Ich bin ein [Texas-Born] Berliner

This is Perry rather than Paul and I must begin by apologizing to those of you who’ve been looking here for an update on Paul’s condition for a long time. I have no excuse, but here it finally is.

I’ve just spent the last 45 minutes on the phone with him, helping him resolve a computer issue that he was having. I was only able to do that because Dr. Wolfgang Petri made me aware of and assisted by installing a program called TeamViewer on Paul’s computer with which I can connect to his system and provide him remote assistance. This application is free for non-commercial use, as it is being used in this case to help a recovering friend who is 4,586 miles away from where I live. I must pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that I think that’s pretty doggone cool. Paul too was very impressed by how well it worked.

Today’s conversation was the longest and most productive he and I have had since his stroke almost a year ago now. He is doing much better, I’m pleased to say. He can communicate reasonably well though he still has trouble with particular words or concepts and his memory is not what it once was. Today I asked his permission to interrupt him when I noticed his beginning to bog down trying to communicate something IF I thought I knew what he was saying. He agreed to allow me to do that, in the interest of having a more fluid conversation, and to not interpret my interruption as being rude. Normally, I give him plenty of time to say things, but for some time now, I’ve been having to reflect what I understood him to have said to ask him for confirmation if I were right, and that has helped us communicate even when he was having the most trouble speaking. He will even occasionally say something like, we’ll I’m not making much sense so let’s put this conversation off until later. That’s easy enough to do, so most of our conversations are for no more than 10 to 20 minutes in length.

Earlier this week on Monday when I spoke with him, he was very concerned about Maxe who was behaving listlessly, causing Paul to believe he was ill. I did not call yesterday because I didn’t see Paul online and presumed he might be attending to Maxe. When I didn’t see him online again today, I called primarily to check on Maxe but of course also on Paul. He greeted me enthusiastically, more or less as someone who was being washed away by a fast-flowing river and had already gone down twice might do. He related his computer problems to me, which was the metaphorical river that was sweeping him away, and we managed to connect via the TeamViewer program, which enabled me to solve the problems. Once we had addressed that technical crisis, I was pleased to learn that Maxe had made a miraculous recovery the next day and was back to his usual barking, tail-wagging self, much to Paul’s relief.

Some of you have asked me to talk about how Maxe was fairing and how his needs were being met. Those charged with visiting Paul on a daily basis walk Maxe frequently, but Paul no longer goes out on Maxe’s walks with him. Paul does leave the house on occasion with friends who stop by and take him to dinner and other outings. To be honest though, I do not have a sense of how frequently those outings take place. People like Wolfgang stop by and visit with Paul and help him with things that need to be done, from his television to his computer. So he isn’t isolated and without company. I can guess that there may be times when he’d like people there more often, but there may also be times when more people are there than he was used to before. When he and Maxe are there alone together, Maxe is often playing the role of a lap robe, keeping Paul’s lap warm while they watch television together.

As Paul’s 86th birthday approaches on March 3, 2010, I’d have to say that my friend and yours has made significant progress in recovering many, though not yet all, of his abilities.