Paul's Update - 03/09/07

Dear Friends:

Mom, Ann & I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express in Shelbyville Kentucky last night. It was new and very nice. After our continental breakfast this morning we headed out for Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill Kentucky. We toured the grounds and learned a lot about the Shakers and their religion. We ate lunch there and enjoyed that very much. We watched a man make a broom and he explained how it was done during the time the Shakers lived in that village. We spent almost four hours there. When we left we took a drive down a scenic byway and saw some beautiful countryside ... horse countryside!! We drove through the Lexington Kentucky area which is the "Horse Capital of the World". It was very evident that there is MONEY there! We stopped around 7pm in Morehead Kentucky for the night and got dinner at the Food Lion down the road from the hotel. I talked to Dad this evening. Paul had his neurologist appointment. The doctor said he noticed some improvement ... DUH! He noted that Paul was using his right hand better and was "walking" the wheelchair better than when he saw him last. He used some of his words for the doctor as well. Tabby was able to be there for the visit. The doctor said he really wants to see a new MRI done. Tabby will need to get Paul on the COBRA policy from the job she had prior to this one. Once that is in effect she can schedule an appointment for the MRI. We are all interested in how much different the results are from the last time (just after the seizures). Saturday I will be heading to WV. Mom, Ann & I are not sure what we will do yet but it looks like we may be home by the end of the weekend!

Have a great weekend....

Lynne & Carl

P.S. I recieved an email from Tabby from Tuesday ... here is a copy of it ...

Hi Mom,

I really enjoyed your e-mail this morning. I'm sorry I didn't e-mail you last night, but you know how it gets at night. I had a few minutes and decided to veg out on-line looking at the housing market. (Yuck.)

When I got home yesterday, Jen was downstairs talking to Paul. He wasn't saying much back, but seemed to be listening intently. I sat down and started asking him a few questions as I always do. I asked him "How are you?" He said, "I'm okay". Then I tried asking how his day was, what he had done for the day, etc. Out of the blue Paul states "I hope it's you". I'm not sure what it was supposed to mean, but I'll take it as a good thing. Four word sentences are a fabulous thing.

A few minutes later Carolyn called me on my cell phone. I asked her to call me on the house phone so that I could put her on speaker for Paul to listen in. She did so and Paul seemed to interact well to it. He nods his head a lot, so you have to remind him to "say Yes or No." He would typically say yes. Carolyn told us that she put in her 2 weeks notice so that she could watch over Jim and take it a little easier while she is pregnant. Not a bad idea now that they have a little extra money in the bank. She also told us about their new ferret. Paul just listened intently.

After a few minutes of talking, Paul picked up the remote to the TV (that I had recently turned off) as if he had become disinterested and wanted to go back to watching TV. I asked Paul if he wanted to talk to Carolyn. He nodded. I handed the phone to Paul and he put it up to his ear and said in a clear voice "Hello." Carolyn answered back, and Paul looked rather puzzled, because the phone was still on speaker, so he took the phone away from his ear. I asked him if he wanted the phone off of speaker. He nodded. I did so, and luckily Carolyn was loud enough that I could listen to the conversation that was carried on. We had to remind him to say Yes or No frequently, but he thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. After it seemed that Carolyn had run out of questions for Paul, I asked Paul if he would hand me back the phone. At first, he really didn't want to, so it took a minute of convincing to get the phone back. I went to go outside and handed the TV remote to Paul, after turning the TV back on, so that he could change the channel. He put the remote up to his ear, and again said "Hello." He really enjoys phone calls. I would really like to encourage more of that as he improves.

He had not had dinner, and it was around 6:20 PM. I asked Paul if he was hungry, and he shook his head no. About 10 minutes later, I tested the water again, by asking him if he was hungry. He lo oked at me and said "I wait". Okay ... that was cool. I went into the kitchen and peeled a Clementine for a snack. I asked Paul if he would like some. He nodded, so I took a single slice and gave him the rest. I went ahead and prepared his dinner after he chose between the fish and the chicken. (He really likes his fish. - Good brain food.)

That was pretty much our evening as a whole. Max ran around with both his walker and his Daddy's walker. He loves scooting around. I gave Max a bath, and laid him down around 8:15 PM. (Bringing his bedtime in earlier because we'll be losing an hour this weekend with the time change.) He slept well through the night.

Paul and I had our normal dialogue through the evening. Christi stopped by with cookies from "Mrs. Fields", and had a short one sided conversation with Paul before he fell asleep. She told us her husband fina lly received a job offer with Home Depot (I was the one who made the suggestion to apply there because of the fabulous benefits and fair pay, so she wanted to thank me.)

Yet another good night passed ... except, I still haven't won the lottery ... :)

Tabitha Johnson