Today Matt made his 2nd trip down the hill, his 1st down the hill trip for rehab.  He did great!  He’ll be going down to RB on Friday for his 2nd session with Spencer at a rehab gym.  We also booked an appointment for Matt to have and eye exam and evaluation the 2nd week of November.  We know there are some visual defecates and hopefully with the evaluation we can get some corrective therapy going that will only help with all the other therapies and make things easier for Matt to deal with.  All part of the process and the long road to recovery. 

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The latest on Matthew’s recovery is that we continue to get him up sitting and standing, usually when Spencer is here but he is training Lisa and I how to manage this on our own.  Lots of body mechanics but we’ll get it.  Matt looks great, he has definitely gained all his body weight back and has been really healthy.  We do get him sitting up on his own hands off and we are getting him to sit up straight.  Matt’s right arm and leg are more dominant than his left side but over the past week and a half he has been moving his left side allot more and that has Spencer really motivated to focus on his left side.  Matt pulls his arm in when asked over and over again.  When Matt stands he is now supporting himself with his left leg and that’s huge.  We are continuing to work on exercises to strengthen his neck muscles so he can support his head for longer periods of time and that is steadily increasing.  Matthew has also become allot more vocal in the past 2 weeks.  He’ll just let out a moan or like last night he just started to sort of ramble and ramble on while we were in his room.  It didn’t make any sense but it’s like he is experimenting with the sound.  This morning while Lisa and I were in the kitchen having breakfast and talking about Matt speaking he let out this sound, we ran into his room and there he was wide eyed and sort of grinning like he was aware of what he had done and was all proud of it.  I sense thing are going to move forward vocally.  We all hope sooner than later.  We purchased a van this past week and took Matt out for a ride on Saturday night.  He did fine so today Lisa and Jerry are  going to take him down the hill to see how he does and if that works out Matt will probably be heading down the hill for doctors appointments and more rehab in the next week or two.  We’d like to thank you all for your continued support and prayers, this is a long road but I feel when this is all over I could write a book.

Mario

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Just wanted to thank everyone who supported the Matt Ruiz Golf Tournament.  All the sponsors, participants, supporters, family and friends.  The tournament was a huge success and a good time for all.  Really want to give a special thanks to Lindsey Smith for coming up with the idea and working so hard to put it all together and make it such a success!  We love you girl!  Net proceeds will go directly to support Matthew in his rehabilitation.  Kaiser insurance still has not provided knowledgeable or consistent therapy and we have all seen this for months so when Matt came home it was time to find someone like Spencer, a private therapist hired by the family and has brought Matt such a long ways in a short period of time and given us all hope that he will make a successful recovery.  Spencer knows Matt’s injury and how exactly to approach treatment and continues to move Matt forward. We are now purchasing a van to transport Matthew down the hill for doctors visits and rehabilitation that Lisa and I are working out with hopefully some kind of insurance coverage and plan on supplementing that therapy along with continued sessions with Spencer who has been a God send.  We have started taking photos and will post some soon so everyone can follow the recovery.  Once again, Thank You all so very much, this is a long road but with continued thoughts, prayers and support from all of you we will make it.

Love you all,

Mario, Lisa, Brittney and Lindsey

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