. Better old than dead.

I have a few things to look forward to in the upcoming week. My 30th HBOT session is one of them. Another is that the DVR lady (division of vocational rehabilitation) from UW is going to come do a site visit at Amgen on Wednesday morning. I also have my first "conference" with my occupational rehab lady and my boss-man this Wednesday. Woo hoo.

Don't have much else.

Maybe I'll do another call for questions since my life is getting a little more "back to normal" i.e. boring. Please feel free to give me some fodder for my next few posts.

Talk at ya soon.

Ang

Hey there.

Hope all is well. Life is pretty good for me. I finished up my psychotherapy group this afternoon. It was great! I think the coolest part was getting to re-take this self-assessment we took when the class started. When we were done taking it we got to compare it back to the one we took at the beginning of the class. It really showed all the progress I've made in the last 8 weeks. I was up in almost every category. I stayed the same in "irritable and anger" and improved in every other category. "Irritable and angry" asked about feelings that range from being annoyed and exasperated to more intense feelings of anger and range at self and others. The other categories were "self esteem", "depression", "frustrated", "accurate perception of self", "dependence on others", "involvement in meaningful activity", and "coping skills". You were supposed to rate all of them on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being frequently... and 10 being the best it could be. Pretty enlightening really. And the biggest increase in score was in the "involvement in meaningful activity" subsection. It was asking about participating in past or new recreational, volunteering or work activities that bring satisfaction, socialization, and purpose to life. I think that went up the most because I'm back at work and started serving in the Children's Ministry again at church.

I closed another chapter today too. As of this afternoon I am finished with speech therapy. Hot dog! Didn't see that one coming. But I'm not all that surprised either.

That's about it.

Headed back to work tomorrow. I got the Dragon naturally speaking program and tomorrow I'm going to try to install it and make it work. We'll see how that goes.

Signing off.

Ang

Hi.

Not much to report. But I did finish my cognitive group at UW today. Yeah! It was really good but I'm glad it's over. And my psychotherapy group will be complete on Thursday. Little bits of progress. Little by little.

And I'm gearing up for my second week back at work starting tomorrow. Should be good. Even though it is work at least it is also a little step back to normalcy. And I got confirmation that I am getting moved into an office. My boss' old office, in fact. And I am surprisingly okay with it. It is just Amgen's way of trying to help me succeed. Can't possibly be upset about that. I've already started joking with some of my co-workers that when I get moved in I'll call them and say, "step into my office". Or I'll teach them a secret knock and nobody is getting in unless they know the secret knock. :)

And I did have a great weekend. It was the first official weekend I just got to hang out with my husband in I don't know how long. I can't even remember the last time we just got to hang out. And that isn't even because of my TBI. It's because he's been in school seemingly forever. But now he is officially done! Josh is now "Master Sweet" since he's done with his MBA and now has a Master's degree.

I also got to play "tag along" with Josh and one of our buddies and go shooting this weekend. I had to shoot one-handed so I limited myself to only shooting our 380 and .38 special. But it is confirmed, I still have my ability to shoot. What fun! It was kind of weird - in the lanes when people shot a 9mm or larger my left arm twitched. I wasn't surprised by the loud bang but my left arm jumped up a bit pretty much every time it happened. Like my arm was surprised by the sound. Weird.

And I got to visit the new puppies at Josh's folk's place. SO CUTE!!! They were just three weeks old and I even got to hold one. I tried to name him Lee but we'll see if it sticks.

One other success this weekend - got to go back to serving at church. Did check-in for the kids at the 11:15 on Sunday and it went really well. Hopefully I'll get signed up to serve every other week.

That's about all I've got.

Ang