Paul's Update - 03/06/06

Dear Friends:

Today was a much better day than we've had for several days. The staff doctor came in to see Dad this morning and they talked about how Paul was exhausted all the time and sleeping most of the day. According to the doctor the muscle relaxers that they started last week have a side effect of drowsiness and can cause the patient to be confused. The medicine will be slowly decreased over the next three days to eliminate them. Paul started the day not interested in doing much but the Occupational Therapist and an assistant came and they worked to get him to roll over to his stomach. He resisted quite a bit but they got him to do it. He rested on his elbows while the therapist counted to 15 then rested on his side for a couple minutes. They repeated this exercise three times while he held his head up! This workout seemed to wake him up quite a bit. Speech therapy was OK. They worked a little more on swallowing and he got to have a little popsicle. The therapist showed Dad an exercise to help strengthen his neck muscles. After speech they went back to the room and Paul rested for a bit until the Physical Therapist came around 1pm. They worked a little at the bench to stand and sit. They did that three or four times. He actually started trying to get up on his own without encouragement. They got a walker out and tried to have him stand and hold it. Dad had to work his hands from a clenched fist to hold onto the handle but once he did that Paul was able to take about 3 steps (with help). After he sat down Dad said he saw a little bit of a smile on his face. He seemed proud of himself!! The end of the day contained quite a large development ... When Dad went to put Paul's boot on tonight he got really MAD! He was clenching his fist and trying to push the boot off with his left foot. His face got real red. Dad said he hadn't seen him that mad about anything for a long time. Tabby came in just as Dad was going home. Shortly after she got there he started CRYING!!!! TEARS!! Coming down his face. Oh my Gosh!! I never thought I'd be glad to see that kind of emotion! Maybe we will begin to see him try to communicate more soon! God gave us another miracle today ... just when we needed it! The last couple of days have been very discouraging for us ... every once in a while we just need to be reminded that God isn't finished with Paul's healing yet but that he is still working on it!! Have a blessed day!!

Love, Lynne & Carl