Karwoski Life

We were able to get in to see Dr. Struck today and discuss the Botox idea. She wanted to go through the pros and cons with us before moving forward. Her biggest concern was that the Botox could create muscle weakness in the injected areas of Matt’s arm/hand. She worried that his grip would be weakened and didn’t know how much of an impact this would have on his daily life. We explained that right now Matt hardly uses the right hand at all except to steady himself while standing, or transferring…and we both agreed the risks were minimal and wanted to go for it. She also broke down the different muscle groups that are impacted, in ways we never really looked at before. The tremor makes Matt’s fingers clench up like a fist and it also makes his wrist move back and forth. Matt agreed that the finger clenching was the most bothersome to him and we decided to try and treat that first. She was a little leery of injecting both areas at once, this first time, even though she really wanted ...

Phew…another busy week and weekend are winding down and we’ve finally got some time to sit back and enjoy the beautiful weather we’ve been having. 75 and sunny…it really doesn’t get much better than that! Friday we had Tim and Mary over for dinner. We hadn’t seen them since leaving China, so it was really nice to catch up with them and talk about our experiences together. They are settling back into a routine back home and are doing well. It was really good to see them, and I’m sure we’ll do so from time to time…they’ve definitely touched our lives! Saturday afternoon we headed down to our church picnic for a time to visit with the folks there and enjoy a cookout. We sat in the shade with the breeze blowing through chatting with various friends. They are always so happy to see us, and Matt always feels right at home amongst them…it’s a good feeling. We left there and went over to Blake and Amy’s for their annual ice cream party where we hung out on their patio sampling their lates...

It’s a beautiful day today and we’re just getting settled down to watch the race. We got up early this morning to go have breakfast with my college roommate Amy, her husband, and their 2 kids. I can’t remember for sure when the last time was we saw Amy and Andy, but we still lived in Boone…so obviously it was a LONG time ago. It was so nice just to see her smiling face and catch up a bit. They recently moved to Rochester, MN so I think I may have to plan a trip up to do some ‘holiday’ shopping later this fall. While we both grumbled to get up so early, it is nice to have accomplished all of my tasks earlier in the day and now we can just relax! We stopped at Menard’s after breakfast and picked up, what else, but more mulch. I think I should have stock in Menard’s cypress mulch…I must have 50 bags of it in the yard already! We inherited a few more soaker hoses from Blake and Amy and I wanted to put them in the flower beds and add more mulch to cover the bare spots. So, after we ...

A funny thing happened on our way to buy a new bed… So, about a year ago Matt and I decided to get a new mattress. We’d had our old one for a number of years and while we had liked having a firm mattress, after months of therapy and physical changes to Matt’s body, he started having back issues again. We went out and bought a softer pillow top mattress, but after a few nights we both agreed it was way too soft, as we were both having back issues. So (feeling a little like Goldilocks) we went back and got a firmer plush model. We both tried to convince ourselves that it would be fine…that we’d adjust to the softer mattress, but unfortunately we both seem to wake up stiff and sore now. Of course, the entire time Matt was in China he practically slept on a board, and his back felt great…NO issues. As soon as he got home, however, his back troubles flared back up again. I started researching Sleep Number beds, thinking that the ability to adjust the firmness of each side would benefici...

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much lately…I think I’ve kind of been in a funk. A big part of the funk is the heavy heart I have right now for my dear friend Julie. I had written about her a few months ago…her and her miracle pregnancy. Well, the past few weeks have been incredibly tough for her and her husband Scott. Long story short…Julie’s baby has some major difficulties to overcome…heart and brain problems. There are a lot of unknowns at this point…but the scariness of the unknown future is at times so terribly difficult to bear. Julie has spent the past several weeks in the hospital in Sioux Falls, and her son Graham was delivered 3 weeks early, on Saturday. It is just so hard being this far away and not being able to comfort her like I want to. I don’t want to call at a bad time. I don’t want to bug her in the midst of all this…but my heart just aches for her. I hate that she has to go through this…and I just wish I were able to do something. I look back at this picture of us ...

It’s Sunday evening and I THINK things are finally winding down for us. The weather has been pretty crazy today, with tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the afternoon. Hopefully the worst is past us and we can now relax for the evening. It has also been a very hectic week, and I just didn’t have much time to sit down and write an update it seemed. Work has been very busy for me, with several projects ramping up at the same time, and we had something going on nearly every night last week. Matt’s therapy schedule has geared up too, and of course, we had the trip to Iowa City. I’m HOPING this week is a little less crazy…but of course, that remains to be seen. Matt’s appointments in Iowa City went well. He had his follow up MRI in the morning and we met with one of the neuro doctors to discuss the findings. Things looked the same, so Matt’s AVM/AVF is still stable and no further intervention is needed at this time. We’ll follow up again in 6 months or so. Then it ...

Well, it’s been a busy couple of days in this Karwoski household…but a good kind of busy. Yesterday Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. It’s sooo hard to believe that 10 whole years have come and gone since we officially started our life together. It’s been quite a ride, I’ll say that! We had always dreamt of going to Hawaii or someplace warm to celebrate this first big milestone in our marriage, but with the new house expenses and just really getting settled after the China trip…now just didn’t feel like the right time to try and squeeze in a trip. We’ve been tossing around ideas for a trip this fall, maybe up to Minnesota…so we’ll see. Knowing that we weren’t really planning anything special, I didn’t want the day to go by without really acknowledging it. We both agreed that we just wanted to have a really good ‘Matt and Emily’ day. So I took the day off and that’s what we did. We slept in a little, had a lazy morning, went to see a matinee in the afternoon, a...