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Imagine yourself pretending to be a family friend and remaining 850 miles away enjoying Monterey, California.

When Tim called at 8:45pm, it was so difficult to hear the tone of his voice and even more so what he had to say. We were already close to 2 hours away from Oakland at that point. I remember not being able to say anything for a while there. Maria then called Sophie a few minutes later. We spent a grand total of probably 25 minutes in Monterey.

The decision of turning around was easy. Driving 14 hours was certainly one of the hardest thing we ever had to do but we were convinced it was nothing, a walk in the park, compared to what Tori was going through. Not knowing how she was doing was the most challenging part.

We saw many shooting stars on our way to the hospital. Evidently every single one received the same wish...

But enough about that, it's all behind us now and so is that night for Tori. She is back in a greatly decorated room on the 3rd floor. Those birthday banners are awesome and I have to say, Kara, your photo album is great and it was such a thoughtful idea.

Now onto the purpose of this blog entry:
Up late again on Sunday night but this time I wasn't alone, usual suspects were online as well (Shaid and Tim!).
But others joined us in a chat: Heather was telling Tim how her and Eddie got t-shirts for him. We came up with this: a Photo Contest! Terms and Conditions can be found here (pdf) (html) for more information.

Let's start brainstorming, come up with great ideas to show your love for Tori. If you need any help, drop me an email guy@novell.com.

Good night everyone,
Love,
-Guy

PS: Since most of you probably do not know this: I hate driving with a passion. Road trips are definitely not my thing. Tim and I would always joke that even Las Vegas is too far for us. Let Maria and Sophie drive, they can come pick us up at the airport :-)

Maria and I are often asked about Guy and Sophie and why we are such great friends. So we wanted to provide just one simple example of why they are part of our family and why we love them as such.

Guy, Sophie and July (Guy's sister) were in San Francisco Thursday evening when I called them and informed them of Tori's dire condition at the time. Though they were not supposed to return to SLC until Sunday, they quickly called for any immediate flights but unfortunately there were none until late Friday afternoon. This information did not deter them at all and they proceeded to DRIVE their rental car 14 hours to SLC to be with Tori and our family as fast as possible. That is exactly why we dearly love them and always will.

Thank you Guy and Sophie for all of your love and support and we are very thankful for everything you have done for our family. I believe almost anyone exploring this site can sense the type of caring, loving and awesome people they truly are!!

Very sincerely,

Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan

tim and maria,
i haven't seen you guys for years. i have been on this website from the beginning. i want you two to know that you guys are a awesome inspriation in the love and care you give tori. Maria, she is beautiful!! she looks so much like you. it sounds from reading everyones comments she must be alot like you also!! I just want you to know how saddened i have been and that your family is in my thoughts and prayers DAILY! keep up the fight and stay strong.

jolie

The Zanaflex that was administered to Tori late last night did lower her heart rate and blood pressure as it is designed to do but not to any levels to be concerned about. Tori slept pretty comfortably the rest of the night and the PICU nurses were also polite enough to let me sleep in straight through the 7:00am-8:00am shift change when all visitors are supposed to be kicked out of the room. Thank you nurse Torrey!! :-)

Tori awoke in a great mood and was awake, aware and tracking with her eyes. We ended up removing her Subclavian Central Venous Line and another set of IV Lines in her hands. The only one she has now is into a vein in her left foot. All or most of her medications will be given now through the NJ-Tube in her nose.

We then moved Tori back up to her old room 3044 in the CMU where all of her posters, decorations, flowers and other items remained during her quick visit at the PICU. Let's all hope and pray that we will never have to visit the PICU again. She ended up doing quite well throughout the remainder of the day. She does get agitated at times and it's primarily when the poor nurses and doctors are around and trying to do their jobs... Sorry about that for all of you who care for Tori and visit this site. There was a doctor yesterday that wanted to look into Tori's mouth and she refused to open it. So he hid around the corner while Maria got Tori's mouth opened but once he moved in again to check it Tori quickly closed it up!! She did this several times to him and he never got to look into it!! Kinda funny but still frustrating for the doctor... hehe

Tori's temperature was hovering in the normal 37 degrees Celsius range all day until about 7:00pm tonight when her fever flared up again. She has given Tylenol to help her with it and the fevers will be expected to appear in this fashion until her Cocci bacteria is completely removed from her system. She has probably by now received her sleeping 'cocktail' containing Bennedryl and Melatonin so Maria can have a great night's rest as well.

Tomorrow we will get Tori heavily engaged into her physical therapy once again and keep her going in it!! That would be a nice change for everyone I am sure :-)

Thank you all and good night,

-Tim

I just wanted to let your family know that there are people out here in NC praying for Tori. I happened upon your site from a link from a friends blog- and have become a daily visitor ever since. As a PICU nurse myself, I have a special place in my heart for familys like yours. I think it is incredible the amount of family and friend support you have and know that it can only help Tori get back to her life. I look forward to the daily updates on Tori and seeing how informed you are as parents. Not near enough parents become active in the recovery and day to day routines of their children in our PICU- on that I commend you.
My family is praying for Tori. I even ordered a bracelet to wear to spread her story-
Much Love-
Kokoszka Family
Fayetteville, NC

Good evening,

I'm sitting next to Tori tonight creating this update. I finally hit up the IS&T team here at the PCMC and begged them for wireless network access. The technician I worked with was a former Novell guy so now I am all set!! :-) Very nice!!

Now on to Tori. She is resting quite well and her vital signs are all looking absolutely great again!! A live look at her blood pressure shows a nice 130/78mmHg. Her temperature has been hanging in the 38 degree Celsius range all day as she continues to fight off the Cocci related bacteria. Tori did wake up today and provided us all her bright and beautiful eyes. She very actively scanned and interacted with us once again which was so nice to witness. Tori continues to bite down on her lower lip when she becomes agitated so it is pretty cut up and swollen at the moment... They actually had to stuff a small towel in her mouth last night to help out on the lip biting.

Tori currently has an NJ-Tube, NG-Tube and suction tube going through her nose. All of her medications and feeds are going though the NJ-Tube into her small intestine. She is getting 30 milliliters per hour of continuous feed at this moment. The NG-Tube and suction tube are into her stomach and are simply clearing out the Bile at all times to hopefully prevent her from vomiting again. I forgot to mention yesterday that the GI surgeons attempted to replace the G-Tube into her stomach with a GJ-Tube. They were unsuccessful in getting the tube inserted into her Small Intestine because Tori's Pyloric Sphincter is not operating correctly. The GI doctors believe it might be related to Tori's very low body weight... Again, this is our main focal area now so there will be much more on this topic during the next several days.

and all of your family too. Thank you for sharing Tori's condition with all of us. I'm sure it's sometimes difficult to write the updates but it is so very comforting to those so far away from you. I wish my arms were longer so I could reach you all and give you a big HUG! Thoughts of you all day long and prayers for you every day. All our love Auntie Jill and Uncle Donny

she sounds so amazing. i hope one day when she recovers i will get to meet her. i pray for her every night and i hope she gets better. tim and maria, you guys are amazing. i dont know how i would go through this if it was my kid (if i had a kid..). just thought i should say that.

Wow!! What a wild and humbling ride it has been over the last two days. I'll give an update now of exactly where Tori stands presently and I will also include the sequence of events starting Thursday morning after it.

At this moment Tori's Vital Signs are all within range of normal which is quite the contrast from last night. She is still running a fever of 38-39 degrees Celsius which is expected as she fights the Cocci related bacteria that infiltrated her system from her PICC Line which has since been removed. She will continue to take the antibiotics to fight this bacteria for 10 more days and she is expected to improve with each passing day. She is not very alert at the moment because she is still very ill and she is sleeping alot to compensate and heal. Maria and Aunt Laurie are also spending the night with her tonight.

Below is a lengthy and detailed summary of the past two, very trying days:

Tori slept very, very well late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. The nightly Zanaflex combined with the Bennedryl and Melatonin 'cocktail' is definitely a winning combination for sleeping. She was also suctioned only twice that night so I slept just as well as she did.

At 8:15am Thursday morning Tori vomited and she aspirated it as well. At that point her feeds were immediately stopped and her G-Tube was vented to remove all of the Bile from her stomach. The vomit was bilious and but we could detect feed in it as well. Remember that Tori's feeds are bypassing her stomach and going straight into her small intestine through the NJ tube so there should NOT be any feeds in her stomach. This raised our concerns so X-Rays on Tori's stomach and lungs were ordered and the results showed positive for lung aspiration and that her NJ-Tube had slipped from her small intestine and was inside her stomach again... It was still in place on Sunday so it slipped sometime during the week.

My apologies to all who have tried to contact me through my web page--the one that doesn't work. The person who insisted on creating the webpage at no charge left the project incomplete. Hope to get the problems fixed soon.
In the meantime, please direct questions or interest to me at my email address bybelieving@yahoo.com

As a mom to someone with a TBI, I must say how wonderful it is to see how much support Tori and her family are receiving from each of you. I know how much it means to have your thoughts and prayers go out in Tori's and the family's behalf.

And thank you, Tim, for your kind words about my book. Knowing someone has benefitted from some of our experiences makes the effort worthwhile.

Take time to close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply.

Ann