Happy New Year!

Its funny how we don't really notice changes in Matt's progress because we're here everyday. Dad came back this evening after being gone all week and he says he can see a big difference. I just notice small things like he was okay eating lunch in the dining room yesterday and today he ate more of his meals than he ever has.

He's still dealing with headaches which can interfere with his therapy some days. Today was one of those days and he ended up having therapy in his room. His OT is now working with electric stimulation on his right arm and its so crazy to watch! She puts electrodes on certain muscles and when she turns it on his wrist bends and his hand raises up. Matt was fascinated to watch it. Its a good sign that everything still works - he just has to reteach his brain how to make that arm function and this practice will hopefully help him relearn faster.

I hope you all have a fantastic New Year's Eve and here's to a better 2010!

Wednesday morning

I know its been awhile since I've posted, but Matt's been keeping us so busy! His words are very clear, but we spend a lot of time guessing the meaning of what he is trying to say. There is a list of things we can go through of what he is usually asking for: apple juice, pudding, blankets... but every once in awhile he throws something completely new in and gets so frustrated with us. This weekend the new thing was shaving his beard, so finally he made a razor noise and pretended to shave. Then he is so thrilled when we figure something out! Its like Christmas morning everyday.

Matt is staying quite busy with physical therapy - yesterday he took the giant tricycle for a ride down the connector. He came back completely exhausted, but was willing to walk with the parallel bars for another 15 minutes. He is so determined to get that leg to work. He's still wearing his eyepatch for double vision, but it seems to be getting better because the other day we played a round of dominoes and he played on his own! A week ago, he needed someone to play on his team to help him find the pieces.

I feel like we make that statement a lot these days. "A week ago, Matt couldn't..." And now he can. I'm amazed each day by his progress and can't even imagine what we'll be saying in another week. The best thing now is that Matt is along with us - he has a vague idea of what he couldn't do before and what he can do now. And he keeps us laughing through it all.

Keri's Mom's Comment

As an observer of Matt and Keri's journey, I wanted to try and put words to the feelings that are ever present. At the moment, I am reading the book 'My Stroke of Insight' by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. She made a list in her book of things that she needed most after her stroke. One of them was to keep her familiar with family and friends and their loving support. "Build a collage wall of cards and photos". Well, you should see this wall of support in Matt's room. Usually the mail comes after lunch and Keri opens the cards and reads them to Matt. The staff here are amazed at Matt's popularity. Believe me, it is helping. The love and support that is coming through from all of you is fantastic. A 'thank you' barely covers it.

The author also explains the use of our right and left hemispheres of the brain. I think we all need to search into our 'right mind' for a moment because it is "all about the richness of this present moment. It is filled with gratitude for my life and everyone and everything in it. It is content, compasionate, nurturing, and eternally optimistic."

Matt is working so very hard. Every day he says he is 'ready' and wants to work more and more. Today was another hard day at work - with help moving the right leg forward, he is walking along parallel bars and we can see the right hip beginning to engage. Then he sleeps - which is a huge part of brain healing. We are very vigilant about keeping music soft and letting him heal more and more every day.

Linda Bolluyt

Merry Christmas!

We all got 'Matt hats' for Christmas - there's been some time to knit while we wait for Matt to get better.


We had a great Christmas eve day - Matt 'walked' more with the help of his therapist and even had her crying. Then my dad, sister and brother-in-law joined us for the evening and we talked about Matt's accident. He seemed to comprehend more than ever before and just kept saying "Wowee."

Matt's exhausted today and sleeping a lot, but he seems to be quite happy that we're around his room. Plus, we had the best Christmas dinner - we got to eat together! Earlier this week, that didn't seem like it was going to be possible. Matt also had a Christmas cookie and Dr. Pepper, so he's pretty happy!

Hope you're having a great Christmas and we're sending lots of Christmas hugs to you all! Love Keri

Wednesday night

I can hardly believe the difference in Matt just since Monday - and I think its all about eating real food again. Monday in PT he took 5 left-foot steps with the standing walker and today it was 80. Donna, his PT, said that she could feel his right hip engage some today, which is the first step in getting that leg to work. He's paying attention to his right hand, still, even though he can't do anything with it yet.

Whenever Matt wants to get in or out of bed we have to call a nurse or therapist to help him and he's been getting really frustrated with that because if they're busy, he ends up waiting 10 or 15 minutes. Then this afternoon we were waiting again and he decided he was going to try it on his own. Luckily I stopped him before he actually got out of the chair, but his therapists decided it was time that I knew how to help him. We did a quick training session and now I can help him whenever he wants. It feels like a big step towards getting better and more independent.

