Paul's Update - 04/16/07

Dear Friends:

Today was physical therapy day at Prince William Hospital. We headed out around 11am for Paul's appointment at 11:30am. We took the car since the automatic van seat operates very slowly and the wind was gusting at 45-50 miles per hour. Paul does OK getting in and out of the front seat of our car. Paul's new therapist's name is Cathy. She is very nice and is very good at her work. She talked with Paul a bit before working with him. He didn't want to cooperate much and shook his head "no" to everything she asked him to do. He wouldn't take off his coat (which is really not unusual) so she worked with his coat on. She got him up walking with the walker so she could observe how he walks. She is a bit concerned about his posture while sitting, his form when he stands up and the way he leans into the walker instead of using it to steady himself. She plans to work on these areas mostly. She was able to get him on one of the balance balls. He sat on it for a bit and did OK balancing himself but she didn't let go of him. He has lots of work to do before he will be able to do this by himself. Finally she got him on a cycle machine. She wanted him to peddle for five minutes. He worked VERY slowly and wasn't really interested in doing it. Again she was concerned with his "form". He tends to extend his knee all the way out which can be damaging to the knee. We scheduled another appointment for Thursday. We gave Paul a choice of Subway Sandwich or McDonalds for lunch. He chose to have a Sub. We got sandwiches and headed home. The afternoon was pretty quiet. Dad has decided to build a shelving area (sort of like a loft) in the garage. It will be about 7 feet off the ground so we can stack things up to the ceiling. This will allow us to store more of Paul's things. Oh boy ... another project!! LOL Tonight we worked a little bit on some speech. We mostly worked on identifying objects near where Paul was sitting. We also worked on the days of the week. He is getting better but still cannot do the days of the week without help. I asked him what he had in his hand (which was his coffee mug). He shook his head and said "ow". I pointed to MY coffee cup and said what is this? He said "SAME THING"!! I had to laugh. He couldn't identify that it was a CUP but he knew it was the same thing as what HE had!! Tonight before bed Dad asked Paul if he need something. He said "yes" so Dad asked "what do you need?". Paul said "I want ... Apple". This was without prompting ... fortunately we had an apple for him!! Tuesday will start early ... we go to the dentist for an evaluation. I pray that Paul will cooperate and the dentist will be able to work on him ... at a reasonable price!!

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl