Well, it’s a cold, drizzly day here in Iowa and it pretty much mirrors how I’m feeling today. I think I’m coming down with a cold and stayed home this morning. I just hope that it’s nothing that keeps me down for too long…since I just had strep throat in March. Fun, fun.
I talked to Matt and Ruth both last night about the computer situation and it sounds like they’re going to be able to replace his hard drive fairly inexpensively! They should have it back to Matt in a few days. In the meantime, he’s got the loaner and is receiving messages on the yahoo account just fine. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to set the MSN account back up on the computer or not…we’ll have to see. Either way, I’m glad there is an easy and fairly cheap solution…though I am kicking myself for not saving the pictures and documents we had stored on there onto a separate drive. I should KNOW better. Grumble, grumble.
Everything else is going pretty well for Matt. He mentioned the other day that he thinks perhaps his right ring finger feels less tight. I didn’t really know his hand felt tight, but he’s noticed a small difference there on the one finger. He said the weather has been warming up so of course, he’s been hot. There isn’t any air conditioning there, so it’s good that he’ll be coming home before it gets too hot!
They’ve given Matt some other exercises to do also to help work on balance and his speech. He is to stand with his right hand above his head and lift his left leg…this is something he’s done before with therapists here. He’s also to sit on the bed and lean way over the edge and shout vowel sounds at the floor. I can just picture him…’A.E.I.O.U’…kind of makes me giggle. They’re also working on trying to strengthen his right arm by pushing and pulling with resistance. Last night when I spoke to Ruth she told me some other ways they want to try and help his vision. Namely by having him go without the patch as much as possible. She said they’ve also noticed that his tremor subsides some when he’s focusing on something else, so they are going to try having him multitask while exercising. For example, when he’s riding the bike he’s also going to work on grasping and releasing the handle bars. It’s kind of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time…and they’re hoping this kind of activity will help the coordination and also the tremors. So, we’ll see. She said that all the doctors there are very impressed with Matt’s strength and all the positive things he has going for him. I think that’s true…in our experience just seeing the struggles that other patients have to go through, we are very lucky that Matt has as much going for him as he does. I think we always have to remind ourselves of how far he’s come and how much worse it could have been. Whatever changes Matt comes home with, we will celebrate them all and build upon them to make our life together the best it can be. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to. I don’t want the challenge of being apart to cloud how wonderful it will be when he comes home.
Matt mentioned that he has gotten a handful of cards too! So we know that he is getting mail, though I’m not sure how long it took to get them there. I know how much he appreciates all the support through these cards and e-mail. It really helps bridge the distance!!
Things have been pretty good here on the home front.
Today was a milestone day in that I was FINALLY able to pull the car up into the garage! I have been looking forward to this for several weeks!! It was sort of anticlimactic, since I wasn’t feeling very well.
I didn’t jump up and down and shout to the neighbors like I thought I might…but I did take a few pictures to document for Matt. I’m sure I’ll be much more tickled when I back it out tomorrow and pull in after work tomorrow night.
This past weekend was a pretty full one for me. Friday night I went out to dinner with several friends from church. We went to a neat pizza place I had never been before…which was very yummy! I’m sure I’ll have to take Matt there when he gets home. I told them Matt has never met a pizza he didn’t like! HA! We had a nice evening visiting…it was nice of them to take me out!
Saturday I had Meghan down to spend the night and we had a blast together. We used to have her over every so often before Matt’s hemorrhage…but afterwards I knew it’d be too hard for me to look after her and take care of Matt at the same time. (Although in this house it will be a piece of cake since Matt won’t need me at all!) So, I told her once we moved I’d have her down. Sunday was Hope’s birthday and it seemed like the perfect time to have her down so they could just get a sitter for Matthew (cuz there’s no way I could handle BOTH kids overnight) and go out to dinner. Meghan and I went to the pet store, to the fabric store, to Wal-Mart and the car wash. Then I took her to see Horton Hears a Who at the movie theater. It was a great family flick and we laughed a lot as we shared our Skittles.
Later we made a birthday cake for Hope and she got to swim in the big bathtub, pretending she was the Little Mermaid, of course. Sunday we got up and went to church, where she was perfectly well-behaved, then home to cook a birthday lunch for Hope and Chad. 
It was a fun time for me, having them all here…and especially having the one on one time with Meghan…who will always be my little Peanut. I can’t wait for us to have her down when Matt is back…I know he misses that time with her as well and she definitely misses him. She pretended she was on the phone talking to him, she drew him pictures, she mentioned HIS desk in the office…she loves her Uncle Matt too, and that’s for sure!!!
I talked to Matt and Ruth both last night about the computer situation and it sounds like they’re going to be able to replace his hard drive fairly inexpensively! They should have it back to Matt in a few days. In the meantime, he’s got the loaner and is receiving messages on the yahoo account just fine. I’m not sure if he’ll be able to set the MSN account back up on the computer or not…we’ll have to see. Either way, I’m glad there is an easy and fairly cheap solution…though I am kicking myself for not saving the pictures and documents we had stored on there onto a separate drive. I should KNOW better. Grumble, grumble.
Everything else is going pretty well for Matt. He mentioned the other day that he thinks perhaps his right ring finger feels less tight. I didn’t really know his hand felt tight, but he’s noticed a small difference there on the one finger. He said the weather has been warming up so of course, he’s been hot. There isn’t any air conditioning there, so it’s good that he’ll be coming home before it gets too hot!
They’ve given Matt some other exercises to do also to help work on balance and his speech. He is to stand with his right hand above his head and lift his left leg…this is something he’s done before with therapists here. He’s also to sit on the bed and lean way over the edge and shout vowel sounds at the floor. I can just picture him…’A.E.I.O.U’…kind of makes me giggle. They’re also working on trying to strengthen his right arm by pushing and pulling with resistance. Last night when I spoke to Ruth she told me some other ways they want to try and help his vision. Namely by having him go without the patch as much as possible. She said they’ve also noticed that his tremor subsides some when he’s focusing on something else, so they are going to try having him multitask while exercising. For example, when he’s riding the bike he’s also going to work on grasping and releasing the handle bars. It’s kind of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time…and they’re hoping this kind of activity will help the coordination and also the tremors. So, we’ll see. She said that all the doctors there are very impressed with Matt’s strength and all the positive things he has going for him. I think that’s true…in our experience just seeing the struggles that other patients have to go through, we are very lucky that Matt has as much going for him as he does. I think we always have to remind ourselves of how far he’s come and how much worse it could have been. Whatever changes Matt comes home with, we will celebrate them all and build upon them to make our life together the best it can be. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to. I don’t want the challenge of being apart to cloud how wonderful it will be when he comes home.
Matt mentioned that he has gotten a handful of cards too! So we know that he is getting mail, though I’m not sure how long it took to get them there. I know how much he appreciates all the support through these cards and e-mail. It really helps bridge the distance!!
Things have been pretty good here on the home front.
Today was a milestone day in that I was FINALLY able to pull the car up into the garage! I have been looking forward to this for several weeks!! It was sort of anticlimactic, since I wasn’t feeling very well.
I didn’t jump up and down and shout to the neighbors like I thought I might…but I did take a few pictures to document for Matt. I’m sure I’ll be much more tickled when I back it out tomorrow and pull in after work tomorrow night. This past weekend was a pretty full one for me. Friday night I went out to dinner with several friends from church. We went to a neat pizza place I had never been before…which was very yummy! I’m sure I’ll have to take Matt there when he gets home. I told them Matt has never met a pizza he didn’t like! HA! We had a nice evening visiting…it was nice of them to take me out!
Saturday I had Meghan down to spend the night and we had a blast together. We used to have her over every so often before Matt’s hemorrhage…but afterwards I knew it’d be too hard for me to look after her and take care of Matt at the same time. (Although in this house it will be a piece of cake since Matt won’t need me at all!) So, I told her once we moved I’d have her down. Sunday was Hope’s birthday and it seemed like the perfect time to have her down so they could just get a sitter for Matthew (cuz there’s no way I could handle BOTH kids overnight) and go out to dinner. Meghan and I went to the pet store, to the fabric store, to Wal-Mart and the car wash. Then I took her to see Horton Hears a Who at the movie theater. It was a great family flick and we laughed a lot as we shared our Skittles.
Later we made a birthday cake for Hope and she got to swim in the big bathtub, pretending she was the Little Mermaid, of course. Sunday we got up and went to church, where she was perfectly well-behaved, then home to cook a birthday lunch for Hope and Chad. 
It was a fun time for me, having them all here…and especially having the one on one time with Meghan…who will always be my little Peanut. I can’t wait for us to have her down when Matt is back…I know he misses that time with her as well and she definitely misses him. She pretended she was on the phone talking to him, she drew him pictures, she mentioned HIS desk in the office…she loves her Uncle Matt too, and that’s for sure!!!
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