Paul's Update - 03/21/06

Dear Friends:

Tuesday was a pretty good day. Paul was awake at 7:30 am when the Occupational Therapist came for ADL. She was able to get him dressed and he helped a little with cleaning his face. He still is having a great deal of pain with his left arm though. The doctor has increased the muscle relaxers and it seems to help with putting his arms down but he has lots of pain when he tries to raise his left arm UP. The therapist didn't like the "test" wheelchair that Paul is using because it put him too high to get up to the sink. It also doesn't have good side or arm supports and he falls from side to side. She is worried that he could fall. We went back to the old wheelchair he was using for now. Sometime this week the Physical Therapist is suppose to work with us and the representative from the wheelchair company to order a chair that is custom fitted for Paul. Speech went OK. The therapist worked to stimulate Paul's mouth and tongue. She also had a new "toy" today. She was able to get a machine that rings a buzzer when to push a button. She asked Paul to push the button once ... then twice and then three times. He was able to successfully do each of these commands. But then she asked him to push once for "yes" and twice for "no". She asked him if he was married and he pushed the button twice ("no"). She asked him if his name was John and he pushed the button three times...?? Dad was wondering if he actually did it right but is having trouble controlling the pushing of the button ... since two and three are the same relationship to each other as one and two (if two was "yes" and three was "no" he got the answers right). Maybe he is ringing it by putting his hand on the buzzer and then he is actually pushing the button purposely only once. We aren't sure but this exercise is worthy of more work!! The Physical therapist had Paul at 1pm and he was tired and his arm was hurting a lot. His face gets really red and he actually holds his breath when he tries to move it. She decided that they wouldn't walk but she worked on standing up for a bit. Dr. Gisolfi came in around 6:30 pm. He was pleased to see Paul's arm is looser but he is puzzled (as are we) that he seems to be in such pain. The X-ray that was taken the other day showed nothing. He will continue to work on the medicines to see if he can find something that helps. Wednesday is "evaluation" day. The doctors, nurses & therapists consult with each other about the patients progress and whether they can expect continued results over the next week. This could mean that Paul might be recommended to go home. We are hoping that they will keep him longer but at least will keep him until March 29th. Tabby is working hard with friends & family to get the house ready. Please pray that it will all come together. God has been so good to us throughout this ordeal. He has provided unexpected benefits through some unwelcome changes along the way. I hope that going home will turn out to be a good thing for Paul's recovery! Have a great day!

Love, Lynne & Carl