Paul's Update - 05/09/06

Dear Friends:

Paul had another really great day. Tabby made Paul a smoothie this morning after breakfast. She had some bananas that needed to be used up and some frozen strawberries. He loved it. He even held the straw in his mouth and moved the cup around to stir the smoothie!! He had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon today. The doctor plans to do surgery on May 17th. He will remove the plate and as many of the screws as possible. When they arrived the first thing they had to do was x-rays of Paul's foot. That took an hour. When the doctor looked at them he said he will try to get all the screws but it won't hurt if he leaves two of them. The day of surgery will be long. Paul will need to be at Fairfax Hospital at 8am. Surgery is scheduled at 11:30am. By the time all is done it will probably take most of the day before he will be able to go home. The doctor told Dad that he had just been thinking about Paul a couple of days ago. He had done another surgery just like Paul's only the other patient was worse. The doctor was amazed at how well Paul is doing and was surprised to see him be able to eat! The nurse brought Paul some graham crackers since she knew he'd missed lunch. When they got home Paul sat outside. Tabby sat on the swing and Paul wanted to sit with her. He was trying to get out of the wheelchair. Dad said "do you want to sit by Tabby?" and he nodded his head. So Dad put him in the swing and he smiled and put his arm out for Tabby to hold. Then he used his feet to push the swing. I wish you could have seen how good he looked. He sat proud and happy with his wife on a beautiful day in front of their home!! How great is that?? When he was ready to go back in the house. He held out his hand and dad thought he wanted a drink so Dad went and got a cup of Kool-Aid. He took the cup and drank a couple of sips, gave it to Tabby and she took a drink. When she gave it back to Paul he took another sip and looked at it for a second. Then he held the cup out and tossed the rest of it on the ground! He took everyone by surprise. Tabby told him "please don't do that in the house" and he nodded his head. That's one way to say "I'm done with this"! Tabby rearranged the bedroom today so Paul's bed is now facing the TV. Tabby has decided to buy a Craftmatic Adjustable Bed so they can both sleep in the same bed. He really doesn't need the hospital bed as long as the head and feet can be adjustable. The bed comes Wednesday. Paul had to get in the hospital bed on the opposite side tonight. It was an interesting change for him. Instead of getting in and laying down to the right side he needed to go to the left. He didn't of course ... he is use to going to the right and so he did. He ended up laying across the bed instead of in the bed! He realized that it was wrong and pulled himself up from a completely laid out position back to a sitting position. Dad helped him get into the right position after that! Paul was pretty tired by then but he did take a little time to play with the bed controls!! We still haven't really had a time to meet with the new nursing service. Someone is suppose to come Wednesday but it may only be for an evaluation. Hopefully, they will start the therapies by Thursday!

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl