Paul's Update - 11/19/06

Dear Friends:

The last several days have been mostly quiet. With Carl working on our kitchen it has been difficult to keep track of Paul's days. His Dilantin was discontinued on Wednesday night. Since that time he has had very good days. He is alert and willing to work on the things that Tabby is encouraging him to do. We are hearing new sounds on a regular basis. None of them are voluntary yet but he will repeat the sounds that Tabby makes. She encourages him so much and will continue to work with him until he masters the sounds. He can say "ay", "ee", "oh", "oo", "I", "my", "eh" and with encouragement he can say "bye". He has been walking with Tabby & the nurse since Dad has been gone. They take him by each arm and walk beside him. He still has lots of balance problems but he walks pretty good. Tabby is also encouraging him to use his right hand most of the time. She gives him his drink in the right hand and makes him pull up his covers with that hand. She works with hand exercises each day. His right arm is still a bit weak and stiff and so she is now having him try to lift his arm up and out. Hopefully this will strengthen the muscles in that arm. This afternoon she made him reach out to take his water bottle. When he got close to it Tabby would move it a bit farther to make him reach more. When we get him back in bed Tabby makes him get himself in and position himself. He really does well by himself. Friday Tabby took a trip to visit Paul's work. Everyone there was excited to see Max. Tabby said you haven't lived until you see a bunch of biker types cooing over a baby!! Today we were able to spend some time at Paul's after church. Paul came upstairs to watch the football game. It was nice to have everyone in the living room visiting! I've enclosed a link to some pictures. Max now has a Redskins outfit to watch the game with Uncle Bob! Thanks for keeping Paul in prayer as we go through the reducing of his medicines. We aren't totally out of the woods yet ... but each day that goes by gives us hope that we finally have the right combination of medicines!

Have a great week!! Lynne & Carl