Paul's Update - 07/18/07

Dear Friends:

Tuesday Paul didn't have any appointments. Dad decided it was a good day to go to the pool. Paul enjoyed the pool even more. Dad started out in the deep pool. They had a half an hour before the summer camp kids would be coming. They actually had about 45 minutes to walk around the pool. Dad had Paul walk a little bit without Dad holding him. Since he has a flotation belt on he can move in the water without worrying about going under. He seemed to enjoy that. When they got out of the big pool Dad took him over to the hot tub. It was a little foamy and Paul didn't want to get in ... he dangled his feet in the water for a little while. After they were done with the hot tub Dad took Paul in the Water Wheel Chair (made with PVC pipe) to the shallow pool which is only 3 feet deep. It has a ramp that goes into the water. After they came home Paul spent the afternoon watching TV.

Wednesday morning Dad got Paul up, dressed and had breakfast in time to go to Occupational Therapy. The therapist had a plastic box that had horizontal rods with clips (like clothes pins) on it. She had him take the clips off and drop them in the box. She told him what to do and he immediately started to do that. He tried to do two at a time and she told him "no, I want you to do them ONE at a time" and he cooperated and did them right. Then she had him find all the blue ones and put them on a vertical rod on the box. She helped him find them and he would grab it with his right hand and clip them on the box ... each one went a little higher than the one before. Then he had to find the black ones and put them above the blue ones. He was stretching up pretty far with the right hand. He finally switched to his left hand since he can reach higher with that hand. Then she wanted him to take them off the pole but he didn't want to do that. She took them off and got a ball that she wanted him to raise above his head ten times ... he didn't want to do that AT ALL. Dad got him to raise the ball up and hand it to him and then Dad handed it back to Paul. They passed it back and forth to Dad and the Therapist (Ruby). They also got him to throw the ball. After OT it was time for Speech which is also in the hospital but downstairs. They did counting, days of the week, alphabet. She tried to get him to identify a nose, eyes & ears in a picture by saying the words. He didn't like saying "nose" but he was able to say the eyes & ears. This used up most of their time with the speech therapist. After they left the hospital Dad headed to the gym for a workout. Paul worked on the exercise machines and did a pretty good routine. Dad got him to do leg presses with 160lbs of weight. He argued with Dad the whole time but he did ten presses. Then they did the bicycle for ten minutes. He seems to enjoy doing that. They got home around 1:30 and Dad got Paul's lunch. Dad & I had an appointment to go to at 3pm. Paul stayed with Dora. We got home around 4:30. After dinner watched TV for a bit before Bill & Ronda called to ask if we wanted to go to Denny's with them for coffee. Paul enjoyed Denny's ... there was LOTS of activity there ... and lots of GIRLS!! He was watching all the people as they walked past us ... especially the girls!! We didn't get home until almost 11pm and he headed right to bed. He'd had a BUSY day! Dad said he thinks that he will join the gym so he and Paul can continue to go on a regular basis. They will go to the pool again on Thursday after they finish up at the dentist. Paul will have the prep work for the second cap and probably will have the first cap finished up. He is almost done with the dental work that he needs done!! Yahoo!!