Paul's Update - 09/28/06

Dear Friends:

Tuesday Paul went to the doctor's office to have his blood test. The neurologist has a new office which makes it much easier to get the blood drawn. It should make results come back a bit quicker too. Paul sat outside after they got home. The weather has been just beautiful and it is a great opportunity to be outside. Once they went inside Tabby and Dad got Paul into the bathtub and did an Epsom Salt bath. This helps get all the dead skin off. Paul was able to lift his legs high enough to clear the side of the tub and step in. The hard part is sitting him down and then standing him up but he enjoyed the bath! Now that Paul is stronger Tabby would like to see that Paul gets a bath every other day. It is so much better than a sponge bath! Later in the day Paul went upstairs and watched TV. He was upstairs until late in the evening. He finally went downstairs around 11:30 pm. He walked a lot that day and Dad was almost sure he could use the walker to stand up from the toilet but Paul wasn't strong enough to do it. Paul is walking better each day. He still has balance problems but he is willing to try. Tabby continues to work on speech.

Wednesday he wanted to go outside. When he encountered the bathroom door in the way he reached over and closed the door so he could get past it then proceeded to wheel himself to the back door. He maneuvers the wheelchair around things and gets around the house pretty good. Dad works with Paul to stand, sit and bend. He is getting stronger and better at doing these things.

Today Paul was complaining of a headache most of the day. The weather change (it rained this afternoon and into the evening) seems to affect him. He spent the day watching movies and relaxing. He deserves a quiet day ... he's been very active the last several days!! We haven't heard any word about the blood test on Tuesday. Once we know if the new drug is at a therapeutic level we can start to decrease the Dilantin. Tabby still hasn't heard about the job in Herndon that she interviewed for last week. She is getting some feedback from some of the resumes she has sent out. Hopefully something will come through soon. For now we are just taking one day at a time and she is enjoying her work with Paul & Max! Dad went out this afternoon and bought a bouncer chair for Max. He loves it. He enjoys sitting up and bouncing up and down. Dad & I are going away for the weekend with Bill & Ronda. Bobby will be home to help Tabby. I won't have access to the internet for the weekend but I will try to update you when we return.

Have a great weekend! Lynne & Carl