Paul's Update - 06/12/06

Dear Friends:

A joyous day in the Johnson-Smith family. Tabby delivered Maxwell this afternoon at 2:55pm. Mom & baby are both fine. Tabby had a very long labor but she did GREAT! Grandma Smith (Tabby's Mom), Carolyn & our friend Tai were all there. Unfortunately Paul did not get to be there. He had a doctor appointment at 1:15pm and it was important to keep the appointment. Paul was able to hold him about 45 minutes after he was born. Paul is a tender loving father. He held him in a sling designed for the mom to breast feed with but it was perfect for Paul to be able to hold him since he doesn't have a lot of arm strength. He even leaned over and kissed his new son! There wasn't a dry eye in the room! When we left the hospital Tabby was resting and her mother will be staying with her tonight. Dad & I stayed at Paul's on Sunday night. We started out this morning kind of early since Carolyn was keeping us informed every couple of hours on Tabby's progress. The CNA came at 8am. She got him dressed and bathed. The Physical Therapist showed up at 9:30. She stretched his arms and legs and tried to stand him up. She was able to get him up and rock back and forth on his hips but only a couple of times before his legs gave out on him. She is a little concerned about the affect the meds are having on him because he is not showing any forward progress and that may mean that Medicaid will not continue to cover his therapy. This is the same problem we had at Mount Vernon when he was on the other drugs that made him tired all the time!! The visiting nurse came around 10:30am. She checked him over and said he looks good. At 12:30pm Dad, Dora and I loaded Paul in the van to go to the Neurologist appointment. The doctor went over Paul's medical history and feels that we should put Paul on Dilantin instead of the Depacote. He wants to run some blood tests to see what the level of Depacote is in Paul's body to see if he is overmedicated before he starts the Dilantin. He will also run an EEG to monitor Paul's brain activity. Once he decides if he wants to change to Dilantin he will start him with one pill and slowly wean Paul off of the Depacote. This isn't really the news we wanted to hear since we were told that he was on Depacote to AVOID Dilantin! I sure hope this will be the right move. We headed over to the hospital as soon as we were done at the Neurologist office and went to see Max. It looks like Tabby has decided (with Paul's consent by a nod "yes") that the middle name will be Xavier. Maxwell Xavier Johnson ... evidently this comes from the X-Men movie. I guess that is appropriate since Maxwell comes from the TV show "Get Smart" where the main character was Maxwell Smart. The both seem pleased with this name. Tabby should be in the hospital until Wednesday. Her mother will be staying with her for a few weeks after the baby comes home.


Love, Grandma & Pap Paw Johnson :-) (otherwise know as Lynne & Carl)