Guy Lunardi's blog

This Saturday, July 23rd, the Dance Club girls will be holding a fundraising car wash at the Grease Monkey in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The address is 919 West State street in Pleasant Grove and it will run from 10:00am until 5:00pm. All of the girls have been wanting to do something like this so badly and they are very eager and excited for this event!!

Please, please spread the word and there will be more fundraising activities occurring here shortly.

And most importanly - THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

-Tim

You can find the location of Grease Monkey on this Google map and obtain driving directions.

Tori's late evening yesterday turned out to be really difficult (she had the worst 'comfort' score at 9pm-10pm she ever had).

But before that, she was awesome. I remember Sophie and I walking in the room and being greeted with the same smiles that she sends to her friends. It was truly moving. She would look at you when talked to. She would try to sit up and it almost seemed like she was reaching for ways to communicate and interact with us. Being able to hold her hand and look at her in the eyes is fantastic. Especially when she would not let go of your hand.

Despite having fixed her computer recently, I do not believe she was fond of me lately because I tried to police her a little bit on the Internet. She would be online at some unholy hours during school nights. Having the user IDs of some of her friends, I now realize that she is not the only one...

Someone said to me this week their grand-mother saw Tori dance recently and recognized her picture in the newspaper. She said that Tori appeared to be the most humble of the dancers and that she performed perfectly that day. She remembered her because she found her strikingly beautiful.

A word about the title of this post: It was a conspiracy. It seemed like a few weird things had occurred other the past few days but being preoccupied by work and Tori's situation, it didn't seem all that relevant. One of my close colleagues is visiting Provo/Orem from Boston this week and I mentioned to my wife that I might invite him to stay at our house one night if we needed to work late. She went ballistic saying that she couldn't deal with a guest right now and that it would not work. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so I left it alone. Tim and Maria had big grins on their faces. Today was Lagoon day for Novell employees. I offered to Sophie to take Whitney and her friends(s). She wanted for 4 tickets. I asked who the tickets were for and she said that a friend of hers would come as well. When asking a bit more details about, things appeared awkward again but it really didn't bother me.

Since Tim's post earlier today - a lot happened.

First, let me start with the positive: Maria gave Tori a bath and brushed her teeth. She was pretty and all ready for guests. And guests she received. Marilyn and Kenzie came up to see her.

I believe that Maria and Tim both said they had not seen their daughter that alert since her accident. These were ear-to-ear smiles that Kenzie and Tori were sending at each others. You can tell there is chemistry between them and that includes Kenzie's mom Marilyn. Update: I forgot to mention something. No one else noticied it but I guarantee you: I saw Tori wave back at Kenzie when she was moving her hand in front of her. Of course, Tori's response time is lagging sometimes - but in this case there was response and it was great to see!

It appears obvious that Tori is thirsty for friends right now.

A few more visitors came to see Tori. For the first time, she got to see her website as well. Kenzie and Tim used a laptop to show her some of the pictures and posts on the web.

At 13:20, they gave her a stimulant (Ritalin) to see how she would respond to it. Well it didn't take very long for it to crowd her room. Let's put it simply: she didn't respond well at all. She got over-stimulated and it looked a lot like what she did last night but amplified. She would not stop shaking with Maria, grand pa and Tim by her side. Everyone got a little frustrated I think and it's very understandable.

They didn't attribute her reaction to the drug but it is very likely. They decided to give her benadryl to help her calm down (yeah, right...). That wasn't enough and Tim asked that they consider sedation (kinda whispered in his ear). Her heart rate was at 165 and they could not even get her blood pressure. They had to sedate her twice with adult narcotics. After 20 minutes, the drugs finally kicked in and she was able to relax. Her heart rate is back down and so is her blood pressure (expected). Maria is up there with Tori now and I hope that the 2 of them can rest a little bit.

All,

The Deseret News has provided another great article on Tori and The Dance Club today. Here is the Article.

They also did a reprint of the NY Times article released earlier this week.

Thanks,
-Tim

All,

There was a great article posted in the Daily Herald newspaper today!! Here is the Article.

