Things definitely feel like spring here. Sunny and uplifting. So I thought I would share.

Monday was the day of the eclipse. I was scheduled to have physical therapy, but because we weren’t sure about what it would really look like or entail, we want to participate in the once event andwe would hae been on te road, opted to stay home. It was a beautiful day on top of the excitement of the eclipse. Matt and I went outside on the back porch. When the kids came home we were able to enjoy the warm weather together.

This was a picture our oldest daughter took on her way home from school. This picture was taken through a pair of the eclipse glasses. It didn’t get super dark or weird like I thought. 😁

My nerve pain has been very strange lately. I experience hight levels of white noise in my head that just creates a weirdness. It often acts up when I’m crazy over tired. It shows itself as a crazy head itch mostly on the left side where I can’t reach. It’s always right out of reach. Seriously THE worst. Which, if scratched too much just creates a burning hurt. And again I can’t do much about the back left hair pain just out of reach.

Away from that four letter word, itch, onto happy things.

All in all Monday was a great day to be outside with the family. Eventually the wind begain to pick up, moving the hair on my alread itchy head. Just nerve pain but wow. Then there was the wind moving around the dry leaves in the woods around the yard, along with the kids joking and laughing and whatever noises dogs make while playing. Whisch our dogs like to talk, go figure. I was trying to take everything in, slowly…and then the emoition of not being able to just get up out of my chair and play with our dogs, became too much. I did end up staying out a little longer, because no one really wanted to come in just yet, and I didn’t blame them. Here again, I’m realizing the middle of the story is getting lost in the emotions.

Tuesday starts with my new best friend helping me get up to eat breakfast. I get to have speech early. I appriciate this am appointment time, it really helps me set the level for the rest of my day really high. But it is exhausting. Speech therapy is the one I want to crush and dread the most. For me it has been the most frustrating loss. But I’ve come so far…it doesn’t take a ton of work for the listener if I’m really using my strategies.

But during speech therapy there wasn’t a lot of misunderstading. It really felt great. I remember a time when if there wasn’t a set topic, what I said could get lost. But not so much anymore. I have a really cool story! 😊 But it didn’t happen until Wed.

After speech, my new bestie T, helped my take a shower. She ended up doing a good scrubbing to my hair because my arm just gets tired. But I did notice I could at least feel the hair on the back left…guess all the itching wasn’t all bad.

OT came…I don’t remember everything we did because it got over shadowed by a walk outside! I had a huge moment like this at Mary Free Bed outpatient PT. We were sitting in the waiting room looking outside watching people walk outside with their therapists. I said to Matt I hope one day I can do that. He assured me I would, it was a few more weeks, but I did get to walk outside. It was helpful to have Matt believe it would happen, but I also had some very dear friends who spoke that to me often. I’m not as close as I would like to being able to walk without any assistance, but my friends I am getting closer. For short distances anyway.

I was exhausted again. But I could see a future where the wheelchair within our home might just be a dust collector. Needless to say I have been feeling this more and more.

Again, just need to stay in the middle of expectations otherwise I get crushed. I’m such a dreamer, always have been. I have great plans or ideas but the follow through…thankfully therapy assured me yesterday, I experience these successes because of the work I’ve put in. Even typing that out and leaving it in feels very prideful to me. But, maybe this is a brag post.😂

On Wed morning we had someone come take some measurments for a bidet. 🫣 It isn’t here yet.But I’ve heard they are pretty amazing.

Then we had PT again. I shared my walk outside with my new main PT. My PT went on maternity leave! (Congrats lady! Can’t wait to see pics) I love that even though PT and OT are with 2 diffrent companies they really compliment each other well. The always have but I wasn’t sure how the transfer would go, so far it’s been wonderful. I don’t see anything changing there.

At PT, when we entered the office, I headed straight to the desk to ask for a new schedule. This is a speech goal to request something from an office. So I got kinda close and asked. I was intently concentrating on getting my request out to be I could clearly be heard, that I forgot to say please. I remember wondering why I hadn’t said please, it was noticeable enough my husband mentioned it sounded pretty rude.

So to the staff, I really am sorry. You ladies are so nice to me. I don’t want to become angry and expecting things, so please forgive me. I am so thankful for you ladies. You take time to listen and hear my requests, that doesn’t go unnoticed.

As sad as my words were, she heard my request! I think we scooted out to stop and pick it up.

Thurs. my bestie was back. 😄 T pulled my hair into a ponytail and while getting dressed I was caught off guard by the sight of that. So I wasn’t much help putting my pants on.

In OT we have been working on dressing. Man, it’s much harder than I remember it being. 🤔 (I like being able to add faces, I feel like these might be similar to the faces I would make if we were in person.)

A few last thoughts as I close this one out. Please pray for my familiy. There is much that has been shifting within our home and relationships. I hate what this injury is doing to my family relationships.

One last story for giggles. Wed at OT we were on the mat table working on lower ab stuff…and I pee a little. My OT & bestie were great but we got a good laugh. After 4 kids and a shattered pelvic bone, I’m lucking I don’t have a bigger problem. Lesson learned: don’t laugh when I’m already trying to use muscles that don’t communicate well with each other or my brain.

♡TeamGavrilides ♡TBI Survivor ♡Faith to walk in the middle ♡Seed of Hope