Year-end review

We've been spending a lot of time lately talking about where Matt was a year ago. I read through old posts and tell him stories about things he used to do and he is always surprised. As frustrated as we both have been with the day-to-day of healing, it's amazing to look back at his life a year ago and see where we are now. At Christmas last year, we were thankful that he could eat dinner with us - he started eating solid food just 4 days before. This year we had the best Christmas - lots of good food and even a few rounds of dominoes. Here's hoping a year from now we are even more amazed.

I listened to Matt work out a conversation with his OT the other day - and I know that we're all getting better at figuring out what he is trying to say, but they really did have quite the conversation. He asked her how much of his arm & hand she thought would come back and she just said she has no way of knowing. But in over 20 years as a therapist, she's never worked with anyone who's had recovery like him - to have his arm start working almost 10 months out and then continue to make marked progress is pretty unbelievable. She feels that what they're working on at this point (wrist extension and finger movement) is detail work that she wasn't sure he would progress to and that since he has, hopefully things will continue to improve and he'll end up with some functional movement in his hand.

Hope you all have a fantastic New Year and all the best in 2011!

oh christmas trees

We've been crazy busy the last few weeks with Christmas tree sales and it's been really hard for Matt to see everyone running around and not being able to help. He makes an appearance each day and handles his inability to work with amazing grace as always, but it's much easier for him to stay in the house and not be confronted by it all. He keeps saying 'next year, next year' and I know he's motivated enough to get there.

Recently Matt got a new glove that he's using to get muscle control back in his fingers and wrist. He's been able to squeeze his fingers together, but releasing them again is very difficult due to the tone in his arm muscles. The glove has metal stays that fit over each finger and help him straighten the fingers again. He's been working on grasping small objects on one side, moving his arm across his body, and releasing the object on the other side. It's pretty amazing to watch.

He's also still horseback riding since they have an indoor arena and it seems to be the highlight of his week. I don't know if I've written this before, but when he first started, they made reigns for him with a single bar in the middle that he could control with one hand. Now they have the reigns separated with a handle on the right side that he can grip and he's controlling the horse with both arms. All the trainers comment on how great Matt and Norfie are matched - they work really well together.