His language is still getting clearer and we've found that whenever we ask simple questions we can usually understand the answers. Its only when he brings up something he wants to talk about that we have no idea what he's saying. He's still getting caught on certain words that he'll use to mean various things. David, his speech therapist, says this is a common step and things will continue to get worked out.

3 squares

Matt got to eat 3 full meals today! He's more and more himself everyday and its amazing to watch. He's also awake longer and keeping us busy so I don't have long to blog. Thanks for all the comments and emails - even though I don't always have time to respond your thoughts and encouragement are greatly appreciated!

No, but okay

All of Matt's therapists today commented on his determination. Each time they asked him if he's ready to try something one more time, he would say no, but okay. He first got to eat breakfast this morning, and after telling his speech therapist he was a vegetarian, he ate the whole sausage and skipped on most of the waffle. He might get to start on 3 soft meals tomorrow! Maybe that means we can make Christmas cookies later this week...

He had PT and OT together this morning and they did get him up with a standing walker and he made a few steps with his left leg. They have to move his right leg along for him, but he's doing a better job of balancing his weight. This afternoon he worked on his vision a little, but that wears him out really quickly, so he's going to visit a neuro opthomologist soon to see if they can figure out what is going on and how to move forward.

Sunday night

This was the last weekend for christmas tree sales, so I went back to Dummerston to help out for one day. It was so hard to leave this morning - even though it seemed that Matt actually understood what I was doing and that I was going to be back in the evening. My sister said he remembered that I was with the trees today and when I got back he was very excited to see the pictures I had taken of the farm. It still feels wierd to be out anywhere because I belong with Matt right now.

He did have kind of a rough day with pain and just being uncomfortable, but he wasn't too happy about getting medication because it makes him so sleepy. He was fairly awake when I got back and kept joking around with us and laughing at us when we couldn't understand what he was talking about. I'm not sure he isn't doing it on purpose sometimes. At one point he grabbed the nurse call button and said "oops" as he pressed it quite purposefully. He didn't have anything different to tell the nurse when he got here, but I think Matt is happy to mess around with all of us.

Game night

Weekends are a little slow at rehab - there are no therapy sessions, so we have to find things to do with Matt. His endurance is still so low so he wants to spend a lot of time in bed. He has been more alert, though, and seemed content to sit in bed and listen to us chat. I think he only turned away from us once when he got frustrated with our lack of understanding. He used to spend the better part of his waking hours annoyed with us - so we're all making progress!

He also spent two whole hours up in his chair today, which is more than I think he's done all week combined. The first hour we went for a nice walk through the buildings which he hadn't seen much of before. Then this evening, he wanted to sit in the dining room with other people and we thought we'd try out a game. My sister had brought dominoes and Matt loves to play the train game, so he and I played on a team. He was awesome - I'd hand him a tile and he'd place them all, even though we think he's still dealing with double vision. He didn't make it through the first round, but it was such a big step from where he's been, I'm sure it won't be long before he's beating us all again.

Pudding!

We weren't sure how Matt was going to do today - the first time they got him up into a chair he went completely white and they had to put him right back into bed. They worked with him in bed for his first therapy sessions and then decided to try another medication for motion sickness. He slept for several hours and then was happy to get into his chair this afternoon and do some therapy with his right arm.

Matt has been working really hard with his speech therapist and his language is becoming more and more clear. Now we can usually understand his words, but they don't mean what he is trying to say. He'll repeat a word he's heard all day, like pudding, when he means he wants to be in bed. He's also been repeating numbers to mean various things. Last night, he asked a question in which I understood every word - Could you do me a favor? Then I couldn't understand what he said next, but it was a complete sentence! His speech therapist is also helping him relearn to swallow and today he got to eat pudding! On Monday he's going to get a trial lunch and see when he might be able to eat more on his own, which I think is going to help his rehab even more.

Thursday morning

Since yesterday was a little scary, I thought I'd post this morning to let you know Matt is doing fine after his seizure. They told me he just needed to sleep, which he did all day and all night. This morning he was bright eyed and happy to see us. He'd gotten a shower this morning and was in regular clothes and working with his speech therapist when we came in. Then the occupational therapist came and got him out of bed into his chair. At first he didn't want to, but then he said okay, 5 minutes. She said how about 30? And he said, okay, 40 minutes. Everyone was happy with the deal and Matt worked really hard on trying to move his right arm for awhile. Then he got really fatigued and they took his blood pressure and it was quite low so they got him back into bed. He is on medication to lower his blood pressure right now (which is quite common for a brain injury) but Matt has always had a naturally low blood pressure, so he's having a tough time being upright. They're going to monitor him closely the next few days and will maybe be able to get him off that medication soon.

