I’m very pleased to say that I am now officially an outpatient! This means that I will continue my recovery by regularly meeting with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and a lot of other therapists, but that I get to live at my parents home! I might be the first 28 year old this excited about living with my parents . But it is obviously a huge step up from being a hospital resident.

As far as my recovery goes, I’m walking everywhere, going up and down stairs, and inching my way back to being able to do my yoga and pilates again (yes, I’m excited about that!).

As far as how I’m doing emotionally, I continue to feel immensely indebted to my family members and friends who have given so much to me and my parents during the past few months. I’m incredibly indebted to the care from my doctors, nurses, and the professional support staff from Craig Hospital in Denver and Waikato Hospital in New Zealand. It’s because of all these people that I’m able to sit here this morning, updating the blog, sipping coffee, and chatting with my parents about New Years plans.

I lost the love of my life. But I’m lucky to still have this much love in my life. And that gratitude helps me get closer and closer to normal.

 

Hoping all had a wonderful Christmas holiday and wishing you a Happy New Year.

 

Kirsten

Hello all! I continue to get better and recover. Today I was actually given permission to walk around by myself. It may sound like nothing, but these are the baby steps in my road to recovery.

It goes without saying that as challenging as the physical recovery may be, I'm having the hardest time processing the loss of Kallan. I keep having dreams that he is here with me, reminding me to follow up on my exercises to get better and chatting with me about what's going on in his world. It could just be the impact that he made in my life coming through, but I like to imagine that he's doing just what he would have done in life--keeping me company and making sure I follow up on all the thing I need to do to get better.

Either way, I'm getting through recovery more quickly and stronger because he was a part of my life. And he will be a part of my life for every year I have going forward.