Paul's Update - 09/28/08

Dear Friends:

The last couple of months have been mostly quiet. A couple of significant things happened though. In July Paul started going to Speech Therapy again. This new therapist is a specialist in assisting patients with Brain Injury. The first couple of sessions she spoke with Dad to get a sense of what Paul is able to do. The third session she decided to work with ONLY Paul in the room. She asked him to do several small tasks to determine (without any input from anyone else) what he is capable of doing. She found that he was able to say his own name with some prompting, repeat her name, repeat most of the alphabet. She found that he responds “yes” to most questions he is asked even if it doesn’t seem to make sense but he occasionally (and with emphasis) will say “no”. She determined that his “no” is much more dependable than his “yes”. She asked him to do some problem solving puzzles, and tried to do some letter and number recognition. He did OK with some of it but was not consistent. She tried some color recognition but he didn’t do well with that. Mostly she found the same things that we see at home are the same as what she saw. I am encouraged by her process and eagerness to work with Paul to find what he is able to do and learn.

Paul continues to have Occupational Therapy although he now has a new therapist. Amy, who was the previous therapist is now working only with patients that are in the hospital. The new therapist started in August. Dad is still not real sure of her … but we really liked Amy. The therapist has worked with playing cards to have Paul match color, suit and numbers on cards. He starts by sorting the cards by color. Then sorting the number cards from the face cards but when he got to the Ace and put it on the face cards the therapist stopped him and told him that it was a number card. After that he wouldn’t do the cards anymore ... he considered it a face card!! She is amazed that he is able to work quickly with the cards.

We have been able to spend time with Max most Sundays. He is quite a busy two year old. He enjoys sharing toys and snacks with his daddy. Paul really enjoys interacting with Max. He smiles each time Max does anything with him. Dad had Paul on the floor one Sunday to try exercising his legs. Dad told Paul “lift your knees to your chest”. Paul wasn’t doing it … so Max got on the floor with Daddy & Pap-Paw and was lifting his knees up like Pap-Paw was doing. It was a cute picture!! Max was away one weekend with Mommy. They went to the beach. I wish we could have been there ... I bet he enjoyed the ocean and the SAND!! When they returned, Max spent the night with us Sunday night into Monday morning. He played outside until almost 9pm before he tired and was ready to go to bed. Pap-Paw tucked him in and he went right to sleep. It was a wonderful time with him. He seems to enjoy time with Daddy and Paul responds to him in a way that he doesn’t with many people! It isn’t the “traditional” father & son relationship but there is a definite connection between them. Pap-Paw is really the center of Max’s world though ... he follows Carl around and wants to play with him constantly.

Carl had a scare in August. He had severe pain in his kidney area on the right side. This lasted for several days before he went to the hospital. They recommended he see a specialist who ordered an MRI. There was concern about a spot that was seen on his kidney and the doctor wanted a better look at it. After the MRI results were ready he went back to the doctor who said that he believes that the spot is only a cyst but will have him come back in about 6 months to make sure nothing has changed. It was never determined what the cause of his pain really was … but it did make the doctor look more carefully and at least we now know to keep an eye on his condition!! Isn’t it amazing how God works??

God continues to bless our family in many ways. We have learned to see God in the smallest things and we are very thankful. I’m encouraged when someone who hasn’t seen us for a while says how wonderful Paul looks and that he is doing so much better than the last time they saw him. It is hard for us to see sometimes since changes come in such a small form ... but changes still come … and Paul continues to improve. I apologize for the length between my last update and now. We stay busy but as I said the changes come slowly and there isn’t a lot to report from day to day. I ask that you continue to pray for Paul and the work that God is doing through us.

God Bless, Lynne & Carl