Weekly update

Overall Matt has had a pretty good week. We finally got the mower fixed with a new belt and he's been busy catching up for 2 days and everything is running fine. In PT, his hamstrings are finally engaging and he's able to control them pretty well. Up to this point, he was mainly using his quads to move his leg and wasn't able to extend just his lower leg. His therapist has been working his leg really hard this week and trying to fine tune his muscle control. She also has started swinging his right arm while he walks so that he can 'feel' it and watch it move. We're hoping to make a connection with his brain that the arm is moving naturally when he walks. (I don't really want to talk much more about his arm right now, but if you need something to think about to help Matt along - that would definitely be it.)

He had speech two days in a row this week, so since he didn't have time to complete much homework in between, she brought a reading test for Matt and it was fascinating. He did several groups of picture/word matching and only had trouble with one word. Then he had to read sentences that told him to point to something specific or answer a question from a picture. It took him awhile to read through everything, but he could actually process the sentences! Then he tried to move on to paragraphs, but after 45 minutes he was exhausted and it was too much to handle. He was pretty thrilled with the results, though, and told her to bring the paragraphs back sometime soon, maybe when he's not so tired.

slow and steady

I know that plateaus are fairly common in brain injury rehab and it's not as if Matt has actually stopped progressing, but it feels a little slower at this point. I think we keep waiting for a major breakthrough while being thankful for the steps he his making. He keeps getting stronger and after each long walk they take in therapy they say he looks better and more natural. I know he's walking more at home, too, and will tell me about what he saw in the woods which is quite a ways from the house.


His speech continues to improve as well and he's getting sick of me pointing out his sentences all the time. He still never believes anyone when they tell him how awesome he's doing - it's always, "oh really?" when they point out his progress. Just yesterday a hospital volunteer who sees him once a week stopped him to say how great he looked. Hopefully one of these days it will sink in...

Mirrors

Last week we went back to Crotched Mountain to see Matt's physiatrist and we talked about the lack of progress with Matt's arm. He suggested that we try mirror therapy again, which Matt tried months ago but hasn't used since. Apparently, studies are now showing that this therapy can 'jump start' an arm like Matt's sometimes. He has to sit with a mirror perpendicular to him with his right (non functioning) hand behind the mirror. Then by looking in the mirror while he moves his left hand, it appears to the mind that both of his arms are working. Try it for yourself - it's a little trippy. He's supposed to do this for at least 20 minutes a day for who knows how long and it might just start something.

In speech he's working as hard as ever and is making progress on sentences and some basic spelling. Right now he has pictures of objects and he tries to put together a sentence for each one like 'Here is one box. Here are two boxes.' The is/are distinction has been really difficult but he seems to be getting it now. Plural forms are also difficult and he'll often change their placements like 'Here ares two box.' This has been especially hard to correct because he doesn't understand how he said it wrong - it seems that he doesn't always hear what he says, he just sees what is on the paper and it looks correct. When he tries to write the sentences, he doesn't always know what letter he's looking for, but he does always know when he writes the wrong one. It's fascinating to watch him process through each word until he has the sentence correct. His therapist is always excited at the end of his sessions - she tells him all this will come back and be easy again, it's just taking time.

We were also talking about the date and Matt knew what today is. He couldn't come up with the word anniversary, but he told his therapist that today is 'you, me - married, 5.' We talked about where we were 5 years ago and how much has happened since then. We are so incredibly lucky and thankful that we get to have today together and for each next day that we get.