Update - 10/5/09

Matthew has been home a while and is doing very well!!! His stitches will be removed on Tuesday and so far the incision is healing well. His bout with pneumonia at the hospital was short lived. With previous hospital stays Matthew often "takes a few steps backwards" in his progress with therapy, but this time Matthew continues to make great strides and improvement. Soon he will be able to do water therapy again - which is always a big plus! Amazingly Matthew will now ask to get up and walk - whereas he used to have to be coerced to stand and take steps.

Usually Matthew needs assistance to move from his NuStep machine to his wheelchair, but a few days ago he did it ALL by himself and even got himself situated well in his chair (which is not easy to do for such a big guy as he is). His mother stepped away for a moment and told him she would help him when she got back. When she returned maybe 30 seconds later Matthew had made the transition from one to the other and sat there looking at her so non-chalant.

For the first time in 3 years and 8 months, Matthew has called out to his mother by name! You anxiously await for your child to say "momma" or "dada" when they are little, but can you imagine waiting over 3 years for your son whose voice has been silenced and thought processes interrupted because of his brain injury to call out "Mom"? It's incredible! Brenda said when prompted Matthew has been able for quite some time to indicate who she is and who other members of the family are, but this is the first time he has tried to get her attention by saying, "Mom, I need..."

Matthew is making major improvements with his drawing skill. The size and proportions are much closer to accurate dimensions and the quality and detail of his pictures are improving. The artist in him continues to blossom!

Hope you are having a wonderful fall!

Rachel Asburry
Matthew's godmother

Update - 9/17/09

Well, the bad news is that Matthew has to have surgery on Monday, Sept. 21st. The doctors will be cutting out the portion of his stomach where the feeding tube used to be and then will staple the opening in his stomach closed. He will be hospitalized for several days and be on a very bland diet. There is concern that the shunt from Matthew's brain to his stomach could be disturbed, but we pray all will go well.

The good news is that the blood work came back with excellent results. Matthew is healthier than they ever anticipated for a brain injury victim.

Tomorrow (Sat., Sept. 19) is the walk-a-thon in Sedalia for the Brain Injury Association. If you have registered for this event - hope you have a WONDERFUL time and please find Matthew and greet him. He loves to smile and laugh with people!

God be with you!

Rachel Asburry
Matthew's Godmother

Update - 9/2/09

Good news - Matthew is home and did not have to spend the night in the hospital. The rest of the news is uncertain. Tests will be run on Matthew's blood to see if there is anything missing in his system that impedes his healing process. It took 10 months for the hole in Matthew's stomach to heal the first time around and it should have only taken hours. So, now the doctor is working to find out what caused the hole to reopen. At this time, they are not concerned about an infection.

Please continue to keep Matthew and his family in your prayers, especially his mother is burning the candle at both ends to care for Matthew 24/7.

Rachel Asburry
Matthew's Godmother

Update - 9/1/09

Prayers requested!

Matthew has been rushed to the hospital in Columbia. His wound that healed from his feeding tube has re-opened and there are indications of an infection inside.

Please keep Matthew and the family in your prayers.

Rachel

Update - 7/13/09

Yes, believe it or not, you are reading a current update to Matthew's blog! Thanks for your patience and your continued interest in Matthew's progress. We've decided to provide updates every three months, so please check back by mid-October for the next update.

We praise God for all that has happened for Matthew in the last four months. His perseverance and improvement continue to amaze us. Matthew attended camp again this year (in May) and REALLY enjoyed it again! Counselors and leaders at the camp who were there last year commented on the tremendous improvement they saw in Matthew from last year. Once again Matthew had the girls wrapped around his little finger and had everyone laughing. This year Matthew was assigned a helper who is also a victim of brain injury as well as a med tech, but this helper is a little farther down the road in his recovery than Matthew is. He knew what Matthew is going through and they had some terrific conversations that meant a lot to Matthew.

So, here's a detailing of Matthew's most recent improvements/accomplishments:

- When getting ready to use the parallel bars a few days ago, Andrew and Brenda left for a moment and when they came back they found Matthew standing up ALL BY HIMSELF at the bars and ready to go. He had never done that before! Matthew can walk back and forth between the parallel bars several times by himself, but still needs assistance in turning around.

- Matthew walked around the pool two times recently by himself just holding onto the side. The therapist used to have to stand in front of him and help him with the spacing of the step with his right leg, but recently Matthew hasn't needed much assistance. He is able to control his limbs to a great extent. In the pool Matthew can balance himself standing without holding onto anything or anyone for six minutes and outside of the pool he can do it for two minutes without assistance.

- Spelling! Matthew can spell short words out loud! It's great!!! He's also reading more - reads the signs along the side of the road.

- Labeling properly!! Instead of saying "him" and "her" for every male and female, Matthew is beginning to refer to the people by their names in regular conversation without prompting. He is identifying, initiating, and reasoning on his own without prompting. This shows continued healing in the frontal lobe of his brain.

- Matthew is more self-aware. He has recently asked "What happened to me?" In an update some time ago I believe we mentioned him talking with his mom about the accident, but this time it seems he is remembering more and is more aware of the reality around him.

- Naming! Andrew is Matthew's assistant/therapist-in-training this summer and he has been working with Matthew (besides the physical therapy) with speech therapy. Matthew is now able to name something blue (or other colors), or name a fruit or vegetable consistently. Previously it was a struggle and he would say anything just to answer. Now he's able to do it on his own and do it correctly. He can't come up with more than 4 or 5 things per question, but he can do it!!