Here are some pictures for everyone to see as well: Front Page , Article Page

-Tim

Erika Kinetz wrote a second article for the New York Times about the competition in New York and the girls. It is entitled: Kicks, Cheers and Tears at a Dance Gala Finale and was published on July 13th.

You can read the entire article here: Kicks, Cheers and Tears at a Dance Gala Finale.

It is Whitney and I believe Skylar in the small picture on the left of the article.

Whitney, welcome home and congratulations on your great performance these past ten days. Oh! on our drive back from seeing Tori at the PCMC, Whitney, Sophie and I passed another car with a "Pray for Tori" sign on its back window (it was a Ford SUV if not mistaken).

Love,
-Guy

PS: The New York Times was kind enough to give re-production rights for the text of the article. I will arrange to get the article posted here as soon as I understand what is required of us.

Tim offered a quick update via phone today and we wanted to share it with everyone.

Tori has been pretty quiet today again. She is suffering from the heat in the hospital. The A/C went out again today. According to what Tim said, the entire 4th floor is out of cool air. Everyone is pretty frustrated by the fact that patients' safety is jeopardized by power outages and A/C...

She has coughed a couple of times this morning but seems more comfortable from that perspective. She has been off the respirator and just using the mask since 10:30am this morning and still going.

It is comforting to see that she is able to keep her stats up off the respirator. Her heartrate is around 90, O2/Sat at around 94 and respiratory rate around 30.

That's it for now. Tim is hoping that Tori is going to wake up when Whitney and Maria get in tonight. He will let you all know.

Love,
-Guy

Tim and Maria went to visit 2 places this morning in Provo. The IHC Utah Valley Hospital Rehabilitation center and the 'East Lake' Center across the street from it.

The Center attached to the hospital is fairly nice. With only 18 beds and 1 nurse for every 5 patients, it seems to offer the highest level of attention of all the centers Tim visited. There is one technician assigned for each nurse. So basically, 2 people of staff for every 5 patient. They have availability and would be able to take care of Tori.

It is located 10 minutes from Tim and Maria's house and only 5 minutes from Maria's office.

After touring the 2 facilities, we stopped at a french bakery and loaded up (again one may add). The 3 of us ordered probably 8 or 9 pastries. We took them to go and then ahead to Starbucks Coffee on University Parkway in Orem. With 2 Grande Caffe Late and a hot chocolate, we were set with our breakfast of champions.

While discussing over breakfast, we commented about Tori's friends nicknames online. Something that Maria said made me somehow manage to spit a mouth of hot chocolate all over myself (Tori, you are not the only one).

It is now 2pm and she has been awake for a few hours and off the respirator since 9am.

She has quite a few visitors today. Jim Norman, his spouse and youngest daughter are here visiting her. Tina, her husband, Russell and Ashton are here. And finally, Ryan, his wife and 2 boys are here as well.

Tori was watching Shark Tale earlier on TV and, as I am sending this, is getting repositionned and released from air-pressured socks and shoes.

Love,
-Guy

I would like to thank Robb Perry for designing a new look for Tori's site. In the first days of the site, I wanted to make that the content would be able to get there and now it seems that it is. Robb, a designer in the company I work for, offered to stay a little later on his Friday evening and help with his artistic skills. The result is simply gorgeous and humble, like ToRi.

He was inspired by the stories and photographs. He particularily liked the yellow ribbon and decided that we should try to re-use it. Another thing Robb mentioned was how Tori 'lights up' on her pictures with Jake (used on the upper left-corner)...

Again, thank you very much Robb and Ryan for your help in dressing up the site. If you see robbsterino online on the site, maybe you will be able to thank him yourself.

Love,
-Guy

Tip: at any point in time, you can click on the top logo to go back to the home page.

Erika Kinetz, for the New York Times wrote an article entitled Budding Dancers Compete, Seriously on July 7th.

...And so it was that Whitney went on stage without her big sister to compete...

You can read the entire article here: Budding Dancers Compete, Seriously.

There are several great pictures as well posted with the article.