Angela's Blog

Good morning.

Hope all is well with y'all. I'm doing pretty darn well on this end. Lots of forward movement in my life.

I got my heel switch figured out with the help of my PT and I am now trying to walk with the estim 30 minutes most every day.

I am almost officially graduated from PT. I have one more follow-up session in two weeks and then I am officially done. Never thought I'd see this day nearing.

I had a really good acupuncture/cranial sacral session on Tuesday. I told my acupuncturist that I'm beginning to process emotionally and sort of drowning in that at times. He said that from what he could tell though I may be doing a lot more emotionally he couldn't detect any emotional problems. Plus he said that he could detect that I've made significant improvements even in just the last month as far as my energy goes so he was able to do some more intense cranial sacral work with me. It must have been really big improvements because at my last session he said that my next session would be my last and now he thinks there's more work that he can do. Woo hoo!

And the happy-clappy TBI shrink was really good too. And my mom says he's a psychologist not a shrink so I should probably point that out. Anyway, my time with him was very beneficial. We are starting work on a surface level intervention of some of my unhealthy thoughts. For the past week my homework has been to stop every time I make an "I" statement and change it to a "part of me" statement. This is meant to combat my absolutist tendencies and self-labeling and generalizations that I commonly fall into. I know it seems small but it really makes a lot of my self talk a lot less overwhelming. And it was pretty funny when I texted Josh "part of me doesn't know what part of me would do without you". Hee hee. :)

And work has been going well lately too. I am about half way through my first experiment that I am fully responsible for. And it's successful so far. Granted I am not doing all the work on it since I'm only there 3 days a week, but I am in the drivers seat and my initials are on the schedule next to the spaces blocked out for the tanks. It's a pretty big deal to me. I'm doing what I used to do. Successfully. Nobody EVER thought I'd be able to go back to this. And I'm doing it. Thank you, Jesus!

I got a new splint this week too. It's a shoulder splint that works on external rotation. It is AWESOME! I decided to "just try it" with no expectations and realized this morning how much I like it. It's a good stretch and I am able to get in and out of it solo. And that's a BIG deal! So I'll be able to use this splint without needing help from anyone. I feel like it's kind of an avenue for me to progress in independence in my therapy stuff. Yeah!

And I learned how to knit a couple days ago. I'm starting a scarf for my OT. It's not as pretty as the ones grandmas make but the yarn is super soft so it'll be nice anyhow.

Ooh, and, I almost forgot, I'm on a big adventure for today. I'm going to try to go get a tattoo. I'm really hoping it works out. I'm getting Joshua 1:9 on the inside of my right forearm. For those of you who might not know, Joshua 1:9 says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." I'm so excited. Considering this verse pretty much got me through the transition from the nursing home back to Harborview for inpatient rehab and I continue to cling to it and it gets me through MANY days even now I think it'll be a great tattoo.

And lunch with Annie was great on Sunday too. She is so nice. We had a really good time. And Drew is making HUGE steps. If you want to check out his story go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/drewdinsdale. He is really moving right along. And it was nice to get to support our sister in Christ who is going through a similar struggle. It was wonderful and a little bit creepy to get to hear how much Annie has struggled from the bedside of Drew and see how much Josh could really relate and connect to and understand that. I think I really lucked out that I don't have any memory of that. I cannot imagine how hard that must've been. My goodness, my husband has been through so much. Please pray for him for healing and the ability to keep moving forward with me. And the same for Annie too.

That's pretty much where I'm at.

Talk at ya later.

Ang