blogs

I have only recently become aware of Tori and her new adventure. I have a 33 yr old son with an anoxic brain injury as of 8/27/04. He sounds much like Tori, except he cannot see. Jeffrey has cortical visual impairment. I , too, am anxious for the treatments to go well for Tori. What a brave family you all are. How exciting that you were able to put this all together and get Tori to China. Doing a month of HBOT was a big step for us. I pray that things continue to go well for Tori and all of you, and that you will get your Tori back. We pray for ya'll daily. God is good .... all the time. In His love,
Charlene Parker
Jeffrey's mom
Lorena, TX

Good evening everyone,

Maria, Tori and I are now adapting to an entirely new and very foreign culture. We are discovering all of the language, food, currency, transportation, habits and mannerisms of the Chinese people in general. I'll provide more details on my observations and the specific differences seen in future updates. The time change has also been interesting and Maria still is the most challenged but she is slowly waking up later and later each morning. Today she awoke at 5:30am but said she was up for a little while before that. Tori and I haven't had much problems on the sleeping front and I would dare say we are adapted already.

Tori has been adjusting well to her new nurses and doctors. Her feedings are also fully back to normal at this point. Her daily schedule is now as follows:

8:30am - Team inspection. Doctors and nurses visit Tori, take her temperature, check her skin, discuss progress and any issues, ask questions, answer questions, etc..

10:30am-11:30am - Physical Therapy Treatment with James who is the rehabilitation doctor.

11:00am-1:00pm - Lunch time.

3:30pm-4:30pm - Acupuncture Treatment and EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulation) with James.

This is repeated every day except Sunday when there are no treatments for Tori. Tori will be getting her first Stem Cell injection with NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) Wednesday afternoon. The subsequent 4 remaining injection schedules will then be determined as well.

Today Tori had her first PT (Physical Therapy) session and James twisted, turned, massaged and stretched almost every part of her body. Tori did very well for most of it and watched James quite closely. She did let out some good cries and screams when James would hit the stretching threshold. This will be very beneficial for Tori as she hasn't had this level of PT sessions for months since our insurance company quit covering it...

It is my understanding that many of the articles written about Tori and her journey for stem cell treatment are being picked up by many other newspapers across the USA and even the world. My mother has reported many calls at my home from people interested and needing information on Tori's stem cell treatment. Again, I truly believe and hope that Tori's journey will benefit so many others who need help the most. My mother has been directing all inquiries to Tori's website and to the Beike Biotech China and Beike Biotech Home websites where Tori's picture and one of her articles are front page. There is a Contact link on each of the websites where information can be requested. I am also willing to assist in any way I can and can be contacted through email at admin@pray4tori.com.

In the USA, the Stem Cell Bill once again passed through the house but fell short of the two thirds of votes needed to override George Bush's unfortunate and upcoming second veto... There is an abundance of media available on this and I'm asking that you please, please contact your local congressman and inform them of your support for federal funding of various stem cell research efforts. Millions of suffering people including Tori can only benefit from the scientific results obtained.

Here is another excellent editorial on the issue where Tori's journey is used as a reference:

Stem-cell promise: Veto of funding for research would be mistake

Thank you for your support,

The Schmanski Family

Hello again,

First off I want to wish Maria a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Someday I hope to take her again on a real, month long VACATION as a birthday gift!! When I told her it was her birthday today she didn't believe me so I had to remind her again that we are 15 hours AHEAD of Utah time. So I was eventually able to convince her she is one year older now :-)

Today Tori had her blood samples drawn and also had her rehabilitation therapy evaluation completed by James and other team members. She slept just as well as Maria and I did during Friday night and early Saturday morning. She did have some slight vomiting issues as we began feeding her the liquid Jevity through her G-Tube once again. She needed to adjust to the feedings once more so we slowed the standard rate of 110ml per hour to 90ml per hour and then built her up gradually afterward. The plan worked as she is now keeping everything down just fine.

We wheeled her to the rehabilitation room around 9:00am this morning where James and team did complete range of motion measurements on ALL of Tori's joints. They had her laying on a padded table and were twisting, turning and stretching her in every direction. Tori took it all in stride and only let out a couple of cries during extreme stretching. Now that the measurements have been taken James will really begin to go to work on her and I'm sure Tori won't be as happy then... It is all for the best though and Tori really hasn't had aggressive physical therapy for months because Maria and I tend to take it much easier on her when we do it. When the team asked if Tori was responsive I said of course and told her to "open her mouth and stick out your tongue". They were quite impressed when Tori obliged so I asked her for a "thumbs up" and a "close your eyes" to show them a little more. Tori wouldn't "use her voice" however and I told them I'm expecting her to do much better on that front after the stem cell treatments. I captured the evaluation on video tape and took many pictures as well. Hopefully I can make some of them available on the site but I'm finding the internet speed here to be quite limited at times... But we thankfully do have Skype and a VOIP phone running and are able to talk to and see video of everyone back at the house!! :-)

Hello all,

Thank you Guy for the Journey Updates created on the site during our travel. We did arrive safely in Hangzhou on Friday, January 12th around noon and we were very, very exhausted... I've finally finished a detailed look at our travel time that consumed 39 hours total which you can view by selecting 'read more' below. The joys of international travel with a 100% dependent child proved to be quite exiting to say the least.

