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Friday Update: 11/17/06

Well, we had another full week, including another fun trip to Iowa City. This trip was another follow up with the Ophthalmologist who performed Matt’s eye surgery. We discussed how things have been going with the prism on his one lens. Matt discovered that he could bring the two images together if he turned his head to the side and sort of looked out of the corner of his eye. The dr thought it was a good sign, but that is obviously not a practical way to look at the world. So, he put another temporary prism on the other lens of his glasses. The idea is to wear both prisms throughout the evening and see if his brain can fuse the two images together. We go back in December to follow up yet again.

In the meantime we are STILL waiting to hear from the other dr on what the next step should be to treat the remaining vessels in Matt’s AVF. I phoned them again today and the nurse was hoping he would get back to me early next week. I think Matt’s case has him a bit puzzled. Figures, huh? Just the way it goes for us, it seems.

This week we also started seeing a new speech therapist. She gave him several ideas of exercises to do throughout the day, and will see him 2 times a week. Matt is going to give it his best shot, and we’ll see what happens. They will review at the end of 30 days again. Matt just loves this kind of therapy, but is willing to do the work to get the results he so desperately wants.

His physical therapist, Amy, met us at the Principal wellness center this week. We checked out the weight room and the machines to see what exercises he could do there. We went around the room and Matt tried out several machines that she recommended. It was intimidating to be in the weight room (for us both), but it went better than I had thought it would. There was enough room for Matt to maneuver around the room and in between machines. He could easily transfer from the chair to each machine! Amy wrote down several options for him to try…so we’re going to try adding the weight circuit to our trips to the gym. It will be good for us both…he can do his reps, then rest in his chair for a few mins while I do the same ones…then we can move on. We’ll see how it goes!

This week we are also both starting to get in spirit of the holidays. We had some snow last weekend and it got us both thinking of the coming weeks of celebration. We are both looking forward to the family get togethers, the decorations, the cookies, etc! This year, we have even more to celebrate…so much more to be thankful for. Last year was a whirlwind of excitement just getting him home, but this year we can really soak in our holiday traditions and enjoy our time together with friends and family. It is going to be a wonderful holiday season!!

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