These past few weeks I have been under the weather.  I don’t usually get sick very much, but this time it hit me pretty hard.  I was out of school, therapy, and my daily routine for about three weeks.  I finally feel like I am back to 100%. 

Being sick, it really hit me hard because I wasn’t able to exercise.  Exercise is a huge part of my life.  My exercise program consists of several parts.  First and foremost, I am exercising to progress into walking.  This is very streneous, but very rewarding.  I also exercise other parts of my body to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  Being healthy is extremely important to all of us.  It is what keeps us going.  I challenge all of you to maintain a healthy lifestyle and exercise right along with me as a team.  Whenever I exercise, I always think of the people back home who have been by my side.  You guys give me the strength and determination to take that extra step whenever I feel weak.  I hope that I motivate you guys the same way.

I look forward to a new start to 2010.  After getting well, I can’t wait to get back to working out and defying the impossible.  I am very thankful for all of the support you guys have provided me, while being under the weather.  I thank God everyday for providing such great people in my life.  Again, thank you so much for all of the thoughts, prayers, and support.  God Bless!!!

Matt C

I had a great time visiting Arkansas for the holidays.  I got to see a lot of my family and friends.  It was great to see and hang out with all of my family and friends.  I also had a great time spoiling my new little niece Presley.  She is absolutely adorable and the apple of my eye.  I can’t wait to see her again.

My family and I had a great Christmas.  Each Christmas seems to get better than the last one.  I am very blessed to have such a great family and group of friends to share the holidays with.  I got a really neat present for Christmas.  It came from my little best friend Sarah from New Jersey.  A lot of you may remember Sarah from us performing therapy together at KKI.  Anyway, Sarah sent me a little photo album/scrapbook titled “Learning to Walk Together”.  It is full of pictures from us doing therapy together at KKI.  It was my favorite present of my whole Christmas.  It means so much to me and something I will cherish the rest of my life.

I am currently writing this post in the St. Louis airport.  I have a layover here for my trip back to Baltimore.  It is snowing really hard here in St. Louis.  I am hoping that I get out in time before the airport closes.  I do not want to be stuck here.  I am sure things will work out.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.  I am very thankful to have all of you in my life.  This time each year reminds me of how blessed I am and how much I have to be thankful for.  Thank you so much for being by my side with the continued outpouring of thoughts and prayers.  God Bless!

Matt C

It has been awhile since I have had the opportunity to post on here.  Being without a computer and having a course load of finals has left me with little time to post.  I have had a lot of neat things going on of late consisting of therapy, speaking, and snow.

Therapy has been going really well.  I am continuing to do therapy four days during the week consisting of both water and land therapy.  I can see continued progress with each day of therapy.  My therapists’ Kelly and Mike have been great and continue to push me and come up with creative therapy exercises.  I have been working really hard on my core.  It is vital to my walking and something that I don’t always work out as much.  We are still working on taking steps.  We still have a long ways to go in my therapy, but we are a lot closer than we were yesterday.

I had the opportunity to speak to a middle school last week.  A friend of mine, Lori, who works for the Shriver Center at the college I attend wanted me to share my story with a group of 8th grade students.  I shared my message of achieving your goals and reaching your dreams, no matter the obstacle in your path.  I encouraged them to work hard in school, be leaders, and live life to the fullest.  The students seemed to respond well to the message.

I am so happy to be in Arkansas after all the snow we received this past weekend.  In Baltimore we accumulated over two feet of snow.  I have never seen so much snow.  I rode around in my truck and snapped a few pictures.  Although it was pretty, it got ugly really fast.  I am glad to be away from all of it.

I have been extremely busy with school and therapy.  It is great to finally have a break and be back in Arkansas.  It is great to see all of my old friends and family.  I hope all of you have a safe and happy holiday.  Thanks a lot for all of your support… I am blessed to have you by my side.

Matt C 

I have recently started back therapy at Kennedy Krieger Institute.  I have four days a week.  Two days of my therapy consists of being in the water for aqua therapy and the other two days are on land.  I also have some new therapists that I am working with during therapy.  My old therapist, Claire, has moved to a new department.  My new therapists are Kelly and Mike.  They are really good and are pushing me in my therapy.  We have been working something new that I have not worked on in the past.  This is standing without holding on to anything.  I have always been used to holding on to parallel bars or a walker.  This is really hard, but we are making progress.  We are also walking on the treadmill using the light gait.  We have been walking for five minute spurts and going over twenty minutes.  The other two days I am in the water working on different things.  In the water I work on walking and standing.  The floor of the pool is a treadmill, which is pretty cool.  There are also under water cameras that video my legs as they work.  It is neat to see my legs moving under water up on the monitors.  It is much easier walking in the pool because my body is much lighter.  I am making lots of progress in the pool.  It seems like I get much better everyday.

My schedule for this fall is extremely full.  I have class every morning until after lunch.  Then the other four days of the week I am doing therapy all afternoon.  It is a full load, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  I will be sure to give more updates on my therapy.  I want to thank all of you for your continued amount of thoughts, prayers, and support.  I am truly blessed to be where I am today.  Thanks again and God Bless!

Lately I have had a lot fo different things going on.  I had the opportunity to do a little speaking along with some traveling.  I also am now an uncle to a beautiful little girl named Presley.  All of these things are very exciting and I feel blessed to be apart of them. 

Last week I traveled to Hagerstown, MD where I spoke to a group of guys and girls who had spinal cord injuries.  I attended a rehabilation facility and spoke about my injury and listened to others about their injuries.  It was neat to learn about other individuals and the obstacles they have overcame.  I relayed my message of how nothing is impossible and on never giving up.  I had a fantastic visit and met some really great individuals. 

A couple of days later, I flew to Little Rock, Arkansas to be on a panel at a spinal cord conference.  There was a large crowd at the conference.  I got to see some familiar faces and also meet some new people.  On the panel I was asked different questions by my first spinal cord injury doctor, Dr. Thomas Kiser.  I really enjoyed relaying my past experiences in hopes of helping and encouraging someone else.  Restorative Therapies also flew down with me to the conference.  Restorative Therapies has the FES bike that has been so critically important to my recovery process of this injury.  I even rode the bike at the conference to show a demo of how it works. I met a lot of nice people and even attached a picture below of my new friend Jen. 

My brother Chris and his wife Mandy recently had a little girl named Presley.  I now have a little niece.  It is so exciting to have such a beautiful girl in the family.  My whole family has been excited about the new addition to the family. 

I am going to be starting back school on Spetember 1st.  I am looking forward to getting back in to a routine with school and KKI therapy.  I want to thank all of you for your support.  Everytime I see someone I know, I am encouraged to keep pushing on.  I am thankful to have such great people in my life.  Thanks again for everything and God Bless!

Matt C

I had an incredible Friday.  My little friend Sarah was in Baltimore and I had the opportunity to see her.  She was at Kennedy Krieger,  so I went to visit her towards the end of her therapy session.  I got to watch her finish up her therapy session and even participate in a barbie wedding with her.  It was a lot of fun!  It was great to see both Sarah and her mom.  The last time I saw her was in August and she has grown so much since then.  She has made a lot of progress and is a little superstar.  After her therapy we went in the garden and we played with some bubbles.  I didn’t get any pictures, but Sarah’s mom did and I will post some when she sends them.  I wanted to fill you guys in on Sarah, since so many of you ask about her all the time.  She is a little angel and definitely my best little firend! 

Matt C