Saturday, July 19, 2008

Matt has been moved from the Intensive Care Unit to the Rehabilitation Unit of the hospital. His catheter has been removed and he is off all sedatives. Currently, he has post-traumatic amnesia and is at Stage 4 of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury).
Stage 4 includes the following symptoms:
-Confusion and agitation
-Hypersensitivity to all stimuli
-Possible delusions and hallucinations
-peforms motor activites, but behavior isn't necessarily purposeful

The physical and speech therapists were in to visit him today. His shoulder is hurting him, but it appears to only be bruised and painful; nothing is broken. During his speech therapy, Matt was able to remember the bike he was riding when he crashed, he recalled his mom, dad, brother and sister, and he knew the current year (2008). However, he thinks the month is March, he tried drinking out of the urinal, and he thinks Jenn is his girlfriend. That should be a good laugh for later! Matt also succesfully ate a popscicle and even fed himself a couple of bites with his spoon.

The doctors stated that he is making really good progress, but he will more than likely be in rehab for 6 weeks or so.

July 17, 2008 Update

There are 10 stages to brain recovery, and at this point in time Matt is at Stage 3. He is awake, and off the ventilator, but can't completely comprehend what is going on around him. He will mumble sentences, some of which makes sense and some which do not. And periodically he will respond to a question you ask him. He is very aggitated and figgity; he desperately wants to pull out his IV's and catheter. However, he senses when mom is around and seems to calm when she is in his presense. And when mom asks for kisses, he willingly obliges. He kissed mom, Naomi and Jenn today. Rick asked for a kiss, but got denied. Sorry Rick, apparently he's only willing to share his affections with the ladies! He also keeps telling mom that he loves her. When Ian walked into the room, Matt said, "What's up dude?", which gave everyone a good chuckle.

He will be at this stage for a few more days. At this stage we can only see him for very short periods of time, and must remain calm and quiet. This will help prevent too much brain stimulation, which is critical for healing and recovery.

We do not have the offical results of the MRI at this time.

It's a miracle!

During the wee hours of the morning, the doctors took Matt off of his anesthesia to see how he would react. He seemed to handle that well, so well in fact, that he woke up. He sat up in his bed and was able to recognize mom, dad and Naomi. He even spoke a little bit. Ya!!!

As Matt awoke from his drug-induced coma, some of his first words were "Kenny Chesney" and "chair", which happens to be one of his favorite songs. So, mom started to sing "Old Blue Chair" by Kenney Chesney. Amusingly though, mom didn't remember all of the words, so she started to make them up as she went along. ;-)

Matt is still in quite a bit of pain, so we have to give him his rest. But, this is amazing progress! As Sami would say, he is a soldier! He is proving all the doctors wrong, regarding how long his recovery process would be. Go Matt!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Today was a very promising day....

The doctors were able to remove the ICP monitor from Matt's head. They also removed a couple of his other IV's. Througout the morning, Matt opened his eyes at one point and seemed aware of his surroundings. He responded to mom, Tracy, sister, Naomi, and friend, Sami by squeezing all of their hands. He even cuddled his stuffed dog, Spud!
However, he was heavily sedated again, so that he could finally get his MRI. We waited all day for the results, however, they had to be sent to a speciaist in Denver, so we were told to wait one more day.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Matt's vitals were stabilized. He coughed a little bit more, but was still heavily sedated.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Matt started to breathe on his own a little bit, though was still kept on the ventilator. He also coughed a few times. At this point, we were waiting for the brain swelling to reduce enough for the doctors to take out the ICP monitor. Once the monitor was removed, they would be able to do an MRI.

(Aunt Brenda came in from Rocky Ford.)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sunday

The doctors were still monitoring Matt's ICP, as well as his blood pressure, breathing, and other important vitals. Matt was stabilized, which was a blessing; At least there wasn't any bad news.

Matt had many visitors over the weekend, while in ICU: Guy, Guy's father, Greg, Thomas, his mother, Jolene, Zach, Sami, Taylor, Tyler and Jesus. Thank you to each one of you for your support!!

And thanks Jolene for all of the food, including those amazing Kraut Burgers!

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

The doctors did a 3rd Cat Scan, and found that the cranial bleeding was reduced. However, there was still too much swelling of the brain. Therefore, a nuerosurgeon came in to place a "bolt", or ICP monitor in Matt's head. This allowed them to monitor the swelling, so they could react quickly, if necessary.

We were told that Matt was not "out of the woods", and would not be for several days. The brain is a complicated thing and it is hard to know how one will react. The doctor told us to stay strong, but to keep in mind that this situation could "go either way". They also told us that this could be a very long jouney and Matt may be in ICU for several weeks. It wasn't the news we wanted to hear, but we remained positive.

(Ian, the brother-in-law, arrived later that night. He had just left for Texas on Friday, however, arranged to fly back home asap.)

What happened...

Around 3:30pm-ish on July 11th, Matt was involved in a dirt bike accident. His crash was so severe that his helmet cracked. He was rushed to Banner Health in Greeley, and placed in Intensive Care.Matt was in very critical condition. There were 2 cat scans conducted and the follwing was found: he had 3 brain contusions, bleeding in his cranium, as well as a broken nose and cheek bone. There was also quite a bit of swelling of his brain.He was placed in an drug-induced coma, and put on a ventilator.
Posted by Rick & Jennifer at 12:31 PM