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Holy man what a whirl wind September was. Ava turned 1, we had a successful birthday celebration for her! I was so so happy after it was all finished, I managed to throw a birthday, hangout and visit with friends and family and not get over stimulated!! It's such a big win! It was so much fun, She is so so loved this one, with the big 1 happening, that followed by her learning how to clap and point and stick her tounge out on demand, she can follow simple instructions like stick out her tounge and point to her nose, and even call the cat with her hands. She's walking sooo good assistidley. We took her to the Passcreek fall fair this year and man it was wild, like we got there and it was like a huge wave of people and sounds and lights it was a lot, but it was nothing I couldn't handle! We walked around and visited with friends and watched the dirt bike show. That was crazy! The weather turned out so good, and Av had a blast, and even better I wasn't a right off for 3 days, progress!! She's been so so so fun, but I'm finding as she gets bigger she needs a lot more stimulation and a lot less sleep, which is the complete opposite of my needs.

I've been noticing a lot more concussion symptoms arising lately... I've been so tired, super sensitive to light, super sensitive to noise even more so then I have been before, I can't fall asleep that great, and the biggest thing I've been noticing is my impulsivity, not sure if it's happening because I've been sleeping less or if it's because we've entered the next level of healing maybe? I have no idea but we're just going with it.

I had my MRI on my left leg to see if it was in fact a hematoma, and if it was, if It was going to be at risk for creating a for blood clot. Since he sent out the referral 6 months ago, the lump has come down quite a bit. According to the mri the hematoma has completely resolved itself, that was such good news! There's still a small bump there that could be scar tissue or something but I'll take that over a huge lump on the side of my leg. I FINALLY also had the appointment with the Interior health occupational therapist last week, he's told me I'm highly functioning which is great news, he's also told me that the "window for the most recovery you'll do" is between the first 6 months to 2 years after your accident." So now is the perfect time to start! It will be super self directed and I have to put the time and energy in to work with my left hand and get it back as much as we can. Which is amazing, he's also givin me some exercises to re-connect the path ways from my brain to my left hand, which is what is definitely needed. Last week it closed the kitchen drawer on itself, the day after that it took the sole of my shoe that I literally just took out, and put it back into the same shoe, I was wanting to put it into a different shoe. So the message is being sent but it's getting confused! So he's told me to start writing in a day planner once a day using my left hand to start rewiring new pathways. If I can tell it to write the letter E down and it does then that's what we want! I've also asked for tips with the impulsivity issue that I'm having. It has literally been running my life, it's also been holding me back from falling asleep. Everything is life and death and needs to be done right this minute. I've been trying to be aware of this but sometimes it's tough, especially when I get caught up in the spiral.

I wish there was more resources out there for people with brain injuries. It's such a grey area, I wish there was like a AA meeting setting where people with tbi's can meet up and talk about their experiences and their symptoms and support eachother that way, to talk with similar people that know what they're going through. I feel like because I'm "high functioning", there's not many options for people like me, if you're unfortunately classified as low functioning and have big time motor deficits and behavioural problems. I think there are support groups, and help to get, but being "high functioning" I feel like they don't take it seriously because there are people that are way way worse and need the help more then I do, which is TOTALLY fair but like, what about us? The "highly functioning" but still experiencing symptoms pretty good? Like they've got a chiropractor for backs, massage for muscles, dentist for teeth, counseling for issues, physio therapy, athletic therapy, occupational therapy, but like what about brain healing? I'm still hunting for this answer, maybe I'm missing something? I have no idea. I just want some help with this impulsivity, I don't want it to run my life anymore.. I'm so desperate to get over this impulsivity hump, that I impulsively sat on Google and reached out to "The well Brain" this woman is a cognitive health coach, she claims that she can help people regain confidence while learning to live with a brain injury. So I've got an appointment with her to see if she can help me with this, I hope she can. But I'll keep you guys posted!

Here's her website incase anyone wants to learn more about her. She sounds promising!

https://thewellbrainslp.com