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Saturday Update: 9/24/05

Today has been a pretty quiet day for the most part. Matt’s doing pretty much the same. The physical therapists came by today and had him propped up on the edge of the bed again. He was able to stay sitting fairly well with some help from the therapists. He’d respond when they told him he was leaning and he’d work to correct it. That exercise tired him out pretty quickly though. I think it’s just going to take some time to build up even the smallest amount of endurance and strength. The occupational therapist came next and worked on moving his hands, arms, and fingers. He did pretty well with these exercises too and the therapist said he felt stronger on the right hand. I was tickled to hear that, as the right side was the one that was affected early on. After all that hard work, he was very tuckered and took a good long nap.

This afternoon the nurse noticed that the night nurse had charted his pupils as being equal. This whole time he’s been in the hospital they have not been equal. Today, they are not equal. This caused some concern for the nurse who reported it to the neurologist on call. He in turn, ordered another CT scan to see if there has been some sort of change since last night. I am sitting here now waiting for him to return. My gut tells me that the night nurse simply made a mistake in her notes or her judgment and the CT will show that nothing has changed. Matt had an MRI yesterday. The report did not show anything new, and nothing out of the ordinary. The view is still clouded by the remaining blood from his hemorrhage, so they’ll likely do another one in the coming months. I was relived then, however, to hear that no other malformed vessels are appearing!! Please continue to pray that everything will return to normal in his brain and this event will be a one-time deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because we had the MRI yesterday, I am nearly certain that the CT will show no changes either, or at least nothing negative. I hope the CT shows a slight improvement in the swelling and size of the hemorrhage. We shall see. I know the dr is just being cautious. He is not his usual neurologist, just the one on call.

Fast forward…well, the CT results came back and things look the same. No changes or problems presenting themselves! Yahoo! J Matt is resting comfortably in the big geri-chair. (A huge monstrosity of a chair, which resembles a throne.)

He is continuing to be annoyed by that pesky feeding tube. The speech pathologist should be coming this weekend, or Monday to do an evaluation of his swallowing. I hope that visit goes well and we can think about getting that tube out soon and start him on liquids. Please be thinking positive thoughts about that too. Getting that tube out will be a huge milestone for us. Tonight I am going to sleep at home. This is the first time since Matt has been in the hospital that I have been home to sleep. I am a little insecure about leaving him…it’s hard to think of him being here alone. I pray that I will be able to get a good night’s sleep, so that I can continue to give him my all each day. Please be thinking of me tonight…and pray for a peaceful night for him too.

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