Paul's Update - 02/23/06

Dear Friends:

Today was the first full day at Mount Vernon. Dad & Tabby left around 7:30a.m. to take on the traffic to Alexandria. He had lots of people look at him today to try to evaluate what he can do. Most of them were pleased at his progress to date. After Paul got a wheelchair, Dad was able to take him for a walk around the building. They went to a window where school busses were going by. When Dad asked him if he could see the busses he shook his head "no". The therapist said she believes he sees but probably better on the left side than the right side. That actually makes sense since the right side of his body seems most affected overall. All of the therapists and doctors will meet next week to determine how they think his therapy should proceed. Friday they will start him out with Physical therapy at 9am then Occupational Therapy at 11am and Speech Therapy at 1pm. The speech therapist will focus on trying to prepare Paul to get rid of the trach. Evidently they are always aggressive about weaning patients from trachs. She wanted to see what types of questions Paul could "answer". She told him she was going to ask him some questions, some of them she would know the answer to but she wanted him to try to answer. She started out with "Is your name Mark?". Paul gave her a frown ... she said "I guess I will take that as a no"! LOL The occupational therapist worked with the parallel bars. She stood him up and had him balance himself. Her goal is to have him learn how to lean forward to start to stand up instead of leaning back to push himself up. The physical therapist was able to get Paul to reach out and touch her hand and he did that twice. She thought that was good. She also took Paul in the hallway and got him to "walk" his wheelchair with his left leg. It took him a little time to figure out how to do that but once he figured it out he traveled about 20 feet with it. Later we will have the benefit of a Recreational Therapist ... when he is ready for that. Paul will have therapy 6 days a week - Monday through Saturday. According to the therapists the best times to visit are evenings & Sunday since there are no interruptions for therapy. It appears that Paul could be at Mount Vernon for 4-6 weeks depending on what the insurance and Medicaid will pay for. Tonight Tabby was sitting at the end of the bed, she asked him if he was "ok" and he did a thumbs up! All in all it was a very good day!

God Bless, Lynne & Carl