Support Rebekah’s Family During Her Recovery

On May 28, while Kenton and I were cleaning up the kitchen after we had put the kids to bed, I was bending down to clean the floor under our kitchen table. Somehow I misjudged where the table was, and I ended up slamming the side of my face directly into the table. Instantly I knew something was wrong. I’d never hit my head so hard, and though I didn’t blackout, I was completely stunned for a while. Once I got up I was confused, dizzy, and my head hurt in a different way than I’d experienced before. I almost instantly wondered if I’d gotten a concussion, but the seriousness of my injury didn’t start to sink in until I tried talking to Kenton the next morning and could barely put a logical sentence together.

I rested and slept for a solid week, and that’s when we realized I probably should go to the ER to rule out complications. The ER visit confirmed I did, in fact, have a concussion, but thankfully complications were ruled out. Still, my lingering traumatic brain injury symptoms were concerning, despite the medications I was prescribed to help manage the symptoms. 

3 weeks in I could still barely do anything around the house or tolerate any noise from our kids. That’s when I had an appointment with my functional medicine doctor that made a HUGE difference. After an appointment full of cranial muscle work and strong anti-inflammatory supplements, the headache instantly went from constant to intermittent, and the nonstop headache hasn’t come back since!

During those first 3 weeks before that appointment with my functional medicine doctor, I tried the pain and anti-nausea medications that are commonly used for concussions, and though they did help temporarily take the edge off the intensity of the headache and nausea, I could tell they weren’t actually helping me heal, because every time the meds wore off, I felt just as bad as before.

Now that I’m over 6 weeks into my brain injury recovery, on better days I can interact with our kids, do light housework, tolerate short car rides if I close my eyes, and converse for short periods of time.

But even on my best days, I can’t read books to Jordan, take our kids outside in the bright light and heat, drive, or work on the computer. And on those good days, if I don’t stop to take at least one nap, I’ll use up all my energy and be back in bed the next day.

We’ve had so many friends and family kindly helping us with childcare while Kenton works. But, there are still days where I’m on my own, and summer is about to end (which means our friends’ schedules will be busier soon), and we need to be able to afford some occasional babysitters or possibly a longer-term nanny, because every day I’ve been on my own with the kids has been way more than I can handle, and putting out more energy than I should sends me backwards every time.

And since I haven’t been able to work in our family-owned business for almost 2 months, our operating expenses have gone up (I was teaching music classes and doing office work, both of which are out of the question for at least the next few months). We’re paying employees to replace me AND losing the income from the work I had been doing.

So although our business is thriving, we weren’t financially prepared for me to completely quit working all of a sudden.

And to be honest, we’re not going to be able to continue paying for my medical care much longer, not long enough for me to truly recover. Between appointments, supplements, additional therapies, and childcare a few times a week, expenses land between $300-$600 every week, and it’s the kind of healthcare that insurance doesn’t help cover at all. And I feel a significant difference when I’m doing everything my doctor has recommended for the concussion! It’s encouraging that I can actually feel relief and progress!

So, to allow me to have another 2 months of recovery time, which is just an estimate at this point (traumatic brain injuries heal slowly and the recovery period is different for everyone), we’ll need several thousand dollars that we frankly don’t have at this point, because our income has dropped and we’ve already dipped deeply into savings during these first 6 weeks.

Kenton and I don’t take any of your care and support for granted, but we are incredibly grateful for the priceless community we have! We absolutely need your care right now, whether that takes the form of prayers, monetary gifts, meals, hanging out with Jordan while I sleep, or even just texts to check in on us and let us know you’re thinking about us.

Sharing this page on your social media is another way you can actively support us, too.

We both look forward to being back in a season of being able to give back to you before long. Thank you for loving our family!