Angela's Blog

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