Paul's Update - 07/21/07

Dear Friends:

Paul continues to progress nicely each day. Paul spent a great deal of Thursday morning at the dentist. He was in the dental chair for over two hours while the dentist completed one of the crowns and did prep work for the next crown. The dentist always comments that he wishes all of his patients cooperated as nicely as Paul does. He opens his mouth and holds it open, he turns his head whatever way the dentist needs him to and when the assistant rinses his mouth and suctions it he closes his mouth on the little tube just like your suppose to!! Anyway ... once he got home Dad had planned to take him to the gym but he wasn’t feeling good enough for that so they had a quiet day at home.

Friday was another very busy day. Paul had Occupational therapy at 9:30. she worked on having him put pegs in the pegboard. He had to do them in a certain order and he followed her instructions at first. The second row she made a different pattern with the pegs and at first he didn’t do it right. She showed him what to do and then he seemed to catch on and did what she wanted. After OT he went to Speech. It is nice that they are on the same day and both at Fair Oaks Hospital. The speech therapist told Dad that she and the Occupational Therapist had conferred on Paul’s therapy needs and the OT wanted to only work with Paul once a week so that she could see him for a longer period of time. The speech therapist felt that now is the time that Paul needs the MOST stimulation and the more often she sees him the more she can encourage the synapses to work. Dad agrees with the speech therapist and is also concerned that if Paul should lose his health insurance somewhere along the way he may not be able to get the full benefit of the amount of therapy that has been approved. For now they have decided that he will continue to get speech twice a week. Once the speech therapist confers with the occupational therapist we will know whether Paul will continue to get OT twice a week as well. He is doing so well it would be a shame to slow him down!! After they finished at the hospital Dad, Dora & Paul headed home for lunch and then back out to the gym. Paul really enjoys going to the gym and he works out really hard each time. They did the pool and Paul was able walk mostly by himself (without Dad holding him). He wears a flotation belt so he won’t go under the water. Dad said he seemed to like doing that. He also did some floating on his back. Dad gets at his head and pulls him by his shoulders through the water. At first he held his arms close to his body but Dad was able to get him to relax and hold his arms loosely in the water. He even did some arm strokes!! That night we (Dad, Paul & I) went out to dinner with Bill, Ronda, Missy, Barry, Lew & their new baby girl, Serenity. Dad was wanting steak so we went to Logan’s. Paul had fish…which is what he told me earlier in the day that he wanted for dinner. Every once in a while Paul exhibits poor judgement and while we were waiting for our food Paul picked up the peanut bucket and put it to his mouth like he was going to drink out of it!! LOL. Then later he reached past Dad and picked up Dad’s drink and was going to drink that. It isn’t like he didn’t have a drink of his own!! Once dinner came he ate good and seemed to enjoy being out.

Saturday morning started out quiet. Dad got Paul up and showered. It is always nice when he has a shower because his hair gets so much cleaner!! Plus ... He loves showers!! Dad & I went out to get a wedding gift for my friend Karen’s son’s wedding that we were going to later that day. Paul stayed with Gradis while we were out. The wedding was at 4pm so we left about 3pm to head out to Springfield (about ½ hour away). We wanted to arrive a little early so we could get Paul situated. The wedding was at my friend’s house (on the deck) and it was a beautiful day for it. The ceremony was also beautiful. After the ceremony there was a reception on the deck with lots of food. Paul especially enjoyed the spare ribs. He ate five of them ... and cleaned every bit of the meat off of them!! We stayed until late and were able to visit with Butch and Karen after most of the guests had left.

Sunday morning we headed out to breakfast as usual. Paul was especially hungry and ate his entire breakfast pretty quickly. He has discovered lately that he would rather use his fingers to eat with ... it IS faster! He had scrambled eggs, home fries and toast. He managed to use his fork for the eggs but the home fries were fair game for eating with fingers!! After breakfast we have a little time at home before heading to Sunday School and Sunday Worship. Paul was able to greet many of the folks coming in since he sits at the back of the church during the service. After church we met up with Bill, Ronda & Lew and got Subway sandwiches that we took to the park and ate. It was an absolutely gorgeous day ... perfect for a picnic. Lew enjoyed playing on the playground and running around the park. Gradis enjoyed playing with Lew some too ... she loves children!! After coming home and relaxing for a bit, Carolyn, Billy, Alysa & Chris showed up and had leftover BBQ ribs with us. Paul enjoyed them as much today and he did at the wedding!!! I have been working with Paul to get him to stand more by himself (without much help) since he depends on Dad a lot for standing. In order for Dad to get a break someone else is going to HAVE to be able to help Paul get up ... and he HAS to help for anyone else!!! He did really well with it as long as Dad isn’t standing right there!! I think it won’t be long before he will be able to get up without much help at all. Tonight Paul watched some TV but was ready for bed about 10:30pm. Dad was ready too ... they both went to bed a bit early compared to most nights lately!! Monday we hope to see Max. Tabby was suppose to pick him up from her parents today and bring him home. We haven’t seen him for over a week and Pap-Paw really misses him!

Have a great day, Lynne & Carl