August 22

Matt has had a great day today. The PT guy has had him doing squats and the OT people have been working with him on lifting his arm. He has made such great improvements over the past week. The doctor that is overseeing his care is so amazed at the progress that he is making. Matt has a very strong desire to go home and that is why he is working so hard. He told me yesterday that he is working so hard because he wants to come home and that I am his inspiration. Little does he know that he is my inspiration, because of the fight and drive that he has to get better. I have seen people make improvements over time, but I have not seen someone improve over night before and that is what seems to be happening with Matt. I know it sounds funny, but I am telling you the truth. Last Sunday he could hardly hold himself up on his legs and now his legs seem to be so strong and this happened from Sunday to Monday. Even when he is tired he puts forth 150% for the people that are working with him. I knew that if they got him up to this floor that he would make great progress. Every night we pray for him to have the strength of God and that seems to be what he is getting. God is so good and He loves us so much. I am so glad that I am here to see the wonderful work that He is doing with Matt. Please continue to pray with us that God will give Matt his strength to make it through this rehab stuff and that God will continue to heal his eyes. I would also like to ask you to pray for me as school starts on Monday and I am doing my student teaching this semester. I am a little nervous, because we are expected to get as many of the special ed kids to pass the TAKS test and I am not sure how all of that works. This is a whole new experience for me and one that I am not real comfortable with at this point. Thank you all for your love and your prayers, we can not ever repay the gratitude that we feel for you all. Thanks again and we love you very much.

August 20th

I must beg for your forgiveness. Yesterday was a crazy day and I just did not get to updating the blog. Matt is doing fantastic. He went for another swollow study today and called me at 11:30 and told me that he had passed the test with "flying colors". So tonight for dinner he was able to have food from my sisters resturant that they have recently opened. He ate opened faced pot roast, mashed tators, green beans, and the famous watermelon pie. After he was finished eating he told me that he felt like he usually does after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It is so good to see him eating again and enjoying food. His therapy is going so well. The people that he works with are just amazed at the progress that he is making and how quickly he is making that progress. He is very quick to give God the glory for what is going on, but them I am quick to tell him that if he were not willing to accept and us what God is giving then it would not work. Everyday is a new day for us and I feel like I can't love him any more until I walk in the door from work and I do. I told him the other night it was like being newlyweds again and realizing just how much you do love each other, but this is even more intense, because we have been married for 20 years. Anyway, sorry I got off on a little bit of us and not so much of telling you about Matt. He is still doing well standing and was using a box today to do step ups. We talked to them about the steps in the house and they are going to work to help him be able to climb the steps at home. There is a projected date of Sept. 11th for Matt to possible go home. It may even be sooner than that. I have talked to them and they are willing to work with us because, I have to start my student teaching on that day. The therapist that is in charge of his care is working with us and said that he can probable come home on the 9th or 10th rather than the 11th. I am planning on taking a couple of days off to be at home with him. Please continue to pray for Matt's strength and also his eyes that the double vision will heal itself and we won't have any trouble with that. Please also pray that he might be able to come home sooner than the first part of Sept., but that if he needs to stay until then that God will help him to continue to do well so that he will not need any assistance when he goes home. I am looking forward to having him home and getting our lives back to normal. It will be nice for us to be at home and be able to get our lives back to normal with just us and the boys. I know that we as a family are going to need some time to get things together again since all of this has happened. Thank you so much for your prayer and I will continue to keep you updated and we love you all.

August 18th

Standing was on the agenda today and they had him stand up and sit 10 times today. He told me that it was very hard, but that it felt good. When I got to the hospital after work he was eating and I then took him back to his room and he wanted to go back to bed and sit in the bed for a while. Usually, when I am not here the CNA's help him in and out of bed, but when I am with him I help him in and out of bed. Yesterday when he was transfering from the wheelchair to the bed he could not hardly bare weight on his legs, well today when I went to help him back into bed he was actually standing up tall and was supporting most of his weight on his own. Walking was a little tricky, but he did well and side stepped and took a few steps to help get back in bed. I am so proud of him and how well he is doing. We took another trip to the 3rd floor today to visit with the sweet nurses that he had and they are all shocked when we roll off the elevator and he say Hi how are you all doing. He is now eating more normal food and not just chopped up food, they are just giving it to him the way it is served. He is able to use a straw to drink from and is doing great with that according to the speech person. They are thinking of doing another swallow study, just to make sure that things are going where they are suppose to, but the speech person really does not see a need for that and is going to try and talk to the doctor about it. Someone, I am not sure who, said that he may be getting out of here on the 8th of Sept. That to me is pretty exciting, to think that it is almost 2 months to the day. Just think, that they did not expect him to even live through the night and now we are talking about going home. Man oh Man isn't God great!!!!! Dr. Chen was in this morning and took out the stitches that were on his stomach that he put on the PEG and he told us to make an appointment as soon as they gave the all clear for him to travel. I still am amazed at how God brought all the right people together at just the right time to have a solution to the problem on Matt's AVM. I know that I am using the word amazed a lot in the updates, but that is the only word that seems to even come close to fitting what we have experienced. We are praying for continued strength and also that Matt's double vision will go a way. They are using a patch to strengthen his eyes, so we are asking God to intervene and help the process along. Thank you all once again and we love you all.

August 17th

For those of you who know Matt, you know how much he loves his coffee. Well, after a month of not having coffee he got his first cup of Starbucks since he got sick. He does not like the coffee that they make here at the hospital and was complaining about it this morning. Just another way that I can tell that he is getting better!! This weekend is not as intense as during the week. They only work the patients for an hour one time a day, where they work them an hour 3 times a day during the week. On Saturday the OT people were here and they worked on getting the muscles in his left arm loose and relaxed. He did very well with that and today the PT person came in and he worked on posture. He also had Matt lean on the table and use his elbows and forearms to support his body and then squat. Matt said man this is hard, but it is a good way to strengthed his legs. All in all it was a good weekend. He is eating more and more food. To start out with he would eat his tray and then between breakfast and lunch they would give him a can of stuff like Ensure and the same between lunch and dinner. He told us that after eating all of the food on his tray he was getting to full when they would give him the Ensure stuff. The nurse said that if he are more than 50% of his tray that they would not give him the Ensure. The physical therapy doctor is amazed at how well Matt is doing. Keep praying for strength, because it is working and he is able to handle more and more therapy each day. We also went on a ride today. We went down to the 3rd floor to visit the nurses and then we went outside and enjoyed the rain. It was good to see him up and enjoying the outdoors again. It has been over a month since he has been outside, except for 2 rides to change hospitals. Anyway, I wanted to update everyone before it got to late. Take care and we love you all. Thanks for sticking with us and continuing to pray for Matt and his recovery.