After our arrival on Friday we were also introduced to the team of physicians, nurses and therapists. Dr. Shi leads the team and I'll introduce you to the others in future updates. I provided them a detailed history on Tori's accident, injuries, medications and subsequent issues and I gave them over 50 pages of medical records to review as well. I am excited and anxious to hear the results of their evaluation and subsequent plans for Tori's stem cell treatments and rehabilitation program during her stay. In the early evening Tori also had another startle seizure and Dr. Shi rushed in to witness it. They aren't very fun to witness as Tori will roll her eyes back and forth and begin frothing at the mouth... Dr. Shi had a EEG done on Tori afterward while she remained in her bed. Maria, Tori and I then proceeded to sleep from 9:00pm to 8:00am Saturday morning.

As we were just arriving in China for Tori's stem cell treatment, Dave and his son Michael were just returning home after their 35 day stay. We greatly hope both Tori and Michael see vast imporvements in their recoveries.

Thank you for your continued love, prayers and support,

Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan

Select 'read more' below for the complete Travel Time Journal

Travel Time Journal

I typed most of this detailed update 30,000 feet above China and at 2:00am Hangzhou, China time which correlates to 12:00pm in Orem, Utah. It also marks the 30 hour travel time mark since we left our home in Orem and since we have 5 hours of flight time left plus road travel time I’m betting we’ll hit close to 40 hours… A long time for sure but with all things considered, this adventure has gone exceptionally smooth albeit with great sleep deprivation for Maria and I least. Tori is the one doing all of the sleeping and that is plain perfect and according to plan!! :-)

They made it!!!

Tim will be posting soon we are sure. Whitney is talking to Tim and Maria right now...

Good night everyone,
-Guy

Tori, Tim and Maria have not contacted us this morning. They should have landed in Paris and transferred to their flight to Shanghai by now.

Information provided by FlightView.
-->

Again, we are not sure if they are onboard but will try to find out.

Fortunetely, there are 2 flights direct between Paris and Shanghai later today for them to take if they didn't get on the first one.

Thanks,
-Guy

I'm not sure I'm blogging or whatever correctly...however...

There was an article about Tori in the Ventura (CA) County Star Newspaper this morning, and I clipped it to place with all the others that have caught my eye in the last four years. I visited the Pray4Tori site--what a beautiful young lady she is! My thoughts and prayers are with you for a successful journey.

My daughter was in an automobile crash June 24, 2002, at the age of 16. She was an exceptional athlete (soccer, high jump) attracting college attention. There are many similarities between her and Tori. A car accident the summer after her junior year changed her (and our) dreams in a heartbeat. As she entered an intersection, a truck broadsided her, resulting in a three month coma, one year in hospitals, traumatic brain injury, and left hemiparesis. Our lives have been changed forever.

She was not expected to live, much less to prosper. But we did NOT pull any plugs, and Jenna defied the predictions of never leaving a facility or breathing and eating on her own. She is in wheelchair most of the time, but is taking junior college courses, and is breathing and, definitely, eating on her own. There is plenty of short term memory loss, and, of course, she is not playing soccer or high jumping. But her attitude is positive, and her sense of humor is intact. (When she was first told that a wheelchair would be a part of her life, I cried. She wrote [she wasn't yet talking at that point],"Mom--we'll be able to get the good parking spaces at the mall!")

I will be following this site diligently and praying that the stem cell surgery will benefit Tori. God bless you all.

Linda Prewitt,
Jenna's Mom

Tori, Tim and Maria have boarded Air France AF027 bound to Paris.

It wasn't without a scare though. Tim and Maria were told 90 minutes before boarding that the ground crew wasn't sure they will be able to let Tori board the plane. After several discussions with the Air France doctors and a few faxes later they were finally all aligned and ready to let them board.

Yours,
-Guy

Thanks for adding the updates Guy!! I toured the Washington Dulles airport and I am now borrowing some wireless network bandwidth from outside the NorthWest Airlines World Club Lounge - Thanks Northwest!! :-)

Guy was accurate in describing the trip so far. Tori did exceptionally wellon the first leg which is by far the smallest of the three. She cried slightly at one point and was agitated slightly at another. She spend her time watching 'Shrek 2' and 'Over the Hedge' on the DVD player.

I wanted to take the time to thank Delta airlines and the SLC TSA agents who were very, very accommodating and professional and made the first stage of our trip actually quite uneventful and almost pleasant. Arranging the personal assistance well in advance is paying dividends and I only wish I could do that when I travel alone on business!! :-)

We made it through the SLC TSA just fine and they secured our carry on luggage at the gate and let us enter the Delta Crown Room as well so we could change Tori and administer her medications. We then boarded first and basically Maria and I picked Tori up and placed her in seat 1B because it didn't have the full bulkhead so Tori could extend her legs out fully and place them on a travel bag we brought along specifically for that purpose. Again, Delta was very helpful and let me pick which seat would work the best. Thanks again to Cory and the rest of the Delta personnel who assisted us.

Once we arrived at the Washington Dulles airport we received the same great treatment as the assistant helped with all of our luggage and guided us to the Air France Lounge where we remain at the moment. It is not looking well at the moment for getting in the earlier, 6:00pm EST flight so we'll probably need to hang tight until the 10:00pm EST flight. Oh well, the lounge is comfortable and the Air France personnel even said we could stay inside even when they closed it to board other flights. So thank you to Air France as well!!

Alright, that is all for now and I'll try and post an update later and when we arrive in Paris if possible. It will be tight in Paris though since we have less than a two hour layover...