- Now what?! Matthew's morning routine (AND his mom's morning routine) is to exercise with the NuStep, walk with the gait trainer, and do the parallel bars EVERY day (plus other activities). In the past, Matthew would be exhausted later in the day after all that activity and was content to sit and do nothing. Now Matthew asks, "So what else can I do?" and will ask this repeatedly when he finishes the activity put before him.

Many months ago we mentioned a walk-a-thon scheduled for this September to support brain injury victims. Well, the event is planned and everything is in place! "Journey for Hope" is the event and the Brain Injury Awareness Walk and 5K Run will be Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. in Sedalia, Missouri at the Mathewson Center in the Missouri State Fairgrounds. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. The fee to attend and participate is only $20 and with that each registrant will receive a t-shirt, lunch and an expo ticket. All proceeds from "Journey for Hope" will stay in Missouri to fund support groups, education and advocacy outreach provided by the Brain Injury Association of Missouri, as well as wheelchair ramps and home modifications provided by the Centers for Independent Living. If you are unable to attend in person, your contribution is appreciated. All information for contributions and/or registration (for individuals or for teams!) can be found at www.journeyforhope.com. Please join us for an exciting and uplifting day to help Missourians affected by brain injuries achieve greater strides of their own. (Thanks to the "Journey for Hope" web site and brochure for the information and verbage above.)

On a personal note, my husband and I (and our two teens) have been able to see Matthew's progress first hand this spring and summer which has been a great blessing. In March Matthew came with his mother and brothers to see our daughter and son perform/direct the lights and sound in their school's Shakespeare play. This was a real treat! And then in May the family came back for our daughter's high school graduation party. It was a long trip for Matthew and he gets stiff sitting for so long in his chair, but he did get up and walk and stand some while at the party. He also exerted a little effort to arm wrestle with his brother, Andrew and his "Uncle" Randy. His left arm is VERY strong!! And this past weekend we saw Matthew again. Our son spent the week with Matthew's family and we met halfway to get him back. Matthew's ability to speak has grown exponentially in just those two months! He is engaged in the conversations and responds appropriately (most of the time) and makes all of us laugh with his jokes!!! One thing that hasn't changed is Matthew's interest in cars. He wanted us to turn around and spot all the sports cars that he really liked that were driving by.

God be with you this day and hope you are having a safe summer!

Rachel Asburry
Matthew's Godmother

Update - 3/28/09

More good news about walking!!!! Matthew has been using his gait trainer and it has made a dramatic different in his ability to walk. The ankle straps help keep his feet evenly spaced apart, helping to retrain his brain to walk properly. This assists Matthew in NOT crossing his left foot over his right. And the phenomenal result is that this past Wednesday he walked over 620 feet with no one touching him or assisting in any way, other than to walk along side him. This is absolutely beautiful!!!!! Earlier this month I saw Matthew walk 30 or more feet and it was a challenge, struggle and took a great deal of effort to put each foot straight ahead for the step. Walking over 620 feet is incredible!!

There’s a wonderful story to tell you about Matthew’s progress with using the gait trainer. A couple weeks ago, Matthew saw a red sports car parked down the street from the Kurz’ house. He was determined to go down and touch that car. So, off he walked with a couple family members in attendance. The red sports car belonged to a visitor in a neighbor’s house. This visitor was asked if Matthew could touch the car when he got there. The visitor was so kind and offered instead for Matthew and his mom to go for a ride in the car. If you know anything about Matthew’s interest in cars, you’ll be able to guess that this was quite a thrill for him!!!!

One more milestone in Matthew’s walking is with the parallel bars in the family’s garage. Matthew can now walk down and turn around completely all by himself and walk back where he came from. His trainer or his family member only walks in front of Matthew as a precaution, but Matthew does all the work.

Matthew’s doctor is very pleased with the healing going on in Matthew’s brain. His right frontal lobe has healed a great deal and still continues to heal. This is evidenced by even more initiating of ideas, wants and dislikes by Matthew. It used to be that Matthew was say “whatever” if there was something he didn’t like. But now he tells his family, “I don’t like that, don’t ever give that to me again.”

Matthew’s confidence in his own abilities and strength continue to increase. He’s not afraid to try certain things, where before he had to be encouraged and urged before anyone could get him to do things. He also corrects his own balance without being instructed to do so.

In speech therapy, Matthew is able to focus on four commands to follow through when given verbal instructions. This is wonderful!!! Also, Matthew is reading out loud and silently very well. He doesn’t need as much prompting to figure out the words and will stop and correct himself when he knows he got it wrong. He is also doing very well with math problems.

Matthew is still doing very well with drawing. He continues to add to his drawing book and shows improvement with his pictures in his attention to detail, space and design.

And last but not least, the water therapy continues to be a great blessing and has such great benefits for Matthew’s right side. At his most recent session, he was able to stand in the middle of the pool for 8 seconds without holding onto anything or anyone.

A blessed Lententide to all of you and as we approach April, I pray you have a blessed Holy Week and joyful Easter.

Rachel Asburry
Matthew's Godmother

Update - News Report - 3/4/09

Matthew is in the news! A group gathered in Jefferson City, Missouri at the capital to make an appeal regarding legislation for brain injury victims. Matthew is featured in the news article by KOMU TV station. Here's the link to read that story:

http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/d3096d12-80ce-0971-00a3-7b2a94ace659

If you have trouble with this link at all, go to KOMU.com. Click the button on the far left along the top that says "News" and then click "Story Archives." The news story was shared on March 4, 2009: "Legislation for Brain Injury Victims."

Please note that the date of the "Journey for Hope" project is listed incorrectly in the text of the article. The correct date is September 19, 2009 (not 2008).

Have a great day!
Rachel Asburry
Matthew's Godmother