Paul's Update - 08/10/07

Dear Friends:

Friday morning Paul has Speech therapy at 10:30. Once Paul was up and ready Dad, Dora & Paul headed to Fair Oaks Hospital. Of course there is never any handicap parking at the hospital ... duh! Dad parked at the lower end of the parking lot and Paul walked all the way to the main entrance of the hospital and to the elevator to go upstairs to the therapy room. He does really well with the new walker. It allows him to have a more normal stride. The therapist was able to get Paul to talk to her quite a lot. She commented that she has notice a lot of improvement since she started seeing him. They did the usual alphabet and counting. She asked him lots of questions that he had to SAY yes or no. They counted to twenty several times. She tried to get him to go farther but he only got to twenty-two. When they were almost done she asked Paul what they were going to do after therapy. She said "are you going to the gym?". Evidently the other day when she asked that he said "yes" and then Dad was too busy to get to the gym so when he answered ... he said "maybe!". It is always interesting when Paul answers with anything other than yes or no. It shows us that he is thinking about what is said and not just an automatic response. After therapy they went to the cafeteria and had lunch. They DID indeed go to the gym after lunch. Dad said he started off with the normal leg and arm exercises. When he got to the leg press Dad set the machine to 185lbs of weight. Paul argued with Dad the whole time but he did the work anyway. After he had done about 10 leg presses Dad asked him if he wanted to increase the weight. Paul said "yes" so Dad worked him up to an incredible 260lbs. The last thing they do is the exercise bike. Dad put the setting on level 3 and Paul peddled for ten minutes. This equates to about a mile. Dad said it seems that Paul has lost some of his stomach fat. The shorts that he was wearing were loose on him and had to have the drawstring tightened to keep them up! Carolyn called me this afternoon to say she took Chris to the doctor for his two month checkup. He now weighs 11lbs 5oz. The doctor said he looks great. He got four shots ... that should make for an interesting evening!! We went out for dinner with Ronda, Bill, Vikki & Mike. We went to Logan's Roadhouse. When we went to get in the car to go home Dad got Paul next to the car and Paul grabbed the door and proceeded to step into the car sideways ... just like you and I would. He managed to get into the car all by himself!! If that wasn't good enough ... when we got home I opened the door to the car and he turned his legs out the side of the car, grabbed the door and stood up all by himself!! PLUS ... once he was up, he turned himself around and sat down in the wheelchair ... all by himself. He is working so hard to do things without any help. Paul stayed up until after midnight watching TV. We have had another really busy week and Paul continues to amaze us every day!

Have a great weekend! Lynne & Carl