Brain science is a fascinating thing and we are all learning so much very quickly. This morning I watched Matt work with his speech therapist on identifying common objects. She started with 10 pictures of things like bowl, table, bicycle, etc. Some of them Matt knew right away, without thinking, and others required quite the discussion and hints for him to properly identify. Then she put the cards aside and asked him to remember what he'd seen and he recalled all the things that had required more thinking, and couldn't remember any of the ones he'd identified right away. I don't know if this really means anything, but I thought it was very interesting. Although, mom and I said later we couldn't remember the 10 pictures, either, so its a good thing nobody asked us.

Wednesday afternoon

I had forgotten about the fact that brain injuries often take 4 steps forward/2 steps back before this morning. During physical therapy, Matt had a short seizure while he was on a standing table machine. He was trying to say that something was happening and then his left side collapsed. He quickly came to and they checked his vitals and said they were all the same as this morning, so they put him back in bed to let him rest. He's been sleeping most of the day and is taking a break from any more therapy until tomorrow. No one can say what exactly this means for seizures in the future - they are going to increase his medications for right now and see how that works. He was just awake for a little while and 'talking' to us again, but he isn't interested in getting out of bed.

If anyone is interested, Matt can have visitors at any time - he's free in the evenings, on weekends, and anytime during the day if he isn't in therapy. For anyone coming from the veggie conference, I think the best way to get here from Manchester is to take 101 west to Wilton, then Route 31 through Greenfield. A little ways past Greenfield, turn right onto Crotched Mountain Road. (If you're coming from up north, take 89 towards Concord and then 202 West. In Bennington, follow 31 south to Crotched Mountain Road on the left. ) Once you get up the hill, follow signs for the Children's Hospital and Residence. There is some parking right by the front door, or go around to the back side of the building and there is a large lot. Matt's room is 1G - give me a call if you get lost! 802-881-4744

Matt's 1st day in rehab

Keri didn't get internet access yet so Jody is posting again. Matt met with three therapisits today so they could assess where he is at. They were amazed by his progress. Tomorrow Keri and Matt will meet with the doctors to decide on a plan for Matt's rehab process. They say Matt will be in therapy about three hours everyday working with a speech therapist, cognitive therapist, and a physical therapist. Today Matt drank water for the first time and tomorrow pudding. He was able to sit up in a chair for two hours and go on a tour of the building. He is exhausted from his first day and is now sleeping soundly.

Matt is in Rehab!

This is Jody again. Keri won't have computer access until tomorrow.
Matt and Keri traveled to Crotched Mountain Speciality Hospital this afternoon. Matt asked the EMT guy accompanying them to take them out for beers on the way. Tomorrow he will start rehab.! Matt's address while he is there is:
Matt Latiolais
care of Crotched Mountain Speciality Hospital
1 Verney Dr.
Greenfield, NH 03047

Sunday night

Matt was so happy to see us this morning - he waved at all of us and told me he had a great night. The nurses got him up in a chair and rolled him out into the hallway this morning so he could see outside. We were sitting out there when several friends showed up, so we had a little party in the hallway for Matt. He had such a great day - even when he was falling asleep, he wanted to stay there around everybody. Thanks for the visits! I hope you all made it home okay in the snow.

Matt is very excited about leaving tomorrow for rehab, so I hope everything goes okay. I'll let you know once we're settled.

Saturday afternoon

Not too much new today, but each day Matt seems to be a little more aware of things going on around him. When I came in this morning I asked him how he was and he said "Fine, how you?"

He had a few visitors today who really had him laughing, which we haven't seen too much before. He also rolled his eyes and laughed with my sister at the crazy discussions going on with his roommate's family. We talked more about rehab and he is ready to go now, especially if it means he'll get out of bed. He is so bored whenever he is awake, so its lucky that all these things really wear him out and he's taking lots of naps.

