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!

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.