Karwoski Life

I realize I haven’t been as good at keeping this blog updated recently. It seems there has been so much going on, and yet it’s not much worth reporting. We’ve had some changes to Matt’s therapy schedule and we’re still trying to work through how to deal with them. We are in the process of looking at our options for continued speech therapy. His therapist told us a few weeks ago that she believes she has reached the end of where she can take Matt in therapy right now. She didn’t really give us much time to really talk about what she was thinking and we sort of felt dumped. It has been a hard pill to swallow for us both. I have spoken to other therapists, and doctors, and we are going to have another therapist meet with us to evaluate Matt’s speech. We will see what she thinks about continuing structured therapy. I will keep everyone posted, as we learn what our next steps will be. It has been a very stressful couple of weeks, trying to work out the details with my insurance and t...

Well, we took another trip to Iowa City today…that’s right, six trips in seven weeks! YAHOO!!! (We’re really breaking in the new car!) Today we met with the Opthalmologist who performed Matt’s strabismus surgery. He checked things over and says we are on the right track. The double vision is still there, but it is definitely different than it was before. Of course, seeing double is still seeing double…and that’s the pits…but we are hopeful that it will keep improving. The dr explained that there is still healing to take place. Matt’s two images are side by side and a little up and down of each other (if that makes sense). Right now the dr wants to focus on bringing the two images closer together, side by side. The up and down fusion will come later. So, he measured and put temporary prism on his left lens. The prism helps bring the images closer together horizontally, and the goal is to have Matt use the prism to try and retrain his brain to fuse the images together. We will remove the...

Well, yesterday was another long day spent in Iowa City. We went for Matt’s 6th cerebral angiogram. It was another early morning (on the road by 5:15), another long day of laying around (6 hours flat on his back AFTER the 2 hour procedure), and another day full of questions. The doctors were backed up all day long with several emergency procedures, so we didn’t get to visit with ours until we were ready to walk out the door at about 4:00. He said that the tiny vessels which remained after the embolization are still there. We were hoping and praying that they had closed themselves off over time, as this is a possibility that he has seen occur quite frequently…but not in Matt’s case, naturally. The doctor admitted that he was too busy yesterday with the barrage of emergency procedures to really spend enough time looking over the films and analyzing them. So, he’s going to spend some time this week reviewing them and they will call to let us know what their thoughts for treatment are...

First of all, I want to wish my parents a Happy 35th Anniversary!!!! I also want to thank you both for providing such a wonderful example of what marriage should be…through the many ups and downs of life, you have remained true to each other, your values, your commitments, and your family…I could not have asked for better parents. I hope you have a wonderful day! Love to you both!!! Well, our weekend was a whirlwind of activity and fun. We had a nice visit with my Grandma on Friday night and Saturday morning. She had spent 2 weeks with my parents in Texas and her return flight got in late Friday night. I offered to pick her up and give her a place to stay the night. We spent a leisurely morning around the table visiting, and then she came to the grocery store with me as I picked up the last minute things for the party. It was so nice to have some time to talk to her! That afternoon Chad (our brother in law) helped finish up some things on the car while Hope (my sister) and I g...