Karwoski Life

Blessings: My family, friends, and co-workers who helped me celebrate my 30th birthday last week! On January 26th, I turned the big 3-0. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, especially because I knew this year it would be hard to plan anything really fun. I know now is not the time to worry about trivial things, like a birthday…but I’ve always been sentimental about them…and I’ll admit it…a big baby. Usually, I like to spend my birthdays with my parents…in fact, in 30 years there has only been 1 birthday that I can remember in which I didn’t celebrate on my birthday with them! So, I was a little bummed thinking I wouldn’t see my parents this year, or plan a fun party or anything. But, as it turns out, my mom decided to come up for a visit this past week! So, we got to go out to dinner with my sister, brother in law, niece, and mom on my birthday! It was wonderful! We went to our favorite restaurant and had us some yummy steaks! Earlier that day, I was surprised several times ...

Blessings for the day: The wonderful women of Westover Baptist Church!!! Three weeks ago, various women at our church began baking and bringing us dinner on Tuesday nights. This has been such a blessing for us, I can’t even tell you. It is so wonderful to come home on Tuesday nights and just relax, knowing that our meal is being provided. It is so touching to be greeted with warm, smiling faces and tender hugs. Each evening when we sit down to the wonderful meals, lovingly prepared by these women, my heart swells with gratitude and humility. I smile when I think of them planning and preparing meals for us…it is such a loving thing to do for someone. I feel so honored that they would prepare these meals for us – truly. I feel a bit unworthy, as I know I am more than capable of cooking our own dinner, but I am so grateful that at least one night a week I know I don’t have to. I don’t know if these ladies realize just how much we appreciate their kind and thoughtful gesture…my si...

Well, today we met with the doctor to discuss Matt’s radiation treatment for his AVM. We are anxious to get started with this process, which we are confident will lead to peace of mind that his condition is remedied. The doctor, nurses, and office were very nice. The doctor explained a little more about the radiation treatment, and even took us back to show us the Cyberknife room and the machine itself. It was pretty amazing! It’s such a blessing that this incredible technology is available right here in Des Moines!!! He explained that the radiation actually scars the blood vessels within the AVM. The reason it takes time for the radiation therapy to be effective, is that it takes time for the scar tissue to grow. The scar tissue will then render the blood vessels useless, and blood will no longer flow through them…thereby removing the risk of a re-bleed. He explained that Matt will have preliminary brain scans that they will use to calculate the exact spot of the AVM. This w...

Well, we had our appointments today and found out a lot of information. The angiogram showed that Matt does have a small AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation). This is a group of abnormal blood vessels. Part of the AVM ruptured, which then caused his hemorrhage. While we always knew this was a possible cause of the hemorrhage, we were never sure until now. Matt underwent an angiogram while in the hospital originally, however it did not show any malformations due to the increased swelling and blood in his brain…apparently it is not uncommon for these malformations to be hidden initially, which is why the Neurosurgeon wanted to follow up as he did a few months after the hemorrhage. This is what we now know about Matt’s AVM: · It is very small, but located in a difficult location to operate on. · AVMs like Matt’s are unlikely to re-bleed, but it can happen. The likelihood of re-bleed is about 1% per year. Since Matt is so young, the chances of re-bleed increase overtime...

We’re just sitting here watching MY guilty pleasure (Dancing with the Stars) and YES, Matt has agreed to watch it with me! HA! (He still thinks John O’Hurley was robbed!) He is actually ‘reading his very manly car magazine’ right now and only glances up periodically to watch. (At least that is what he’d like me to tell you!) I can’t believe how the days are flying by! We are really settling in to things so nicely, but keeping quite busy and it’s hard to find the time to write updates. Our days are filled with work, therapy, and each other. At night, we have been hanging out watching TV, reading magazines, or talking. We’re always ready to wind down early these days, it seems. Matt’s therapy is going great. Just yesterday his physical therapist commented how she thought Matt’s standing balance and walking have improved in the three weeks she’s worked with him. He is having a hard time seeing the progress, but others can and he needs to hear that positive feedback. Two things th...

Blessings for the day: We had a nice end to the week with some quality family time with Matt’s parents, sister, and grandparents. We fried up the fish that we caught while on vacation last September…we’ve had it in our freezer all this time, waiting for a good time to get together and fry it on up. Yum! We all enjoyed the afternoon around the table with each other. The fish still tasted fresh, and it was a nice reminder of the last really fun time we had with Matt’s family…our Minnesota vacation. It’s still weird to think of how quickly our lives have changed. I look back at those pictures…the ones of Matt with the big walleye that he caught on his 30th b-day and just smile. I am so thankful I had such recent pictures to look at, to keep it fresh in our minds. The week went by pretty smoothly, no major snags with his therapy or anything around the house. His schedule is still very random this week, but starting next Monday (the 16th) he’ll have therapy from 2-5:00 PM Mon-Thurs a...

Happy New Year Everyone!!! We’re just hanging out in the family room watching FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL so I thought I’d write a little update. We are both mourning the losses of both IA and ISU (although I think the Clones played much better than the Hawks…but that’s just me). We are both all decked out in our IA gear today, but alas, it wasn’t enough for the Hawks to pull out a victory. Matt is wearing his new IA t-shirt, sweatpants, and socks! (If he had IA underwear, I’m sure he would have donned them as well!) We had a great New Year’s. We spent most of the day downstairs watching…you guessed it…FOOTBALL! We also rented a few flicks which we watched as well, munching on popcorn and other goodies. It was a quiet day/evening and we were both pretty darn content to be lazily enjoying time together in our home. What once seemed like an ordinary occurrence now seems so much more special to us. On New Year’s day, we had a very, VERY special delivery. I hadn’t written anything about t...