Paul's Update - 08/16/07

Dear Friends:

Paul continues to be busy and do well each day. Wednesday was a particularly busy day. It is therapy day. Dad & Dora got Paul up, showered and dressed. After breakfast they headed out to Fair Oaks Hospital for Occupational Therapy at 9:30. The therapist had Paul bend his knees from a standing position to reach over and pick up balls out of a milk crate and put them on the table next to him. She wants him to practice bending his knees instead of just leaning over. Then he had to put them back in the crate. She had him sit on the edge of the exercise table and practice balancing himself. He doesn't like sitting on the edge of things ... he usually sits back against something. After OT he has speech. The therapist had him count without using her hands to cheat. He was able to count to ten without her prompting him. He seems to respond faster to her these days. He also did the alphabet & repeat words that she would say. Sometime this involves just repeating words over and over. Then she tried to have him identify numbers. She worked with 0, 1 & 2 to see if he can recognize the numbers. She shows him the number and tells him what it is and then has him repeat it. Again this seems boring but he seems to be improving from this type of workout. The therapist keeps a box of Kleenex on the table near them and Paul began to drool a bit so he reached over and took a Kleenex (by himself) and wiped his mouth. This doesn't seem like much but he doesn't do much without encouragement and ANYTHING he does without prompting is encouraging for us! When they were done she asked Paul if he was going straight to the gym and he said "no". Dad, Dora & Paul went to the cafeteria for lunch before heading to the gym. It was exercise day and Paul started out with his normal arm & leg workout. When he got to the leg press Dad got him up to 210lbs. He does this exercise very slowly but that is actually good ... it strengthens the muscles better. Dad said Paul actually likes doing the leg extensions best which exercises the upper thigh. At the end of the workout they ride the Exercise Cycle and did about a ten minute workout. They got home around 3pm. Later in the evening Dad & Billy took the dog and the cat to the vet for their regular checkups and rabies shots. Paul stayed home with Dora. She has gotten very good with Paul and is able to get him up and take him to the bathroom by herself! What a nice change...this enables Dad to be gone and not have to worry about Paul needing to go to the bathroom while he is gone! Dad got a new cell phone and spent some time setting it up while we watched TV for the evening.

Thursday Paul got up and had breakfast. After he finished he decided to take a walk to the garage. He got down the steps only to find that my car was in the way so he maneuvered the walker to be able to sit down on the steps. When he went to get up he realized that there wasn't enough room to turn the walker around so he side stepped it over past the steps to where there was enough room for him to rotate the walker. He managed to figure out how to do that without ANY help! He had a doctor appointment with a foot doctor at 11am. He has been pulling his toes up on his right foot and is having some trouble with dragging that foot when he walks. The doctor said that she believes that he has just developed a bad habit but has asked Dad to go to a specialist that can make an orthodic with a brace that will have a little spring in it to help prevent him from dragging the toes. Dad called and made an appointment for the 21st. She examined his legs & knees to see that they where symmetrical. She had him flex his foot and try to hold it while she pulled against his foot. She remarked that he doesn't have a muscle problem ... he's very strong and she couldn't pull his foot down! On the way home from the doctor Dad stopped at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter. There was one little dog that would be good for us but he was being adopted as Dad walked in. They took a little ride to the Prince William County Animal Shelter and found there was one dog that would have been a good match but it was also being adopted before he got there! It was raining pretty hard so Paul waited in the car with Dora. The search continues!! They stopped at McDonalds for lunch and headed home. This evening Max came over for a visit. He ate dinner with us and stayed for about an hour. Paul was a little more talkative this evening and repeated several words. He doesn't do much interaction with Max but he watches him wherever he goes! Max's face lights up when he sees Pap-Paw though ... Pap-Paw loves that! He really misses the amount of time they used to spend together! We had bible study and Paul sat with us. He had his coffee while we were talking. Once everyone went home Paul wanted to watch some TV before bed.

Have a great weekend ... TGIF Lynne & Carl