My first road trip after my life started over again

With permission from all of my doctors, I spent Saturday and Sunday of this weekend in St. Simons to watch my good friend Kelli marry Luke. I was really concerned that I wouldn't be able to go, but the doctors cleared me as long as I had someone drive me there - flying is not a good thing for me to do until they replace the skull in my head.

I am soo thankful to my amazing mom who drove me to and from St. Simons, and didn't even go to the wedding herself. We had an great girls weekend though. We left early Saturday morning and got onto the island about noon. We ate a really good lunch of fried shrimp in the village and then went and checked out some of the cool stops. I was able to buy a couple of Christmas presents but I won't say what they are so they remain a surprise.

The wedding was at 4 p.m. and my mom drove me there, and then I met up with the 3 girls I was originally suppose to go to the wedding with - Jessica A., Elisa T., Maria H. These three ladies were amazing. My dad had given Elisa and Maria a long talking to about a week before the wedding to make sure they new how they needed to take care of me at the wedding and keep me safe. And they followed through with their promise to my dad. The three of them were like my personal body guards. The ceremony was outside and it was a little walk from the parking lot. The first part of the path was off road, and when we got there one of the groomsman told us to be careful cause it was a little slippery. So to get me down safely, Jessica went in front of me, Elisa went behind me and Maria was next to me so I could hold onto her and get down without slipping. They three of them did things like that all night so that I wouldn't get hit or pushed on accident. Thank you ladies so much.

I also talked to a lot of folks that night who have been wanting to hear how I was doing and see me for awhile. It is so encouraging that I have so many people who have been praying for me and have been encouraged by how I am recovering from this awful situation. I had several folks say while they hate that something this horrible has happened to me, they believe I am strong enough to make it through and will be a great testimony for many people. 

On Sunday morning, mom and I meet the girls for breakfast and filled her in on all the stuff from the wedding, and then we all went and walked the beach a little bit before we all headed home. It was a good little vacation out of town!

The funniest thing from the wedding is I think some folks are confused about the piece of skull in my stomach. Some people think it's part of my brain - nope not right. And others are wondering if the skull is doing something special in my stomach, like healing something. I just told them that basically no, the piece of skull is just chilling out in my stomach. But to be honest, it is the most uncomfortable thing ever. It shifts all the time - like after the wedding and a 6 hour car ride home it had fallen really low on my hip, which was really uncomfortable. And figuring out clothes to wear is difficult. I lost a lot of weight being in the hospital for so long. So finding pants to wear is difficult. I had to try on 3 different jeans today because the ones that fit the best were too tight on my skull. So the pants I ended up wearing were a little too big and kept falling down.

I did go see my surgeon (the one that will put my skull back in) this morning for a follow up visit. A couple of the news he gave me this morning made me a little depressed. He is thinking it will be 2 months  before he'll put my skull back in (depending on what my neurologist says and when I come off one of my meds). So this means it'll be after Christmas or first of next year. So 2 more months with the annoying skull in my stomach. And I asked him about why every so often my head where he did the surgery gets really tight and hurts a lot (it hurt really bad and was super tight on Sunday.) He said that's basically normal and is just part of the healing process.

So there are good days and bad days with this recovery. I've been told by many people (doctors, therapist, and more) that this healing process will take time. I'm ready to be back to my normal self so sometimes I get a little upset to be reminded that I'll be the normal Ashley again, just not as soon as I want. God and I are talking about this a lot because patience is something I've never been good at. And hopefully one day I'll look back on this whole disaster and thank God for everything I've learned. Right now I'm just ready for it to be over.