Paul's Update - 07/14/07

Dear Friends:

Thursday was a quiet day for Paul. Dad said Paul didn't want to go to the gym. Thursday night is bible study night but only Bill & Ronda showed up. Ronda brought dinner for Dad & Paul. I went to a baseball game with my sister, Cathy. We had a good time but the trip on I-95 took two and a half hours to get to Baltimore (which is only a little over an hour and fifteen minutes normally). It took even longer to come home (doh). When I got home Paul was in bed and Dad was very ready for bed!!

Friday Paul had Speech therapy at 10:30. The therapist (Natasha) said she is very encouraged by Paul's ability. He started out slowly and didn't want to cooperate. She got him started by having him count to ten, then she showed him some pictures to get him to tell her what they were. He wouldn't talk to her but he would look at Dad and talk to him. She tried by prompting him with the letter sound and he finally would do it. She told Paul that sometimes speech therapy may seem boring since she will have to go over things many times. She found out that the insurance company has approved Paul for twenty therapy sessions. That will take us to September. If he continues to improve she plans to ask Medicaid for a hundred visits. Considering our past experience we are not going to believe it will happen until it DOES!! After therapy Dad & Paul went to the gym. Paul rode the bicycle at level three, Dad was only at level 5 and he said it was quite challenging. Dad didn't have to correct his footing at all, usually he has to adjust Paul's right foot back onto the peddle and he didn't have to do that at all. They worked out on some of the weight machines and he did really well with them. On the way home they went to get gas and then went to get lunch at Roy Rogers. Paul said he wanted a fish sandwich ... did you know they don't have fish at Roy Rogers??? He ended up getting a chicken sandwich. He seemed to like it. Thursday was Carolyn's birthday so our family went out to dinner Friday night. We went to Akasaka, the Japanese Steak House in Manassas that we enjoy. Bill & Ronda came with us. It was really nice having everyone together. Max was the only one not there ... he is in West Virginia with Tabby's parents for the week.

Saturday morning Paul woke up and had been sick during the night. Dad got him up and was cleaning him when the nurse arrived. It appears that he has a stomach virus and he felt terrible all day. He was throwing up and listless all day. We had to cancel our trip to Warrenton for Mexican food with Bill & Ronda. Paul was able to eat a little chicken noodle soup for lunch but he didn't keep it down longer than an hour. By dinner he was feeling somewhat better and ate some toast, applesauce and Jell-O. He was ready for bed by 10:00pm. He was running a little fever (101 degrees) so Dad gave him some Tylenol. Hopefully he will sleep better and feel back to normal by Sunday morning.

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl