Working hard

Matt's had a couple of rough weeks recently - he is working so hard, but he can't see enough progress and is quite frustrated. The last few days, however, have been better and he'll at least listen to me when I say he is progressing. I don't think he really believes me, but at least he is listening.

Last week, he talked on the phone to a few people and actually carried on conversations. He was pretty thrilled. In OT, they work with his arm mostly by having his therapist move his arm while he thinks about moving it. On Thursday, she said that she could feel little muscle twinges in his lower arm right below his elbow as she moved his arm forward. It's not really movement, but that's how his leg started 4 months ago. Then on Friday, I watched him pull his arm back a little bit on his own! His OT reminded him that he hasn't used these muscles in 6 months and anyone who had their arm in a cast that long would have to work to get movement again, but that he is also retraining his brain at the same time. He has to concentrate so hard and gets so tired while trying to move that arm - it's definitely the hardest job he's ever had!

One month home

I can't believe we've been home for a month already - the time has flown by. We went back to Crotched Mountain last week for some outpatient therapy and it seemed like a million years since we'd been there. It was nice to see some of the people Matt had worked with and they all said he's looking great and sounding so much better.

We've been noticing little signs of progress in Matt's speech and he continues to be surprised every time we mention them. He's been remembering names so much better and doesn't just point at me anymore - he knows I'm Keri and he can say the names of people who've visited him without using his book. He also seems to be thinking more complete thoughts and using simple, full sentences to get his point across.

He's working really hard in PT and is walking quite well at this point. He even tried to give me his cane last week after I'd thrown out my back because he thought I needed it more than he did. His ankle isn't really working yet, but he can lift his leg higher and can bend his knee more without using his hand for help. Even people in the waiting room at therapy have noticed his improvement over the last few weeks.

Wednesday morning

Another quick week and things are going well - Matt is working so hard and is super busy with all his homework. He started OT last Friday and he really likes this therapist, too. She said it's good that he has some feeling in his shoulder - it's something to work with and a place to start. He's still struggling with a lot of tone in his hand, which is when the muscles are uncontrollably tense all the time. He has a hard splint that he spends 6-8 hours a day in to stretch out his fingers and his therapist says she can get his hand to relax more than before. Again, a good place to start.

Reading is slowly coming along - it's still really difficult to read full sentences, but he's getting through more of the list each day. Yesterday he asked his ST to give him longer sentences to try and she was thrilled. I've noticed him struggling with the desire to say more lately and the inability to find all the words he wants. Last night he really wanted to ID the birds we heard during dinner and it was driving him crazy not to know the names. We grabbed the field guides and he pointed them all out - if only we had field guides for everything!

I did drive him out to the woods this weekend and we wandered around a bit looking at wildflowers which seemed to make him quite happy. Now as he wanders further from the house he sees more of the work he wants to be doing and it's quite a struggle. Most of the time, he keeps up a pretty good sense of humor and says "add it to your list!" and shakes his cane at me. He's managed to remember the word 'supervisor' and is pretty good at it.