Paul's Update - 03/26/06

Dear Friends:

Sundays as you know are pretty quiet. Our day of rest!! Carolyn & Alysa were at the hospital when I got there at about 2:15pm. Dad was at Paul & Tabby's house again today to work on drywall some more. It is coming along very well. Monday will probably be the day that the Construction company is coming to start the forms for the ramp. They promised Tabby that the ramp WILL be done before he comes home on April 6. Paul was awake and alert when I arrived. Since there is no therapy on Sunday we worked a bit on encouraging him to swallow. Carolyn gave him a sponge with some Starburst Fruit Smoothie drink ... (don't tell the speech therapist ... it's a secret ... LOL) He seemed to like it. She tried to put the sponge stick in Paul's left hand to see if he could get it to his mouth by himself. He tried real hard but cannot quite get it to his mouth. He gets within about six inches ... but his arm is still pretty stiff. I spent some time today just moving his left arm in small circular motions. I didn't force it to move enough to hurt and was able to get a little bending movement from the elbow. The exciting part of the day was when I was working to get him to swallow ... I told him to close his mouth and swallow and he closed his lips ... then he stuck his tongue out and licked his bottom lip. This is exciting because the therapist has been working hard to get him to do just that!!! He only did it once but that is a start! Later in the evening we had the TV on and Paul was watching the Ice Skating World Finals (he was indulging me ... LOL) Then I put on the History channel for him. They had a story about Cleopatra and he seemed to be very interested in it. He watched most of the 1/2 hour program. When I left at 9pm he was sleeping. The medicines that he started a few days ago seem to make him more alert and awake most of the day ... hopefully that means that he will sleep all night! Monday I will start physical therapy for my shoulder. Amazingly it feels much better today. Thanks for your prayer!!

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl