Paul's Update - 07/03/07

Dear Friends:

Monday was a busy day for Paul. It started out early with Occupational Therapy at 9:30am. Dad, Dora, Paul & I headed off to Fair Oaks hospital about 9:00am. Paul's new therapist Amy was gone and we had Ruby who wanted to try to finish up the testing/evaluation that Amy started last week. She began with having Paul do some more matching of a picture that was at the top of the page to one of three pictures on the bottom of the page. He did really good with most of these. Then she moved to having him try to remember a picture on one page and identify the matching picture out of three on the next page. He did OK with shapes he seemed to recognize but didn't do as well with most of them. The next part of the testing was to look at a picture at the top of the page and identify it from parts of the picture out of three ... disconnected pictures like a circle at the top of the page and parts of that circle at the bottom. He really didn't do well with this. He got really tired of doing this testing and she moved on to having him pick out pegs from a bucked and put them in a pegboard. He put them all in a straight row and then went to do a second row. He was using his left hand and the therapist wanted him to use his right hand to try to do the same exercise. He would take the peg out of her hand with his right hand and then try to put it in his left hand. She discouraged him from doing that. He managed to get a couple with his right hand but he tired of that pretty quickly. She also tried to get him to draw a line between two dots on a piece of paper. He hasn't done any writing or drawing since the accident. He didn't even try to do this! After we were done with therapy I headed back to the house to be there when Carolyn brought Alysa & Sevira over. Billy had a doctor appointment and Carolyn was going with him so the girls were staying with me. Dad took Paul to the dentist. The dentist was very pleased with how Paul did. He always cooperates very nicely for the dentist. He did four fillings, built up a post for a crown and put in a temporary crown. Next time they will complete the crown on the left side and put in a temporary on the right side. The rest of the day was quiet since Paul was tired from all the activity. Max came over about 6pm. He stayed until about 8:30pm. We had Chipotle for dinner but Max got a grilled cheese sandwich (which he loved!). Ronda & Bill came over about 8:00pm. We had coffee and watched "The Age of Love" which is a new reality game show. Paul was up late again. He hasn't wanted to go to bed until after midnight the last several nights. Dad was able to get him to go to bed about 11:30pm.

Tuesday Dad & Uncle Jimmy worked on installing our new front door. Paul was able to watch since he sits in the living room. Dad didn't get any time to work separate with Paul. It was a beautiful day ... good thing since the front door was open most of the day. After dinner Paul was sitting with his coffee and I worked with him a little on the months of the year, counting to 30 (he actually only got to twenty by himself) and the alphabet. He still needs a bit of prompting but he gets some of them with only a little help. We also worked on names of the family. He still doesn't seem to remember his own name without help ... but he can say his first AND last name with prompting! Paul was up late again. He says he is tired but then when you ask "do you want to go to bed?" he says "no". He isn't even falling asleep in the chair ... he really doesn't want to go to bed!! He always was a night person! LOL Wednesday we plan to have a 4th of July celebration at Carolyn & Billy's house. Bobby & Jen are also coming. It should be a great family time!

Have a great holiday! Lynne & Carl