so far, so good

I feel like I'm telling you all the same things, but Matt's had a pretty good week. His pool session on Tuesday was great - he's working on strengthening his hamstrings and movements he needed help with 2 weeks ago he could do on his own. He's able to do more repetitions of everything, too, so he's gaining endurance along with strength.

His speech sessions continue to get better and better. Yesterday he did a naming test and had 82% of the pictures on the first try, often too fast for his therapist to keep up with flipping the pages. He's describing pictures in full sentences quite well and really working on the writing now. Spelling is super hard, but his handwriting is about the same as it used to be with his right hand!

Acer saccharum

I went along with Matt on his daily walk today and he was pointing out trees and trying to name things the whole way. He was even up for a little Latin - nothing he was even slightly interested in before. He wanted to show me all the sugar maples that he would add to the sap lines someday. Once we got back we spent a bunch of time with his tree guides looking up more Latin names. He said that names are on the tip of his tongue and after I told him, yes, but they're coming back, he replied, "But I want them now." We were out walking for over an hour and I'm amazed by his strength and stamina - I had no idea that was how far he walks every day.

We're going to see a neuromuscular massage therapist this afternoon to see if a different approach to his arm might start things moving. I'll keep you posted.

Have a good day.

When I used to leave for work before Matt was out of bed he would always mumble 'have a good day' without really waking up. He said it again this morning for the first time-and in a complete sentence! His speech seems to be improving exponentially these days.

This past week has been pretty tough - Matt noticed some changes in his head along the line where they put the skull back and he was sure something was very wrong. We could really see the difference in the pieces above his forehead and it was pretty scary. We went back to Dartmouth for a CT and everything is fine. There are bigger gaps in between the bone pieces than I realized and spinal fluid is moving in and out and as this happens, the appearance of the skull pieces becomes more prominent. It's nothing his surgeon is concerned about - it's really only cosmetic and Matt could opt to have another surgery (not anytime soon) if he wants to have the gaps cemented someday. It sounds like some of the bone will continue to knit together and make it less noticeable, but that he will always have some gaps because of how fractured the original skull was.

Now that Matt is feeling better, he's back to business at therapy. His pool session this week was awesome - his hamstrings are getting stronger and stronger and he's able to pull his leg back pretty well against the force of water. They are going to start e-stim on his hamstrings this week, too, so we'll see how quickly they progress.

We also went to see the guy who made Matt's leg brace and he cut the brace at the ankle so that it flexes now. This allows Matt to bend his ankle like normal while the brace still supports his knee. We were hoping to get rid of his brace completely soon, but when Matt gets tired while walking without it, his knee really snaps back. The last thing he needs is to add a knee problem to the list, so he'll keep the brace for awhile yet.

two weeks already

Time flies by even though things are feeling very slow. All I can really say about the past two weeks is that we're still here and working hard. Matt started pool therapy and has had a few sessions there and I think it's going well. He hates the cold water, but this therapy helps him focus on his muscles in a different way than does therapy on land. I think he'd like it a lot more if he had been into swimming before, but he's tolerating it for now because it seems to be helping.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes - we spent a great afternoon at a lake and had a nice break from everything stressful. Here's hoping that 32 is way better than 31 was!