Oh, Janelle…I thought it was hard to watch them do CPR. Somehow, I thought watching that wouldn’t have been so hard if it would have been successful. I know others who did CPR and it didn’t work. They feel guilty…as if they somehow failed. The cardiologist that worked on Mr. Virgo told me if he had been laying on the table in the cath lab when he had his heart attack, they still couldn’t have saved him. That made me feel a little less guilty. Mr. Virgo hadn’t been sick at all, but he would have been ticked too if he came out of that a cardiac cripple.

I saw an illustration once of a woman with a rope tied between her and a headstone. She had scissors but was agonizing over cutting the cord. What would it mean? What would that say about her love for her husband? What would people think if she let go? It’s a dilemma we all go through at some point. Grief doesn’t have a playbook. There IS no timeline. There is NOTHING normal about grief. People who want you to move on want you to do it for THEM so they feel better. Don’t be confrontational, but kindly tell them this is your journey and you’ll move forward…you won’t move on. There is no such thing as moving on. Did you get up this morning? Good! Did you brush your teeth and shower and get dressed? Great! Don’t look for an “end”…look for an improvement. A moment when you smile at a memory. An hour when you can breathe. A day when you don’t cry. A week when you look forward to something fun. One step at a time, dear one. You can do this. ❤️

Yes, Debbie…they are on http://www.facebook.com/MarshmallowRanch

You’ll need to scroll back a long ways. I’ve been working on moving everything over to this website but it’s quite a chore! ❤️

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Linda, EMDR is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is an approved treatment for PTSD. I found this on Wiki… “In 2013 the World Health Organization practice guidelines stated that trauma-focused CBT and EMDR therapy are the only psychotherapies recommended for children, adolescents, and adults with PTSD: “referral for advanced treatments such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) or a new technique called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) should be considered for people suffering from PTSD. These techniques help people reduce vivid, unwanted, repeated recollections of traumatic events. More training and supervision is recommended to make these techniques more widely available.”[23]”

It is a technique that utilizes guided rapid eye movement to reprogram the brain of those who have traumatic events “stuck” in a replay cycle. For me, it was seeing my husband in the camper when I returned. I knew when I saw him that he was in grave danger of dying. I watched the CPR for what seemed like hours. The PTSD affected me with a “movie” of the CPR when I got in stressful situations. I started having panic attacks and spent SO many nights up all night throwing up. It was really horrible. I had three EMDR sessions and the “movie” was gone after the first session. It dimmed some of the other memories surround his death. I was given a gift in the ER. As he was dying, I saw his spirit leave his body. I could have had more EMDR to take away the trauma of seeing the CPR, but I was afraid I would lose that memory as well so I elected to stop there. When I say “lose that memory”, it’s not that the memory is no long there. It has been filed away like all normal memories. I can still conjure up the images in my mind, but I generally do not go there anymore. You can check out https://emdria.site-ym.com to find a therapist who is a certified EMDR practitioner. Hope this helps! ❤️

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Renee…hook up with the Girl Camper Podcast on FB or at http://www.girlcamper.com. Also, Sisters on the Fly…both on FB and http://www.sistersonthefly.com. You don’t have to have a trailer to have fun. And you are very likely to find likeminded women in your area as well as fun events to attend. If not now…when? ❤️