Thursday 20Mar

 Brian had another good day today! He started the day with ADLs and then he had manual therapy again. She did some stretches and some needling on his left shoulder today. I learned on Tuesday that she used to work at Tolmar (which for those who don't know is where I work). This is pretty crazy because when I started at Tolmar, we were pretty small. We have grown significantly since then and she worked at Tolmar before I had started. Just kinda crazy! 

After manual therapy Brian had an appointment with his psychologist. We talked about how Brian's mood has shown definite improvement. She also showed me how much improvement Brian has made in his language since he was admitted. One of the best things that happened when talking with her is Brian said he was proud of himself for the work he is doing and the improvement he has seen himself. 🥹 This is obviously so important because he needs to be doing this work because he wants to and feels the need to. And for him to acknowledge his progress was very emotional. 

After lunch he had OT where she worked with Brian on his shoulder mobility. Previously this week Brian had mentioned that he hates his scar on his arm and I had mentioned this to her so she used some red light on his scar since that helps to minimize the scar and she also used some medicated scar cream on it. 

Right after OT he had PT where he worked on some stretches and mobility to help his hips. When he was walking on the treadmill yesterday his PT noticed that he hips looked tight and didn't have quite the range of motion she would want, so today she did some work on those. She also had Brian play a game with some lights that randomly light up and he has to walk around the room to touch the lit up ones. 

I'm gonna get a bit vulnerable here: today I had an appointment for myself. Something that is often repeated in the hospital in situations like ours is everyone needs to also take care of themselves. A quote that was shared with me was "you can't pour from an empty cup" so you can't be there and take care of your person if you aren't also taking care of yourself. So this concept seems easy right, but it's so difficult in reality. I don't ever want to spend anytime not at the hospital unless I am taking care of Lincoln. I immediately feel guilty even thinking of myself. Which is obviously not great. I have been told to prioritize self care, but I don't necessarily have much I did previously for self care. So today I did something for myself and even posting about feels like I failed today, but I am going to share it anyway because it is incredibly special and I am very proud of it. And I know I don't need to justify myself, but I do feel the need to. Also, I did tell Brian about this previously and today and he said he was happy I was doing it and today he kept making sure I would make it on time to my appointment. 

I got another tattoo today and it was incredibly special. This tattoo has saffron flowers and forget me nots to symbolize this journey we are currently attempting to navigate. The saffron flowers are for Brian because when he was brought into Good Samaritan he was brought in as a John Doe, but the hospital gave him a silly name rather than John Doe. His full name they gave him was Saffron Yellow Norbury. So the tattoo had to have some saffron flowers in order to represent that. This is to symbolize all the difficulty we have already experienced and the strength and determination we have all shown up to now and will continue to show. It also helps to represent the immense love Brian, Lincoln, and I have for each other as a family. Our lives will forever be changed from this injury and I want to memorialize the life we previously had and celebrate the life we are lucky enough to get to live moving forward. 

I know not everyone is a tattoo fan, but I am more than obsessed and Alina did a phenomenal job on this today and I want to share the photo of it because it's literally perfect. If anyone needs a tattoo artist, she's the one!

🤍