Paul's Update - 06/28/07

Dear Friends:

Paul's "progress" continues to amaze us all the time. Dad got up this morning and got Paul ready for his day. Once I had left for work Dad, Dora and Paul headed to the Freedom Center to work out in the gym. They charged Paul the normal $7 fee but only charged Dad the $3 fee for an observer and nothing for Dora. Dad had Paul start out working on calf & leg muscles. He did some flexing of his feet to work out the calves. He pushed with his legs 30lb weights and did that ten times. They moved to another machine to go back extensions. After that they went to the cardio room and worked out on the exercise bike. He worked out on it for eleven minutes. When the panel flashed "peddle faster" he peddled a little faster. Dad didn't have to tell him ... he just seemed to either recognize what it said or understood what it meant! After he was done with the bicycle he went back to leg machine and did leg extensions with 60lbs five times. He didn't want to do any more but when Dad asked him if he wanted to try more weight he said "yes". Dad moved the pin and Paul pushed the weight out and slowly (and with control) allowed the weights to go back down. Dad asked if he want to do more and he said "yes" again so Dad kept moving the pin each time Paul would achieve pushing the weight and letting back down. Finally Dad got the weight up to a whopping 210 lbs. WOW!! He is really very strong. They also did some workouts with his arms. He did the arm "fly's" and weight pulls. His arms are not as strong as his legs but he was able to do about 30lbs on each machine. He also sat on the exercise ball and worked on some balance. Dad said one of the employees came over while he was having Paul stand on a teeter board and asked him if he was a trainer!! LOL ... He said "no, I'm his dad". I think she didn't like the way he was using the equipment!! Oh well ... After Dad got home they proceeded to fix lunch. Dad wheeled Paul up to the table. He was going to make grilled cheese. He handed Paul the bread and said "Paul, can you take the twisty tie off the bread please". He immediately went to work opening it. Then Dad asked him to "please take out two pieces of bread". He worked the plastic bag down on the bread until he could get his fingers inside the bag. He worked his fingers until he got three pieces of bread....two regular pieces and the heel (which of course he wasn't going to eat!). He started to eat the bread but Dad stopped him and said "no, we are going to make grilled cheese" so Paul stopped. Dad asked him to put some butter on the bread. He took the knife and stuck it in the butter but he got a big glob of butter. Dad took the knife and put butter on it but then got a little butter on the knife and asked Paul to finish it. Now ... remember I said that Paul was very particular about how he made grilled cheese ... he was the BEST at it. He took the knife and went all the way out to the edge of the bread and started spreading the butter. This is sooo like Paul! Dad also handed him the cheese and asked him to open it. He found the edge of the plastic and got the cheese partially unwrapped but he wasn't able to keep the cheese from folding over itself and get the plastic off of it. Dad had to help him but he really tried hard. I think Paul enjoyed "making" lunch! After lunch Dad allowed him to have a quiet afternoon. He was pretty exhausted. During Bible Study Paul was falling asleep in the recliner so he went to bed soon after everyone had left. It is so amazing what Paul is ABLE to do when we ask him to! It certainly gives us much hope for his continued recovery!!

Have a great weekend! Lynne & Carl