Decision day

Its hard to believe all that has happened in three weeks - it seems like a million years ago that he had his first day in the ICU. I was told this morning that Matt was medically stable and ready to transfer to rehab today! Every time that Matt has been moved or needed something on a Friday afternoon it has been a complete mess and then he gets lost in the weekend shuffle, so I asked to wait to transfer him until Monday. That gave me until this afternoon to decide where he would go from here. There were so many different reasons to go to each of the various places we visited, but I think that he's going to go to Crotched Mountain in Greenfield, NH. We have to wait until Monday for confirmation, but I'll let you know once we know his new address!

We had several 'conversations' today about going to rehab. Matt isn't sure that he wants to leave because he likes it here. He seems very concerned that he'll be in a different place and no one will be there with him. Once my sister told him that I would be going with him, he seemed better. But then later, he wanted to make sure that everyone is coming with him and that he'll still get to see friends. (No pressure, anyone, but I did tell him he would. :-) We discussed several times what day it is now and what days he has left here. He seems to understand that tomorrow is Saturday and then its Sunday after that and we'll leave the day after Sunday. I can't wait to get him out of this room and onto rehab!

Thursday night

Mom and I had a busy day checking out rehab facilities - from Wallingford, CT to Greenfield, NH. It was a completely overwhelming process that is making me feel like I'm making a decision that is going to affect Matt's outcomes for life. Yikes. Best not to think about it until the morning.

Meanwhile, Matt had a busy day with knock-knock jokes until he told my sister "I tired." Now he's had a little morphine and is sound asleep. They've been tube feeding him all day and I think that it is really helping.

I'm not sure I posted this before - but now Matt is in room 504. All the other mailing address is the same, just a new room number. I've also heard that some people are having trouble posting comments, so if you want to email it is: keribolluyt@yahoo.com. Thanks, still, for all the support!

Knock knock jokes?

Matt was moved to a regular room this evening and it was a bit of a mess, again, like every move he's had so far. It is a good sign, medically, that he can be moved out of the special care unit, but its always scary to get used to a new place. I'm actually going to be looking at rehab centers tomorrow and hopefully he'll get to be moving to one soon.

All day Matt has been trying to talk to us and I'm only able to make out a few things. One word he kept saying over and over all day that had lots of clicks and I couldn't make it out. Finally tonight, in the middle of the move, I could finally make it out when he said "Guess what?" so I asked "What?" and he said "Chicken butt." It was the perfect thing - we quit crying and laughed instead. Then all the clicks made sense - he'd been trying to tell me a knock knock joke all day! He says knock, knock, knock, knock a bunch of times, and he told me that Steve was there, but I can't make out anything else. So if anybody knows a knock knock joke with Steve as the punch line, let me know - it might help me decipher what he's saying!

Tuesday night

Just a quick post before we head back to the apartment. Matt had a good day - the therapists even had him 'standing' and he got his weight onto his left leg. They worked with him for about 20 minutes moving his legs and arms and then he slept for 2 hours.

This evening he had a peg tube put in his stomach so that they can start giving him more food tomorrow. He's still trying to talk a lot even though we can't understand him yet. He's also worked out how to get his glove off with his teeth so that he can mess with things. We can put his glasses on when we're in the room, but he's very confused by the fact that they don't have an ear piece on the left side (because of the swelling on that side of his head). He takes them on and off trying to figure out what is wrong with them.

Monday night

Matt had a pretty big day today while I was in Burlington closing on the house. Because of the swelling in his head and the fact that he is missing part of his skull (to allow for that swelling), they've had to fit him with a helmet in order to get him out of bed and doing PT. He really doesn't like the helmet and takes it off the second someone turns around, so they've also had to put a glove on so he can't use his hand. I think he likes this even less than the helmet, so I heard he was pretty grumpy most of the day. The nurses tell me this is a very natural part of the healing process - he doesn't understand yet what has happened and why he is here and what is going on, so his first reaction is frustration and anger.

When I got back they had him sitting up with his glasses on and he was really trying hard to tell me something. I can't really understand him yet, so he is frustrated with that as well. Tomorrow he is going to have a stomach tube put in and maybe things will get a little better once he gets food in him.

Sunday night

We've had a great day - Matt's making lots of little steps and is looking better and better. He's completely exhausted and is sleeping a lot, but when he is awake, he is watching us (at least on the left side) and interacting pretty well. His head is still slightly swollen, but its gone down some. His right hand is a little less swollen as well which will hopefully clear up some more once physical therapy starts this week.

Last night he was trying so hard to say things and I think that I could make out some of it. He didn't try much today, but he was so tired. They've got him squeezing his hand twice when they ask if he is in pain and they'll give him pain meds if he responds. He's still coughing some from the pneumonia and he'll take the suction tube from the nurse and try to suction his mouth. His breathing sounds so much better though, so hopefully he won't have to do that too much longer.

Hopefully we'll get to see the doctors tomorrow to find out more about his feeding tube and future plans for his stay on the neuro floor. I'll keep you posted.

Matt's new digs

Matt seems to be pretty settled in his new room - it even has a nice view of the mountains once he can look out the window. The nurses are busy getting his baseline info and figuring out what will happen next. He's still fighting an infection and a fever which is their main concern at this point because he can't heal anything else until they figure out what he's got. It seems like they are going to do the stomach tube surgery, but that won't happen on the weekend. He's moving his left hand a lot and checking out the staples in his head and the swelling on his left side. The nurse says its a good sign that he has purposeful movements.

Matt can receive cards in this room, just no flowers, balloons, etc. We're also getting mail at the house in Dummerston.

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Matt Latiolais Room 521

1 Medical Center Dr.

Lebanon, NH 03756

Matt & Keri Latiolais

207 Knapp Rd.

Dummerston, VT 05301

Visiting Keri and Matt

This is Keri's sister, Jody, posting. Keri is with Matt this morning. Last night Matt made the move from the ICU to the Neuro Special Care Unit. It is an amazing place. If you want to visit Keri this weekend, enter at the Main Entrance, take the elevators to the right of the information desk to the 5th floor. We are next to the library under the sign that says South Mall 5. The waiting room at the Neuro Unit is too small for us so we are at the opposite end of the 5th floor.

2 weeks ago

I can hardly believe Matt's accident was 2 weeks ago today. He's looking pretty good today and even the neurosurgeons have said they're pleased with his progress. They kept the breathing tube out last night and are not going to do a tracheostomy. They are also trying to get a feeding tube into his nose so that they don't have to do a peg, either - which means no more surgeries! We have to wait for radiology to clear his neck before they can take off the brace and tilt his head enough to get the feeding tube in, which hopefully will happen soon - he has to be getting hungry.

Today was another good day and he had his eyes open and was messing with my watch and book again. He also seemed to be watching the TV in his neighbor's room through the glass wall, so we turned one on in his room. I set the remote down by his knee to move the TV and he wiggled his arm down to grab it. I turned around and he was resting with the remote on his stomach, just like he does at home. :-)

The biggest news of the day - he's going to be moved out of the ICU! We're waiting for a bed to be open in the Neurological Special Care Unit, but he's officially a NSCU patient hanging out in the ICU, hopefully just for one more day.

Oh, what a day!

For those of you who don't know, we were in the process of selling our house and moving to a farm in southern Vermont when Matt had his accident. We had to put off the closing hoping to have Matt sign a power of attorney so that I could complete the closing. We are no where close to that happening, so I had to appear at court this morning to ask for a temporary guardianship. The judge was incredibly helpful and worked everything out for me so we can finally check that off our list - the closing is now on Monday!

So happy to have that accomplished, I was ready to come back to the hospital and see Matt before surgery. But while I was out, they extubated him! When we got back, he was tubeless and had both eyes open - it was amazing to see. He followed me with his eyes around his bed and uses his left hand alot. I was sitting by his bed reading and he kept pulling the book out of my hands and holding onto it. As long as things go okay tonight, this means he won't have to have a tracheostomy. He'll probably still be on the list for a feeding tube into his stomach because they don't think he'll be able to eat yet, but we'll see about that tomorrow.

As I overheard someone say today, we're still here waiting as fast as we can. I'll let you know whenever we hear anything else.

What day is it?

Sorry I forgot to post yesterday - I'm loosing track of the days and when I write. Matt is looking pretty healed on the outside and its so hard to see him still heavily sedated and intubated. I finally got to talk to a neurosurgeon today and they said he still has a lot of swelling in his brain and he's just going to need more time. They're also thinking his pneumonia is slowing the healing because his body is fighting that right now.

Tomorrow he'll get a tracheostomy and a feeding line directly into his stomach so that they can take all the tubes out of his mouth. That way, he can stay on the ventilator, but they'll be able to wean him off both that and the sedation more quickly. When the sedation was turned down last night he had both his eyes open and was following people around a little and seemed like Matt, so the sooner they can keep him more awake the better. Eventually, he should be able to talk with the trach, too, depending on the swelling/damage in his brain.

Continued thanks for the love & thoughts - he seems to be past the most dangerous time, I hope, and now its just waiting, which has been easier because of all your support.