I didn't write an update yesterday, since I was Sabbath-ing, taking the day away, while Jonathan spent the day with Matthew.

Today, Matthew's pain has been low for the most part, usually 2/10 or 3/10, for which we are thankful. The new medications are working very well.

Occupational therapy has been doing a lot of work with him in flexing and stretching his arm, fingers, elbow, and shoulder. Using his right arm, Matthew can stretch and flex his left shoulder and elbow to keep them limber and prevent them from locking up. After doing new exercises yesterday, his pain spiked to 9/10, but today, his joints seem to be getting used to it, and he has not been in much pain.

They took him off the low-fat diet, but he is keeping himself on it since the swelling near the chyle leak does not seem to have gone down any.

An exciting development is that he can shrug and move his left shoulder on his own, something we thought he was not able to do!

The scars and damaged skin on that shoulder are looking much better; we have been treating them with vitamin E oil.

He will continue to wear his neck collar until his March 17 follow up appointment with the neck doctor to determine whether neck surgery will be required.

We are still waiting (since Friday) to hear from the doctors what the next step should be for his arm. After they found that there was more dead tissue in his forearm than they had expected, they have not told us what the next step will be. We don't know if he will need another surgery on that arm, or what strategy they are going to take, and how this will affect the plans to do nerve testing in early March. He still has the wound VAC on the forearm.

Please pray for wisdom for the doctors, that they will know the best course of action. Please continue to pray that Matthew will be able to regain full use of his arm. That's what Ariela had written last month, after the accident, when she was doing her devotional and the day's lesson said to write out a big prayer goal (see picture above).

Thank you for praying for Pam, Kirsten, Daniel, and Ariela, who are at the SHARE Family Education Conference. Our area leader, Cathy, and friend, Erika, came and had time with Pam and prayer for Matthew (pictured below). Daniel and Ariela are enjoying being with friends and helped our dear friends sort the candy that they bring each year to give out to the kids for movie night (also pictured below). Lots of fun memories are being made!

Thank you,

Todd