Paul's Update - 06/06/07

Dear Friends:

Tuesday morning started pretty much as usual. Paul seemed quiet. Dad went to the doctor for a follow-up on his white blood cell count. This is the general practitioner who referred him to a hematologist a few months ago. His white count is still up a little but his blood pressure has gone back to normal. She said he was fine but suggested he get out of the house and do more exercise on his own ... besides the work he does with Paul. This is as much for just "getting away" as it is for his physical health! Paul watched TV most of the day. His jaw was a little swollen from the dental visit on Monday. Dad gave him Tylenol several times throughout the day. His only real exercise was walking to the bathroom which he does really well. We ordered Chinese food for dinner. Paul was able to eat Lemon Chicken and a Vegetable Egg roll without any trouble. Max was over and we enjoyed his visit. He really enjoys investigating things. We also have to be careful to make sure the front screen door is closed good since he has figured out how to push it open! Dad & I sat outside on the swing for a while after dinner. Paul was watching TV in the living room. When Dad came in to check on Paul he noticed that Paul had adjusted himself to lay down on the couch. He got his feet up and adjusted himself to fit comfortably. He usually doesn't do that so it was pretty neat that he did that without any encouragement or help! Paul stayed up really late ... until 11:30pm. When I said goodnight to him I asked him what he was thinking. He shook his head "no" but I pushed and asked him to say something to me. Finally after many attempts to encourage him, he said "Jesus". I asked him if he was praying and he nodded "yes". I bet he does a lot of that! Wednesday was another quiet day. Paul was able to sit out on the deck for about an hour. He still seems to be recovering from the dental visit. He's had a lot of work done lately ... seven extractions in two weeks! Dad said one of the times he went to the bathroom he pushed the walker all the way into the bathroom up to the bathtub. Dad told him that he needed to turn the walker sideways to be able to adjust and sit on the toilet. He shook his head "no" and reached with his right hand while freestanding and tried to push the lever that collapses the right arm of the walker. He struggled with it for a bit and then changed to his left hand and tried again. Dad finally helped by pushing the lever and Paul gladly collapsed the right arm. He was very pleased with himself!! Talk about "problem solving" ... something he isn't suppose to be able to do!! It is pretty amazing that he puts so much thought into something he feels is important! When I got home from work I greeted Paul and asked him how he was. He shook his head "no" so I asked "do you need something?". He said "yes" so I asked him to tell me what he needed. After much prompting he said "lemonade". I had not given him a choice ... he came up with that all by himself! Later when he was working on some speech exercises he was doing the words to "Do Re Me". He repeated "do" then "re" then "me" but when he got to "fa" he said "fa, so". When he got to "la" he said "la, ti". Funny ... it is in there ... sometimes he remembers it without help! When we worked on identifying people he couldn't remember my name or Dora's name but when he got to Dad he said "Dad" without help. Dad is the only name he does that with ... what a nice blessing for Dad. Bill & Ronda came over for coffee after dinner but Paul was pretty tired by 9pm and went to bed early.

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl

P.S. Still no baby!! Mommy goes to the doctor on Thursday!