Matt Update

I've been meaning to do an update on Matt, my little brother.

We found out last week that he does NOT have to have surgery on his neck. That is a HUGE answered prayer. Though he does have the "internal decapitation" only one of his occipital bones is displaced, which though scary, is a good thing. The Neurosurgeon feels like since only one of the bones is damaged, it should heal ok and his little head should not fall off his shoulders. He has told Matt to start "weaning" himself off the cervical collar over the course of the next six weeks. He will see the Neuro Dr. again at that time and they'll go from there.

Matt has had his collar off several times since Thursday and has done ok. He can't leave it off for long periods of time and when he moves his head or something, he gets dizzy, so they put it back on. His little neck muscles haven't been used in five weeks, so you can imagine how flimsy and weak they are at this point. Over time, that should go away.

He goes to the Shoulder Dr. next week sometime. The Shoulder Dr said he will definitely need surgery on his shoulder, but they want to get his neck stable before they do that. He has four breaks in his shoulder and about ten fractures. They did tell him that his shoulder will never be the same again and he'll probably have to learn to live with some pain. They aren't sure if his rotator cuff is messed up or not because they are unable to do an MRI on him. They'll wait and find that out once he has the surgery I guess.

His spirits have seemed really good this week, for the most part. Sure he has his bad days, but overall, I think he's had more good days than bad days.

I talked to his wife forever the other day and she really filled me in on everything. I'm telling you, I have so much respect for her. She takes such great care of him. She's had a hard life and had to grow up quickly due to that, but I truly believe that she went through everything because God was preparing her to take care of Matt; and she has done a fabulous job. She told me on Saturday that she got Matt a journal so that he could write down stuff at the end of the day. Since his memory is still messed up, this way he can put stuff in his journal and he can remember what he did the day/night before. This also helps him with his writing, spelling and just his overall brain function. I thought that was a FABULOUS idea! He's been using it and I think it's helped some.

Thank you so much for all the prayers for him. We are so thankful for all the answered prayers we've seen over the last five weeks. There is no way that he'd be where he is today without people standing in the gap and praying earnestly for him. He's come so far, yet he's still got such a ways to go. Please continue to pray for him and for his wife, Tammy. God isn't finished with them yet, by golly!

Praise the Lord!