Karwoski Life

Blessings for the day: The internal medicine doctor stopped by this morning and said that Matt’s white count was NORMAL!! They haven’t been normal since he got here, so that is absolutely wonderful news. All his vitals are good and normal, so we are quite thankful for that!! It really just confirms that medically Matt is in top shape and will be ready to move on from the hospital soon! Yahoo! Matt had a good morning. He sat up in the chair for 2 hours and I washed his hair for him. He is doing better every day at holding his head up and building the strength up in his neck and back. Dr. Struck said that if he continues to perk up and show signs that he is able to hold himself up for longer periods of time, we may be able to take him out for a ride in a chair sometime this weekend. Matt thought that sounded like a great idea! I told him he’d have to be good and work hard to show he’s strong enough! So, we’ll see how the weekend goes with that. We’ve been watching/listening to ...

Blessings for the day: The EEG results came back and nothing to worry about there!! The wires are still connected right now, but they’ll be coming to get rid of them soon and then he’ll be able to scratch his head and face to his heart’s desire! (Something he’s wanted to do this entire time.) Physical therapy went so well today…he actually stood all the way up and had his legs straight and his back straight!!! The PT folks were so excited, they asked him to try it again for the tech and he did!!! I was out running errands and missed it. I was bummed that I didn’t see it for myself, but I was also thrilled that he did it without my presence. (I worry that he won’t respond as well to the therapists as he does to me.) It was reassuring to me that he did what they asked even without me having to interject comments. Sometimes I have to remind myself to stop and really take this all in. I often feel so rushed, just running from place to place and never feeling truly rested. Today, ...

Blessing for the day: Matt FINALLY got rid of that pesky tube in his nose!! (pause for joyous celebration!) Yahoo!!! The procedure was delayed a bit, but that actually turned into a blessing as well. We are starting to find out that when a hospital employee says ‘soon’ or ‘a little while’…they actually mean ‘we have no idea when it will be, but hope it will be sometime today’. We thought the procedure to place the PEG tube was going to be at 9:00 AM…by about 10:00 AM they had pushed it back to 2:00 PM. But, the doctor had also ordered a 24 EEG to monitor his brain and just check that everything looks ok in there. They told us they’d do that ‘soon’ around 10:00 AM. By 1:00 PM they had not come to get him yet for the EEG…and we were worried they wouldn’t have enough time to get that hooked up and get him to Radiology in time for the PEG. It was a madhouse getting him from one place to another, but they managed to get both done in one afternoon. Mom and I were scarfing down burger...

Holy cow, can it really be September 28th!?!?! Matt’s wonderful Aunt Linda sent me a note recently and told me that I should keep a little diary of the blessings that happen during this time. It’s true that you can tend to focus in on the negative things and overlook the wonderful little positive things when dealing with a stressful situation like this. So, I have decided to start each of my updates with something positive. Earlier today I truly felt like the only positive thing I could say was that I like my new sweater. It has just been one of those days. However, I can now say that there were a few positive things that have happened today: · After the attempt to insert the feeding tube in his stomach failed (further details to follow) the GI doctor was able to reinsert the feeding tube back in his nose and it was placed correctly the first time so we didn’t have to do 4 more x-rays and have him lay on his side all day. · The physical therapists said he did even...

The past few days have been pretty stressful…and I haven’t been much in the mood to write. We’ve been talking a lot about what our next steps will be. Medically he will not need to be hospitalized much longer. All his vitals have been good and stable so he will likely need to be discharged sometime in the next 3-5 days. This is a good thing…but he’s probably not going to be ready for the intensive therapies required at Younker Rehab. So, we have to look at an intermediate level rehab facility/program where he can continue increasing his therapy and work on his strength and endurance…at a somewhat slower pace that the more aggressive places like Younker. I’ve been trying to get all the information on the options available to us and mull it over. It’s a big, big decision. I just hope that the right path is made clear to me soon. The doctors have told me that they will need to remove his feeding tube from his nose and put one in directly into his stomach. This will be a more lon...

It was hard to leave last night; Matt looked pretty sad when we called the nurses in to restrain him. I think he was feeling pretty dejected…and that was really hard to watch. But, I knew that I had to do it and so we all said goodnight and left together. I think it’ll be good for him to get used to having us around during the day, then sleeping at night. It’ll be good to get him in some sort of a routine. I called my dad when I got home and he was very reassuring. He is the calm one in our family, and I needed his soothing ways to help comfort me. Thanks Dad for that!! I felt much better after talking to him and was able to go to sleep knowing that Matt was going to be ok. When I got here this morning Matt had two nurses in here and guess what they were doing…reinserting another feeding tube! Apparently our Matt had had enough of that tube and yanked it out in the night…twice! They had his arms restrained and also had big mitts on his hands, which look like soft boxing glove...

Today has been a pretty quiet day for the most part. Matt’s doing pretty much the same. The physical therapists came by today and had him propped up on the edge of the bed again. He was able to stay sitting fairly well with some help from the therapists. He’d respond when they told him he was leaning and he’d work to correct it. That exercise tired him out pretty quickly though. I think it’s just going to take some time to build up even the smallest amount of endurance and strength. The occupational therapist came next and worked on moving his hands, arms, and fingers. He did pretty well with these exercises too and the therapist said he felt stronger on the right hand. I was tickled to hear that, as the right side was the one that was affected early on. After all that hard work, he was very tuckered and took a good long nap. This afternoon the nurse noticed that the night nurse had charted his pupils as being equal. This whole time he’s been in the hospital they have not been equal. T...