Karwoski Life

There is SO much to update everyone on!!! Bear with me while I sort it out! Medical/Rehab News: I finally heard from the dr in Iowa City who is treating Matt’s AVM/AVF (the jury is still out on the exact diagnosis)…we discussed some of our questions on the treatment plan and here is what he said: · When they performed the initial embolization, they were unable to get these tiny ‘feeder’ vessels. These small vessels have since grown larger and he now feels ‘reasonably’ sure that he can successfully embolize these vessels. By reasonably, he thinks about 50% sure. · There is no real sense of urgency to perform the embolization. The fact that these vessels have increased in size is not a bad thing…it doesn’t mean they are more likely to rupture or anything. · He explained that there was a small aneurysm on one vessel, which he thinks is probably what caused the initial hemorrhage. When they did the embolization this summer, they successfully blocked the vessels with the aneurysm…which woul...

Well, it has been another crazy couple of days…where to start!? Friday – We both got to spend some time with friends! Matt had several guys over to hang out, watch movies, and eat pizza. He was pretty tickled that they were all able to make it! He even called up two of them to invite them over and talked to them on the phone…which was a big deal for Matt! He said they had fun, just hanging out while I had dinner with a couple of girlfriends for some much needed catch up time! It was a good night for us both! Saturday – Matt wasn’t feeling the best, started to come down with a nasty cold. So, we stayed in most of the day. We watched a few movies and generally took it pretty easy. Sunday – Matt was feeling a little bit better and agreed to go shopping with me after church! We headed out to the mall, ate some lunch, and shopped around for a few hours. He didn’t complain too much when I dragged him around the various stores and departments he would normally NEVER be seen in! After...

The following is our 2006 Christmas Letter. I wanted to share it with everyone who reads the blog: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, it’s been a big year of change in this Karwoski household…a year of unimaginable changes. As most of you know, in September of 2005 (just 5 days after the fishing picture below was taken) Matt suffered a brain hemorrhage…sending us down an amazing path that we could never have prepared ourselves for. The details of which have been chronicled on our blog: http://mekarwoski.blogspot.com/ I won’t add much more about that, but to say that we have been faced with insurmountable challenges…and we have survived. As we approach the holiday season, we can’t help but stop and think about all that we have to be thankful for…so this Christmas letter is simply going to be a list of things we give thanks for this year: • The beautiful, beautiful love and support of our families • The amazing strength and resilience of the human spirit • The unbreakable bond ...

Here are some pictures from the weekend: Litttle Matthew LOVES his Uncle Matt! He loves to hear his voice and to play with him! The birthday Girl with her cake...the theme was Tinkerbelle, so she had to wear her special Tinkerbelle dress! :) Meghan and her Aunt Emmy...with the ponies we got her! Chad, Hope, Meghan & Matthew

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! Well, we had ourselves a busy, but wonderful Thanksgiving. We loaded ourselves up and headed up to my Grandma Maris’ for lunch. I had asked Matt the night before if he’d be willing to try going without the wheelchair. (We had gone up to celebrate Matt’s Grandma’s birthday last weekend in Boone, and we also left the wheelchair at home.) It was a bit scary, leaving that piece of security behind…but it was also a little bit freeing for me. I thoroughly enjoyed not having to lug the chair in and out! Anyway, Matt was up for the challenge and we took off with just the walker. We did a lot of walking that day…and it went just fine! Matt was able to walk up and sit down at the table with everyone, and it was no big deal! I was so proud of him for taking a chance and giving it a try. My Grandparents on my Dad’s side were also getting together Thursday, but we did not plan to stop by. It was a little out of our way, and we figured we’d be too pooped to h...

I just wanted to post a quick update regarding Matt’s AVF and our treatment plan. I spoke to the nurse for the dr in Iowa City this week, and he has determined that Matt’s malformation IS an AVF and he recommends another embolization. He believes the best treatment option is to go back in and try to embolize the remaining vessels in the AVF. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to speak with the dr himself to ask him some of our questions…but hopefully we will get them answered soon. In the mean time we have booked his procedure for January 4th. It will be another 3 day process…traveling out the day before the procedure for pre-op stuff, then the procedure day and recovery in the ICU, then another night of recovery on the neuro floor. Matt is less than thrilled…FAR less than thrilled, about having to endure this procedure again. It was truly the worst experience to date, for him. Neither one of us are looking forward to having to go through it again…but we’re trying to look for...

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, h...