Matthew Simpson: In December, Matt was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever and Sydenham's Chorea.

Here is a photo of Matthew on January 3rd. We went to Vancouver to see BodyWorlds 3. Matt had a pretty good day and enjoyed the exhibit and movie.

His symptoms of Sydenham's Chorea began to worsen on the drive home from Vancouver. He began to make vocalizations (loud) of cars driving and shifting gears. He was unable to control the movement of his body and was pounding the side of the van with his right arm. Since that time, Matt has had some flailing motions of arms and legs, head whipping, vocalizations, emotional lability (crying to laughing), spastic muscles (back and thighs), weakness in legs (unable to walk up stairs without assistance), loss of fine motor control (unable to write or brush teeth).

He returned to Children's Hospital on January 8th for another IVIG treatment (to boost his immune system as this is an auto-immune disease affecting his basal ganglia).

The prognosis is that Matthew will take between 6 months to 2 years to recover. The hope is that he will fully recover. He is not attending school and will only return to schooling (home school or back into the school) once his symptoms subside. He is on an anti-seizure medication to reduce the symptoms.

If you are the praying type, please pray that Matt's recovery will be sooner than 6 months. He is frustrated and weary of the movements and vocalizations. Pray that our family will be able to make the adjustments that we need to make in order to aid his healing. Each one of us reacts to the changes in Matt with differences - some of our reactions are positive and some of them are provocative. Pray that we would find a way to adjust and help him.