Karwoski Life

I’m writing this little update in hopes that I can generate a few prayers for my dog, Buddy. He is very sick. He woke me up in the middle of the night, panting and very restless. I took him to the emergency vet clinic around 2. We left there at 4, with no real answers to why he was feeling so low. The doctor though he was a little dehydrated and that his protein levels were a little high. He recommended I see our regular vet in the morning. A lot of help that was. Today I took Buddy to see a vet here in Des Moines, for the first time. They ran blood work and another x-ray and found out that he has acute pancreatitis. It is a very serious condition. He must be hospitalized on IV drugs and fluids, along with pain meds…as he is in quite a bit of pain. The doctor said it is like having a fire in your belly. We agreed to try the treatment, to see how he responds. It could be quite expensive, so we’re really going to just have to wait and see how the next few days go. There are...

Well, no news on the AVM front as of yet. We heard from the neurosurgeon last week that they want Matt to undergo another full Angiogram. It is their hope that this test will show for sure whether or not Matt has an AVM. He is going to have this one done on Friday morning, so hopefully we’ll know more next week. In the mean time, we have also filled out the necessary paperwork for Matt’s application to the rehabilitation facility in Omaha. They should be reviewing our information and contacting us shortly to meet in person. I am hoping this works out for us, with insurance and everything. It would be so good for Matt to get the intense therapy, and it would be good for me not to be so torn between helping him with therapy at home and working. Right now however, we’ve got a pretty good system working for us and hopefully it’ll keep going that way. We both have our up days and down days, but we try to take them in stride. This whole process is such a long one, and some days it is ...

It’s about midnight, and I find myself sitting here at this computer, trying so hard to keep it together. I started this blog in part to keep everyone updated on what was happening with Matt…but also in part to get some of my feelings and thoughts out there…as a sort of therapy for myself. It seems that as time as gone by, I have taken a lot of my feelings out of these posts and mostly reported on the status of things…and now I find myself overflowing with emotions. For so long I have been strong. I have been practical. I have been focused on the tasks laid out before us. I have tried so hard to put aside my feelings of loss and grief, of fear and anger. Very early on, I lectured everyone in my family, in Matt’s family, to put our feelings of grief and mourning behind us…to move on and focus on Matt’s recovery. I didn’t want Matt to see our sadness and interpret it negatively. I wanted to protect him from it as much as possible. In doing so, I think I denied everyone the opport...

We've changed our home e-mail again...sorry! It is now: mekarwoski@msn.com

Blessings: Spring is just around the corner! Yahoo! This past weekend we had beautiful weather and I got out and cleaned my flower beds. Raking the leaves out revealed many bulbs beginning to make an appearance and I could feel myself shift into spring mode. In fact, I think the time of year has put an extra spring in both our steps recently. If you had asked me a few weeks ago how Matt was doing, I would have said pretty well. He was hanging in there, working hard, and doing ok. Well, this past week…Matt has changed quite a bit. He has really turned over a new leaf and his attitude has made a major shift. One of the biggest changes has been with Matt’s speech and communication. Mostly, that he is making a much bigger effort TO talk and communicate with people. He has been so self-conscious of how he sounds that he hasn’t really talked much…even to me he didn’t talk that much. In the evening, we’d have more conversations, but during the day he pretty much said as little as po...

Here are a few things I have discovered are MORE likely to happen during a major life crisis, than any other time in your life: · You will experience a flat tire…for the first time in your life · Several huge branches will fall off your neighbor’s tree, damage your fence, and leave a big mess in your yard · Your toilet will get clogged…and no matter how hard you try to fix it yourself, you will ultimately be forced to call a plumber · Your dogs will get fleas · The remote starter on your car will fail…during the coldest months of the year…and the place where it was installed has gone out of business · You will do something ridiculously stupid, and COMPLETELY out of character; like leave your car in Drive while parked in the garage, which will kill the battery overnight, and no matter how many times you try and figure out what happened, you will fail to notice…that you LEFT THE CAR IN DRIVE!! · Your insurance agent will deci...