Karwoski Life

Yesterday was a beautiful day…just beautiful. The weather cooled off some and we were able to open the windows up and enjoy the evening. We grabbed sandwiches from our favorite sub place (Jimmy Johns) on our way home from therapy and ate them out on the patio. The dogs were happy to just run around the yard, sniffing the fresh air, chasing critters, and hunting for crumbs underneath the table. We sat outside together most of the evening, watering the yard and talking. After a while we finally went inside and sat down for a bowl of homemade ice cream (leftover from the visit with my parents last weekend). It was the perfect end to a perfect evening. The weather wasn’t too hot, the neighborhood was quiet, the birds were happily dancing around in the wet grass, there was nothing on our ‘to do’ list needing attention…we just sat back and let the afternoon drift lazily into evening…perfect.

Well, we had our first follow up visit with the eye surgeons yesterday in Iowa City…and the results look good, promising, and encouraging…to quote the doctors. This first visit they are mostly looking for infection and just making sure that the eyes are healing up…which they are. Matt’s right eye is still pretty swollen and red, but it’s coming along nicely and they weren’t concerned with that aspect at all. They talked a bit about how Matt’s vision is now, a week after surgery…and surprisingly, it’s not too bad! Matt still sees double when he’s looking straight ahead, but the images are much closer together now, and when he looks just to the left of center and holds his head just right, he can make the two images come together!!!! Something he hasn’t been able to do at all previously! (On the way to Iowa City he kept turning to look at me as we talked, saying how nice it was to look and just see one of me, and still have peripheral vision etc.) The doctors were very excited to he...

It’s the day after Matt’s second eye surgery and he is taking it easy on the couch. He has to lay with an ice pack on his eyes for these first 24-48 hours to help with the swelling. I won’t subject you to up close pictures like I did after his first surgery…but he actually looks a little better this time around. So far, the results are good. The doctor used an adjustable suture this time on one muscle of his right eye. They actually left the suture in there with the string hanging out the corner of Matt’s eye. After Matt was awake and recovering, they came in to test and measure his eyes and make the final adjustments. They made 3 final tweaks after which the doctor was very pleased with the results. He said that they got everything that they could have hoped for out of the surgery, now the rest it up to Matt’s body and brain. It will be a matter of healing and time. The alignment of Matt’s eyes looks great, both vertically and horizontally…which in theory should alleviate the ...

Well, as usual, another week has come and gone and I haven’t had much chance to sit down and write an update. Just when I think things are going to settle down…they ramp back up again. June is just one of those months for us. Last weekend we celebrated Matt’s baptism. It was a pretty emotional event for everyone. Matt did so great walking down into the tank and walking back up again afterwards. I was so proud of his accomplishment, and so honored to have been watching from ‘backstage’ as he was baptized. Our eyes met as he turned to be immersed and I winked knowingly at him…it was a moment I will never forget. We have come so far together, committed ourselves whole heartedly to each other, and it was so special for me to have been there when he stood up publicly for his faith. Matt has always been somewhat private about his faith and it was a huge step for him to take, regardless of the physical obstacles he had to overcome just to go through the process of being baptized. He is an in...

Well, it’s been a whirlwind of activity around our place this week. We returned Wednesday afternoon from our 4 day trip to Boston. It was so great! We both just enjoyed the time away, and I suppose the conference was good too! HA! Our flight was cancelled Saturday morning, so we ended up getting to town much later than we had originally planned for…so after checking in at the hotel, we went to dinner at the Legal’s Sea Food restaurant attached to our hotel…then hit the hay. Our flights were fairly uneventful, other than the usual hustle and bustle. We thought we were going to be delayed leaving Des Moines, and worried we wouldn’t make our connection in Chicago…but it all worked out ok. (I’m pretty sure we FLEW across the airport! Who knew the wheelchair could go so fast!?) Pushing Matt on the moving walkways was FUN! It was so much easier…though, I wonder if he wasn’t just a tiny bit nervous I might fling him out of his chair when we exited onto the regular floor. Either way, it all wo...

Well, our trip to Iowa City went well yesterday. Matt had an MRI in the morning, then we met with the neuro doctors in the afternoon to discuss. Basically, the MRI looks ‘good’. And by good, they say that it looks better than the angiogram did last winter. Apparently, the small vessels which still have blow flowing through them now appear smaller than they did in the angiogram. Because the flow is less, the likelihood of a rebleed is less…so we all agreed to follow it a little longer, rather than try and treat it just yet. We had the opportunity to explain just how awful our experience was to the doctor, and it felt really good to lay it out there and just spew about how bad it was. He was pretty wide eyed after that, I think we surprised him with our honesty!! We all decided to repeat another MRI in another 6 months, and see how things look then. If there are changes, we’ll have to discuss treatment…if it appears stable, we may just follow it with repeat MRIs for a while. I t...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! We are enjoying a cool evening, watching the race and lounging comfortably in our family room. It has been a busy weekend, but a good one, none the less and we are SO looking forward to having another day around home tomorrow! Matt’s sister Lissa came home for a visit this weekend, and we’ve enjoyed catching up with her. She’s been working for a traveling therapy service and this has been her first trip back home since she left in January. We planned a cookout on Saturday with Matt’s parents, Uncle Rich and Aunt Bev. The weather was pretty rainy off and on, so we ended up cooking barbequed beef brisket inside instead. It was still nice enough to make ice cream though! We had a really good time, just being together. For me, it felt as close to a normal family get together as we have had in a long time. It was good to have Lissa home, and to just be together. I think we are slowly moving into another phase of this journey together…moving slowly back to normal...