Paul's Update - 02/03/07

Dear Friends:

I must apologize ... I was not feeling good the other night and wrote the 2-1 update but titled it 1-31 ... so there were TWO updates labeled 1-31 ... I was evidently VERY tired!! LOL Paul was feeling pretty tired today. He even SAID SO ... I asked him "how are you?" and he said "Tired"!! Dad said he took a very long nap this afternoon. He never sleeps during the day so he must be feeling really bad. All week he has not been wanting to do much and Dad now says he has a little bit of a rash on his face. This will bear some watching over the next few days. Tabby went to a baby shower this afternoon with Carolyn, Ronda and me. Dad stayed home with Paul & Max ... of course Gladys (the nurse) was there to help as well. After the girls all returned from the baby shower Dad & I went out with Ronda & Bill to El Agave (our favorite Mexican Restaurant). Dad went back to Paul's after we got back and stayed until Paul was ready for bed. He was still eating his dinner when Dad got there ... at 8PM!! He's been kind of lazy about eating lately ... he waits for everyone to feed him. Tabby has been trying to get him to eat by himself ... no matter how long it takes. He didn't finish until almost 10pm. He took his medicines in between and he finally finished but he was pretty tired by that time. Tabby said today that Paul has been saying more random things ... most of which don't make much sense ... like "I want table". It seems funny but when we were watching other brain injured patients recover we noticed a period of them saying things that made NO sense. I suspect we are seeing some of the early signs of him being able to say things that he is thinking. Although he may think he is saying things that make sense they don't come out correctly. This is known as Aphasia (definition). This CAN be a temporary situation ... we certainly pray that is so! He does appear to be getting more vocal even if it is a slow process. This is nothing new ... everything has been slow! As difficult as it is to bear some days, we will take slow since we are still seeing progress each day! Our prayers are being answered!! Praise God!

Have a great day!! Lynne & Carl

"Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that impairs a person's ability to process language, but does not affect intelligence. Aphasia impairs the ability to speak and understand others, and most people with aphasia experienced difficulty reading and writing."