Paul's Update - 06/22/06

Dear Friends:

Today was a great day. Tabby needed to go to her office today to visit with the people in her office. She left at 10:30am with Max. The speech therapist came around 11am. She worked on facial stretches which Paul really didn't like. She asked him if he was mad at her and he nodded "yes". She told him that she didn't think Helen Keller liked her speech therapist either but she told him she was going to work to get him talking. He nodded "yes". She worked with him to do some sounds ... "Mmmm" and "ahhh". Then she worked on tongue movement. He wouldn't move his tongue. She asked for a mirror and Dora helped her hold the full length mirror that is in his bedroom in front of him. Once he could see himself he was able to stick out his tongue. After her time was up ... she waved goodbye to him and he lifted up his right arm saluted her!! What a great display of personality!! He is moving his right arm a bit more but doesn't do well with his finger movement yet. The OT called and wanted to come when Paul was having lunch. He showed up at 12pm. When he got there he decided to see if Paul could make his own lunch. They got out the fixings out for a ham & cheese sandwich. With assistance Paul was able to spread the Mayo on the bread, pull the plastic off the cheese, and pull out three slices of ham. He put his own sandwich together!! After lunch Paul rested for a bit. Later in the afternoon Dad started doing some PT with Paul. Dad rolled him over onto his stomach. He didn't like that at all. Dad tried to get him to raise up on his knees. He couldn't do it but Dad plans to continue to try. Dad told him that it is important to be able to get on his hands and knees in case he falls out of bed again. The neurologist called today. He said that the blood tests came back and Paul has a therapeutic level of the Depacote in his blood. Then Dad reminded him that we want to get Paul off Depacote because of the side effects. Another blood test is going to be done on Monday next week. Hopefully we will know more about the Dilantin level from this test. It should take another ten days to know the results. We hope that at that time we can start decreasing the Depacote. The EEG results came back also. There are no signs of seizures (praise God). There is some evidence of damage from the initial injury but none of us was surprised about that. We are just thankful that Paul is doing well and is not having any more seizures. Dad had to run out and do some more errands this afternoon. He left for the evening around 6pm to go to our Bible Study that meets on Thursday nights. Tabby & Bobby got Paul ready for bed tonight (along with Audrey, the night CNA). Have a great weekend!

Love, Lynne & Carl