Look, no cane!

Here's Matt walking without a cane or his brace! It's blurry because he doesn't want to stop. He's only practicing this in PT right now, but as soon as he's strong enough, he can start walking around the house without the cane. Although I did come home the other day and he was on the couch with a sandwich while the cane was still in the kitchen...

Everything else is progressing as it has been - too slow for Matt. He continues to surprise me with sentences every once in a while and his vocab is still increasing. I am reminding him of less and giving fewer cues when he wants to tell his speech therapist something.

He's struggling with boredom and having rough days as a result - but at least he now realizes it and tells me later "wowee, bad day." I try to come up with ways for him to do things, but it doesn't always help - he knows I'm just trying to keep him busy and that makes him feel worse. As soon as the cane is gone for real, he says, things will be better.

Busy week

I know that I don't post that often any more - we're just so busy, I don't know where the time goes! It also seems that we've settled into our life and it feels 'normal' and somewhat less blog-worthy. It is certainly not because Matt has slowed down or is making less progress at this point. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

He's really working hard on his speech homework and when he doesn't think about it, he can ask complete questions and speak quite clearly. The other day, I was looking in a tree book and asked him if he knew something about witch hazel. He said,"Can you show me a picture? I think I know it, but I don't remember for sure." He didn't even realize he had said all of that - I had to point it out to him. But that's what we're looking for - clear communication without conscious effort.

Matt goes for a good walk everyday and he's getting pretty strong and fast (still with his cane). He was always a 'mosey-er' before and it feels like he's almost back to that pace. Then he gets on his new mower that has a left-hand joystick and he zips around the farm faster than I like to drive it. This mower has helped a lot to make him feel productive again - or at least it will now that it has stopped raining.

step by step

Last week Matt's therapist came out of the gym so excited - Matt moved his right foot all on his own! In order to flex his foot up, he has to engage his anterior tibialis - a muscle that runs along the shin - and when he had his evaluation two weeks ago, she couldn't feel any movement in that muscle. Now he's doing foot flexes whenever he's sitting down. He still has to wear his leg brace at home, but they are starting to practice walking without it in therapy. He says give him six more weeks to get rid of the cane & brace, but we'll see.

Today in speech he told his therapist a complete sentence about what he did this weekend and used the terms today, yesterday, and tomorrow. She said that the homework he's had so far was really concentrating on cognitive recall and that it seems he doesn't need that as much anymore. Now we need to work on sound sequencing and words and how to get his thoughts out. He likes to say thinking is good, speaking is bad. At one point today, he even said his thinking was brilliant. He-he.

[I just realized that it might be difficult to dig through all the posts to find our contact info, so I've updated my profile on the opening page. You'll find our address and my email there.]