Keep it Coming

Another good day. Better than yesterday. Matt did 3 breathing trials; 1hr 25min, 1hr 10min, 1hr 15min. He could have gone longer but they didn't want to tire him out. Today he was able to move all the fingers on his Rt hand, spreading them apart. His index finger(pointer) can now move up and down, which is another hurdle. The next is to actually bend the fingers, but he will get there. The physio could feel his forearm muscles working while he was doing it, so that was great. The Doctors were asking him what he did to make his fingers move. At the beginning of August, John had told him about a fellow who was a quad for 7 months, and everyday would tell his brain to tell his finger to move. So that is what Matt said he was doing. They want him to do the same for his chest muscles. They work from about the same level of the spinal cord as the fingers, so they know the nerve conduction is working. It will take a lot more time though. Matt says he is concentrating on moving his feet already, but they told him to focus more on his Lt hand for now. Tomorrow they will insert a smaller trach, hopefully that will help with his swallowing. Also next week, they will do the surgery to put a tube directly into Matt's small intestine, so he can get the tube out of his nose. Hopefully that will help his swallowing as well. Unfortunately he is back to water, no Popsicles until the swallowing assessment is passed. If the sugary stuff gets in his lungs, big trouble. He seemed to be okay with that. Water is much safer. Matt astounds me every day, how he has faced such adversity. Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you".