Paul's Update - 05/16/07

Dear Friends:

Tuesday morning was Paul's physical therapy. After breakfast Dad got Paul ready and went to the hospital for his appointment. Cathy (the therapist) was not there and there was a substitute. Paul has been very stubborn the last few days and he refused to cooperate with the therapist. She tried but was a bit afraid of having him walk by himself. He CAN do it but she was unsure and was trying to hold the walker and him at the same time. He only walked about 10 feet. She tried to get him to transfer from wheelchair to the bed. He wouldn't do that. He got on the peddle machine and worked for a bit. He did about 80 steps but really wasn't interested in doing it. Once he was home he was still not interested in doing anything that Dad asked him to do. It was all Dad could do to get him to go to the bathroom. The speech therapist showed up at 4:30. It didn't take her long to realize that he wasn't going to do any work so she decided to cancel the session and reschedule for next week. Fortunately she didn't charge for the visit. We ordered Pizza for dinner and sat in the living room. He seemed to like doing that. I had a special choir practice on Tuesday instead of Thursday this week. After I came home we asked Paul if he wanted to go out to Denny's. We usually do that after choir but he didn't want to do that. He did want to come outside and sit with us at the swing in the front yard. It was a beautiful night and Paul enjoyed being out there. Wednesday morning Paul didn't want to sit in the living room OR at the table for his coffee. He walked right past the living room & dining room and went directly to the deck. He sat outside and had his coffee and breakfast. It was a delightful morning to sit outside! He seemed to be more cooperative. Dad went out for a while and visited the Water Authority Treatment Plant where he use to work. Paul stayed with Dora. When Dad came home ... Paul was being stubborn again. Most of the day he refused to do what Dad asked. He wanted to sit in the living room for dinner. Dad, Ronda and I sat in the dining room while Paul sat in the living room with Dora. He enjoyed the dinner that Ronda made ... even if Dora had to help him! He joined us for our bible study but was very quiet. He got up during the study to go to the bathroom and didn't want to sit in the living room with us when he came back. He headed right past us to the dining room and sat there until we did dessert! After everyone left it was almost 9:30 and Paul was VERY tired but wouldn't let Dad take him to bed. We are really not sure why Paul is so uncooperative lately ... I guess since he CAN be defiant ... he IS! Thursday Paul has another physical therapy session ... hopefully he will cooperate. It would be a shame to waste the therapy sessions since Medicaid will only pay for a total of sixteen ... and that is ONLY if he is making progress! I hope he snaps out of this mood soon!

Have a great day Lynne & Carl