Paul's Update - 04/17/07

Dear Friends:

Dora arrived at 6:30 this morning so that we could have Paul bathed & dressed to leave for the dentist by 8:00am. The dentist was only doing an evaluation today but Paul did really good. We thought he was going to be difficult since he shook his head "no" the first time the dentist asked him to open his mouth . A couple minutes later the dentist lowered the back on the chair and told Paul to open his mouth. Paul immediately opened his mouth. He even held it open for quite a while for the doctor to examine his teeth. It looks like there is a lot of work to be done. Paul has gum work, cavities, root canals, tooth extractions & a possible partial that will need to be done. When the dentist was done Paul didn't want to get out of the chair. He is as ready to get the work done!! He now has an appointment next week to start with a cleaning and over the next couple of months we will start doing the other work. Hopefully Paul will continue to be cooperative!! Dad called Tabby to tell her about the visit and the price, which is a fraction of what the sedation dentistry was going to be! After we got home I headed off to work and Dad started working on his new project (the loft in the garage). He took a trip to Home Depot and bought supplies then started arranging the garage to be able to get to the wall. Dad got a call from the Physical Therapist this afternoon. She said that it appears we need to get a pre-authorization from Medicaid before they can do more therapy. That could take 2-3 weeks or more. When Dad talked to Tabby tonight she wants to find out how much it will cost to do some of it "out of pocket" until Medicaid will pick up. Dad will call the hospital tomorrow to find out. It would be nice to keep up the progress Paul is currently having. At 4pm the Speech Therapist, Brooke, came to work with Paul. They worked for 1/2 hour and Paul did OK but Brooke seems to think he is not progressing much and we may be wasting money to have her come twice a week. She suggested we wait until he makes more progress and then call her again. When Dad told Tabby this news she said she will talk to Brooke and see if she would be willing to come every other week instead of every week. Again ... it would be a shame to lose the progress we are making ... no matter how slow it is! Apparently Tabby called Brook right after Dad talked to her. Brooke will call Dad tomorrow to schedule an appointment in two weeks. Bill & Ronda came over this evening and had coffee with us. Paul sat on the couch and had coffee too. He was up until 10pm tonight. He seems to like sitting up with us at night. Wednesday Paul has an early morning Dr. appointment to have his blood drawn. Hopefully his sodium level is getting back to normal. If it isn't the doctor may be considering another change in medicines.

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl