It all started in the dark, early morning of 11/19/09 - a Thursday last year. A policeman pounded on my door, woke me up and left me with a scrap of paper - an ER number to call 2 1/2 hours away where Matt was fighting for his life. I know that I did not understand the full gravity of the situation at the time. Either his doctor was selective about the information she gave me or I just chose not to believe that it could be that bad. She told me they were sending Matt up to Dartmouth for surgery and that I should meet him there.
By the time I got there, he was already in surgery and I still had no idea what had actually happened, so when his surgeon finally came and talked to me was when my world turned upside down. He said that Matt's accident was really bad and that if he lives, he might never walk or talk again. He had suffered a serious skull fracture above his left ear which had caused a blood clot that they had to remove. Then it became a waiting game - I saw Matt once that afternoon for a few minutes and then later that night when they finally moved him into the ICU. I didn't take any pictures when he was there because I didn't want to remember, but I've found that I will never forget how he looked the first time I saw him - all the monitors, tubes and bandaging. It still seems unreal.
Now fast forward a year (if only that was actually possible) and as you know he's walking and talking and showing no signs of slowing his progress. I know that we would never have come from that low to where we are now without everything everyone has done for us along the way - from the first group of visitors at Dartmouth to the cards, comments, thoughts and prayers we still receive today. Thank you for everything that you do - we are truly blessed to have you all in our lives.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
November already
I've been going to Matt's therapies with him a lot lately because it is so great to watch how he's progressing - and he can never really explain to me afterwards how awesome he's doing. (and since the hospital wifi is my only internet connection, I haven't had time to blog, even though I've had a lot to blog about.) So here's a rundown of the last couple weeks:
PT - Matt's really working hard with his hamstrings and they are slowly progressing. One exercise he's been doing is to lay on his stomach and try to lift his heel up by bending his knee. A few weeks ago, it was nearly impossible and we had to help every time. Now he can lift his lower leg by himself and he's using therabands (which add resistance) to strengthen the muscles. He's walking around the house without his cane at all and goes on short walks outside without it, too. He carries it with him, but tries to not use it - unless he's also going without the brace, in which case he still needs the cane.
OT - We all know Matt's wicked strong and it was only a matter of time before things clicked, but now that they have, his arm control is picking up quite rapidly. It's still really hard and requires a lot of concentration, but he's been able to straighten and bend his arm without any assistance. What used to require e-stim to engage, now only requires muscle massage and some of the time his biceps will engage without anything at all. At the end of the last session, even the muscles that make the wrist bend up were working with very little massage.
It's all very amazing and exciting to see - I'll try take another video soon! He's actually just starting another OT session, so I'm going to go watch what he does today.
PT - Matt's really working hard with his hamstrings and they are slowly progressing. One exercise he's been doing is to lay on his stomach and try to lift his heel up by bending his knee. A few weeks ago, it was nearly impossible and we had to help every time. Now he can lift his lower leg by himself and he's using therabands (which add resistance) to strengthen the muscles. He's walking around the house without his cane at all and goes on short walks outside without it, too. He carries it with him, but tries to not use it - unless he's also going without the brace, in which case he still needs the cane.
OT - We all know Matt's wicked strong and it was only a matter of time before things clicked, but now that they have, his arm control is picking up quite rapidly. It's still really hard and requires a lot of concentration, but he's been able to straighten and bend his arm without any assistance. What used to require e-stim to engage, now only requires muscle massage and some of the time his biceps will engage without anything at all. At the end of the last session, even the muscles that make the wrist bend up were working with very little massage.
It's all very amazing and exciting to see - I'll try take another video soon! He's actually just starting another OT session, so I'm going to go watch what he does today.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
working on...
Even though his arm just started moving, we're looking for another big step forward, but we have to be content with how the little things are progressing right now. In speech, he's been reading half -page paragraphs out loud! He read through two yesterday and it just about wiped him out, but he made it through all the sentences. Piecing all the little words together is really hard and frustrating - but he's doing so much better than even two weeks ago.
Whenever Matt walks up stairs, he always steps up with his good leg and then swings the right leg up to the same step. It's really slow going, but he hasn't had the muscle strength to bend his right leg enough to lift it up to the next step. He started working on this last week, though, and it's slowly coming along - he's even trying it outside of therapy whenever we come across stairs. He's still working without his brace or cane in therapy and went up and down a pretty steep hill today with almost no trouble. He isn't ready to try that at home, yet, but he is getting there.
Whenever Matt walks up stairs, he always steps up with his good leg and then swings the right leg up to the same step. It's really slow going, but he hasn't had the muscle strength to bend his right leg enough to lift it up to the next step. He started working on this last week, though, and it's slowly coming along - he's even trying it outside of therapy whenever we come across stairs. He's still working without his brace or cane in therapy and went up and down a pretty steep hill today with almost no trouble. He isn't ready to try that at home, yet, but he is getting there.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Watch this!
Just one week ago, Matt couldn't move his arm at all. Then last Thursday, they called me into his therapy session and we watched him move his arm just a little bit - and it gave him a crazy headache to concentrate that hard. By the end of the weekend, he could do this! He's also gaining strength through his arm and shoulder - he can push against his therapist as she moves his arm around. Now he has to work on control in his wrist and fingers, but he's a lot closer to a functioning arm than it looked like he would be.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Exponentially
This is Norfi - Matt's therapy horse. He's had two sessions now and he loves it.Matt was explaining to us the other day how he was getting better with just a slight incline and now it's become a steeper incline. It only took him two tries to be able to repeat the word exponentially, so his speech is coming along. We're working on finding him more functional things (like writing checks and IDing traffic signs) to do for speech therapy now and that seems to be making a big difference. I walked in the other day and he was looking at a magazine (which he has not wanted to do yet) and he said he's starting to be able to understand more when he tries to read.
He left OT on Friday telling me that he thought it went really well - which hasn't happened for as long as I can remember. He's always been so frustrated by OT that he doesn't really like to talk about it, so when he came out happy with the session it was a really good sign.
Friday, September 24, 2010
another good week
Things are still rolling along here - Matt continues to have little movements in his hand. His OT today said he could squeeze his fingers together towards a fist and as he did that his wrist moved up. Last week he couldn't really bend his wrist back - it was only forwards.
Matt also started horse riding lessons this week and loved it. He and his horse have some communication issues to work out - Matt has to hold the reigns in one hand and move them across his neck to turn him, which the horse didn't understand at first, but I think they'll get it figured out quickly.
He's still frustrated by what he feels is slow progress. He really wants to be done with his cane, but can only go for short distances without it. I know there is also a lot more he wants to be telling us, but often has to resort to "thinking good but speech is bad."
We're trying to work out ways for him to do things around the house and recently got him a cutting board that can hold vegetables or a mixing bowl so he can prepare meals one handed. He made gumbo last night which was awesome!
Matt also started horse riding lessons this week and loved it. He and his horse have some communication issues to work out - Matt has to hold the reigns in one hand and move them across his neck to turn him, which the horse didn't understand at first, but I think they'll get it figured out quickly.
He's still frustrated by what he feels is slow progress. He really wants to be done with his cane, but can only go for short distances without it. I know there is also a lot more he wants to be telling us, but often has to resort to "thinking good but speech is bad."
We're trying to work out ways for him to do things around the house and recently got him a cutting board that can hold vegetables or a mixing bowl so he can prepare meals one handed. He made gumbo last night which was awesome!
Friday, September 17, 2010
what a week
Matt had re-evaluations in all his therapies this week and they all showed a lot of progress. The most exciting was in OT - with all his might and concentration, Matt got his wrist to move ever so slightly! He could also barely squeeze his fingers together and release them again. The movement was almost imperceptible, but definitely there if you watched very carefully. His therapist was so excited that she kept bringing more people over to see him do it again and again and he was completely wiped out but very happy. We looked at one of his old evaluation sheets and every single arm muscle tested then was a 0/5 and this time every muscle at least had a trace of something happening. Only a few muscles show movement with gravity eliminated and none can withstand resistance yet, so he's still at a trace to 2/5, but it's something!
Even his doctor back at Crotched Mountain was cautiously optimistic about his improvement. He said that when there is nothing, it's hard to know if anything will ever come back, but with some movement, it's 'easier' to get more. There is still no guarantee that Matt's arm will completely recover and be as useful as before, but things are looking a little less bleak.
Even his doctor back at Crotched Mountain was cautiously optimistic about his improvement. He said that when there is nothing, it's hard to know if anything will ever come back, but with some movement, it's 'easier' to get more. There is still no guarantee that Matt's arm will completely recover and be as useful as before, but things are looking a little less bleak.
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