Out in the woods

Matt has been walking in the woods around the farm since last year - but only on the farm road. A few weeks ago, we ventured onto a trail nearby that was almost a mile long! This hill is much steeper than it looks and Matt almost turned around before we were halfway, but then he decided to keep going and felt so great about really hiking again. One step at a time we're getting back to things we love to do.

Matt says

Thank you ever so much for keeping up with my life and recovery. Me - better & better - slow but steady. Big time in life and everything happening. Thank you very much for everything you've done. Through the whole deal, we decided we're leaving the farm. Where we go, no idea what is going on. We'll see. -Matt

Matt wanted to tell me what to write on this post. I tried to keep it just like he said it so you can see how he is communicating, but sometimes he wants a little help. I was thrilled he was even interested in trying. This was all he could explain right now and wanted me to take over on the farm story.

Our plans for this farm were centered on his skills as a forester, a climber, and a tree worker. As great as he is doing, we don't know that he will get back to everything he was before so it is hard to re-work ideas for this farm and figure out how we can still take it over by the end of this year. We decided it was time to step back, take more time to regroup, continue healing, and re figure what kind of farm we can run someday with his 'new' skills. This was an amazing place for Matt to be and heal and to dream about the future, but it has become too hard to be here and watch what he can't be doing. It will be so difficult to walk away from this farm (we think sometime this winter), but it is what needs to happen at this point.

slowly coming along

Matt's been doing pretty well since my last post. He goes to therapy alone almost all the time now and the only update I get from him is that his appointment went fine. But then the last few times he has come home happy and tells me that he notices a difference. He even said that speech went well last week - and he never believes us when we tell him he is communicating better.

Today I went along to OT and I saw him move his wrist up slightly without any assistance. He still needs e-stim to be able to pull his wrist all the way back, but to see him move it at all on his own was pretty amazing. He is far from having much functional use in his arm, but each little improvement helps.

Back to therapy

It's been a month since Matt's surgery and things are slowly coming along. He still gets tired pretty easy and is frustrated by how long it is taking to really feel better. His therapists keep reminding him that with a head injury he's particularly susceptible to that post-surgery crappy feeling. I think he was hoping to bounce back and be amazingly better by now and it's hard to be stuck in this slow process again. It's especially hard since spring has come along with all the farm work he wants to be doing and he has to admit he can't do it.

He has been back in speech and OT the past two weeks and they are going well. Whenever we see people or Matt talks on the phone, they say he sounds better than ever. He's even used full sentences when he complains to me about how frustrated he feels. His OT was amazed that he wasn't set back further - in fact, he had improved while he was away from therapy. He's gaining more muscle control in his arm, particularly in bending and straightening his elbow. But because of what he wants to do around the farm, none of this progress is fast or strong enough for him and it's going to be a real test of his patience to get through it.

Home again

Matt actually ate breakfast this morning and was feeling so much better than last night, so they said he could go home today. Once I recovered from watching them remove the drain from his head, they sent us on our way. He's doing really well and back to relaxing on the couch. He'll go back in a few weeks to get the staples removed and later for a follow-up CT, but everything seems good so far.

All is well

Matt is done with surgery and everything went great. I won't be able to see him for a few hours, but the surgeon said he is doing fine. He said that the bone piece was quite a bit smaller than the plastic piece they put in, so now Matt's head will be nice and round and everything will be very protected.

Finally time

We've got Matt's surgery time now and he is really ready for this to be done. We have to be at Dartmouth bright and early and the surgery should start around 7:30. I will post as soon as I can about how everything went. We've been so busy thinking about the surgery that we almost forgot yesterday was April 16th - the day Matt moved out of Crotched Mountain last year! We can't believe how fast this year went by, even though Matt's progress feels so slow. Can't wait to see how the next year goes, especially with his new plastic head.