Paul's Update - 07/11/07

Dear Friends:

Paul continues to have amazing progress. Tuesday Paul went to the gym. They worked on legs & calves, arm extensions and even bench pressing. Paul really enjoys working out at the gym. He worked on the bicycle for about 10 minutes. Dad observed that he is getting better with his peddling. Paul spent a lot of time watching TV in the afternoon. When Dad gets him up to go to the bathroom he is working on putting his hands on the arms of the chair and pushing himself into a position to stand. Dad is only having to steady him with one arm and is doing minimum assisting. It is amazing how strong he really is. Dad was really tired in the evening after dinner. I had a meeting to go to and when I got home Paul & Dad were watching TV but Dad fell asleep about 10:30. Paul however was up and alert until almost midnight. Finally Dad got up and took him to bed.

Dad found Paul turned around in the bed Wednesday morning. He had managed to turn himself around so that his head was at the foot of the bed and his feet were at the head. His bed pad wasn't messed up and we aren't really sure how he got himself turned around. He had also folded his bed covers over to one side ... he must have gotten hot during the night. Once Paul finished getting up and dressed, Dad had him walk to the bathroom to stand at the sink. He was able to shave himself while standing in front of the mirror. Dad said he did a really good job shaving and didn't try to shave any place that didn't need to be shaved. In the past he has tried to put the razor (electric) up in his hairline but he didn't do that this time! After breakfast Dad, Dora & Paul left to go to Occupational Therapy. He worked with Ruby again. She didn't try to do any more evaluation. They started working with some blocks, she made a pattern with them and asked him to copy the pattern. He did OK with it but he had trouble with the shape that looked like "Z". He worked on it and he finally got it but it was actually backwards. He's done that with other things ... I wonder if he sees some things backwards?? She also had him work on taking his shoes off and putting them back on. He has Velcro on his shoes and he was able to undo the Velcro, loosen the straps and take his shoes off. He also put them back on and fastened the Velcro in place. She had him work on cutting strips of paper with a pair of scissors. He held the paper in one hand and used the scissors to cut with the other hand. She tried to get him to write on some paper but he wouldn't do that at all. After OT, Paul had a speech therapy appointment downstairs in the hospital. This is his first visit with the speech therapist (Natasha). She tried to get him to count to twenty. He does pretty good with that ... one to ten is easy but then you have to prompt him through eleven to twenty. She tried to get him to sing happy birthday but he wouldn't do that. Dad told her that Tabby use to try to do "Do, Re, Me" but the therapist didn't do it well enough for him to repeat. She tried to get him to look at two pictures and identify one of them ... there was a picture of a person crying and one of a pair of scissors ... she asked him to point to the person crying but he refused to do that. At that point they had used up his hour. She said she will be thinking about what kinds of activities Paul can do on Friday. After getting home Dad took Paul to the Freedom Center. Today was "pool day". The Freedom Center has a machine that lifts a person up from the floor and lowers them into the pool. Dad put a flotation belt on him and they lowered him (slowly) into the pool. Dad said the water was cold and Paul was shivering while they were getting him into the water. Once in the water Dad said Paul had a death grip on him. Dad tried to get Paul to float a little. He floated on his back OK but when Dad tried to get him to float on his stomach Paul started to panic and he immediately started to do what could be described as a "doggy paddle". Dad reassured him that he wouldn't let him fall or drown. They walked about the pool for a while. At first Paul had his arms tightly against his body but after some time Dad was able to get him to relax his arms a bit. Dad finally got him to let his arms move away from his body and Paul walked around the pool for a while. Dad tried to get him to hold onto the edge of the pool and kick his feet but he wouldn't do that. Dad tried to have him float while pulling him through the water and he did some kicking. Dad said Paul got a little smirk on his face as if to say "I like this". After the workout Dad took Paul to the hot tub for a little while. He really enjoys that. The afternoon was quiet ... Paul had quite a workout!! This evening Paul was so tired that he was ready to go to bed at 8:30!!! Dad thought he needed to go to the bathroom but once they got down the hall a bit Paul just kept on going to his bedroom and proceeded to position his walker out of the way so he could sit on his bed. Dad put a movie in for him and he started the massager in the bed. Paul watched the whole movie but was ready to go to sleep by 11pm. It is really amazing how much progress Paul has made lately!!

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl