Paul's Update - 02/14/08

Dear Friends:

I hope you have been well. We have been fighting the flu for some time. Paul finally needed to go to the doctor on Tuesday last week. He had been fighting a cold for over two weeks. Dad asked him on Monday night if he was OK. He shook his head “no” so Dad asked if something was hurting. When he said “yes” Dad asked him to show him what hurt. Paul shook his head “no”. Dad told him “I can’t tell the doctor what is wrong if you can’t show me”. He thought for a minute and then pointed to his mouth. Dad looked in his throat and found that there was swelling and white nodes in the back of his throat. Tuesday Dad took him to the doctor and she put him on Antibiotics and a powerful steroid to tackle infection. It took a couple of days but he is feeling better. He had to cancel therapy on Tuesday. Paul has had so much trouble walking lately anyway! Wednesday Dad & Paul stayed home. Thursday Paul went to therapy. He had Occupational Therapy at 9:30am. The therapist wanted to work with Paul & Dad to plan what they will work on for the next few weeks. This took most of the session. She wants him to work on personal care more and do some errands at home. The Physical Therapist had Paul do some walking with his cane and walker. She hasn’t pushed him to walk without the cane since he has been having so much trouble with balance. He walked down the hall and did a bit better than he did the week before. Friday was another quiet day at home. Saturday Mayah came around 8am. We had a day at home since we were planning to go to the church for the Sweetheart dinner sponsored by the United Methodist Men that evening. Dad wanted to make cookies. They went to the kitchen. Paul had to turn on the oven and set the temperature. Dad had bought frozen cookies that you break apart and put on a pan. Paul had to pull them apart and put them on the cookie pan. He stood at the counter without holding on to anything and carefully put them on the cookie pan spaced apart so they wouldn’t run together. Some of them were a little close and we adjusted them before putting them in the oven. Paul did it mostly by himself! Since Paul’s therapist wants him to do more chores, Dad had Paul work on loading the dishwasher while the cookies were baking. He did a great job. He was careful to dump out water that was in the cups in the sink and then put them on the top rack of the dishwasher. Then he loaded the bowls, pans & silverware in the bottom of the dishwasher. He was careful with the dishes and balanced himself at the sink very well. He had to bend at the waist to put dishes on the bottom shelf. He only lost his balance a couple of times. Dad & Mayah were right there to catch him. After they were done ... we got to eat cookies!! Yumm!! Sunday Mayah came at 7am to help get Paul ready for breakfast at Yorkshire Restaurant. Once we got to the restaurant Mayah left to go on a trip for the day. He planned to come back in the evening. Since he had told us before that he needs the money we were willing to allow him to take part of the day off and come back to finish out the day. Max didn’t come since he was out of town. We had a very quiet afternoon ... we all took naps! Mayah came back about 5pm and stayed until 10:30pm. He was going to help Paul get ready for bed but Paul didn’t want to go to bed that early!! He ended up staying up until about 11:30pm! Monday is my day off and we spent the day at home doing household chores. It was a freezing cold day ... we weren’t interested in going out!! Tuesday Paul went to Physical Therapy at 1pm. Paul walked without his cane or walker. He walked down the hallway and back. Then they went to the rail on the wall and walked the 40 feet down the hall. Dad said he was walking almost normally and remembered to move his hand on the railing at the appropriate times. Sometimes he forgets to let go of the railing and ends up turning himself around but not this time. He walked all the way down the hallway and then he had to walk backwards to come back. The therapist has to remind him to take small steps instead of large ones. He tries to go to fast and take steps that cause him to lose his balance. Then they walked to the end of the hallway to a corner in the wall. She had him stand with his back to the “V” of the wall with his hands at his side. She gently pushes him from side to side and he has to correct himself without losing his balance. After that she tried to get him to do deep knee bends. Controlling his lower muscles and bend to sit are difficult for him. He still has weakness and tone in his muscles that cause him to have difficulty using them correctly. He also had Occupational therapy. He worked on puzzles that are “sequential”. The first one was a sequence of cutting bread. The first piece is “the knife & bread”, the second was “cutting the bread”, third was “cutting through the bread”, fourth was “the bread cut all the way through”. He did really good with figuring out the sequence. She had two other puzzles but Paul wasn’t interested in doing them. By the time therapy was over it was sleeting outside so Dad headed right home. I came home early. When I came in I asked Paul how he was. He said “fine”! Usually we go through a routine conversation ... I say “hi”, he says “hi”, I say “how are you?” he says “good”. This happens almost every day so for him to say “fine” was really interesting!! Every once in a while he says things that we don’t prompt and I love those times!! The weather turned back quickly and we sent Dora home early. The night was cold and icy so we stayed home where it was warm!! Paul went to bed about 10:30pm. He had a pretty busy day! We are thankful that he is feeling better!

Have a great day, Lynne & Carl