Paul's Update - 02/27/06

Dear Friends:

Dad, Tabby & I got an early start today. Paul was scheduled for ADL (activities of daily living) at 9a.m. When we got to the hospital the nurse informed us that Paul was scheduled for the IVC filter removal at 9:30 so the ADL was postponed. The IVC removal went well and Paul was back to his room around 10:50. At 11a.m. the speech therapist came in. She had a new toy today. An incentive spirometer that encourages Paul to inhale. It measures the amount of breath he takes so he can see how he is doing. He needs a lot of work on this but he does inhale when you tell him to. She worked to get him to make sounds with his voice again. He was able to make several "ahhh" sounds in a row. It was evident that he was purposefully making sounds!! He did that about 6 or 7 times. A second speech therapist came in around 1pm. She worked to get him to exercise his tongue. She was able to get him to open his mouth and move his tongue over the top of this teeth. She exercised his cheeks and lips and worked to get him to swallow when asked to. He does really well with the cap on his trach and now he needs to do a little better with swallowing so he will be able to eat real food!! The physical therapist came around 2pm. She worked with him a bit to "wake up" his right side. She worked his leg mostly since she wanted to get him up on his feet. Once she had him up and in the wheelchair we went down to the therapy room. This room is quite incredible ... it has everything!! She put a big mirror in front of him hoping that he would be able to see himself and notice his own posture as he stood. She got him up three times. He stood OK but was tired and couldn't stand for long. After that she worked with him to "walk" his wheelchair. He walked it about 20 steps across the room. He was pretty tired by then and we took him back to the room. He was able to sit up in the wheelchair for a bit after we got back. The great thing that happened today is the infectious disease nurse cleared Paul from the isolation status. All his tests for staff have come back negative ... that means no more gowns & gloves!! Yahoo! Now he is able to be with other patients in the therapy room and we hope he may be able to take advantage of the animal therapy. They have several dogs that come in and visit patients and it is a pretty successful therapy from what we understand. Before we left to go home Tabby had been laying in the bed next to him. When she went to get out of the bed ... he moved his legs to the edge of the bed like he was going to get up with her. How wonderful his love for her is!! Tuesday therapy is OT 9:00am, Speech 11am & PT at 2pm! It is so nice to have a schedule each day!

Blessings, Lynne & Carl