Wednesday and Thursday - November 16th and 17th

Good morning,

I'll start by stating that Tori hasn't had another siezure for the past couple of days which is great news of course!! Hopefully they won't be returning. Tori continues to sleep very, very well at night and she is maintaining a 92-98% blood oxygen level.

On Wednesday night Erick, Leanne and Dave from Guaranteed Financial stopped by and presented the final donation check to the Tori Schmanski fund from this summer's golf tournament (picture to come soon). It took a while afterward to finish this due to all of the post tournament activities. Many who attended the tournament began taking candles and other Pray4Tori items to high schools around the SLC valley and they were really moving the merchandise. I'd like to thank all of you for this great effort and especially thank Erick for all he has done and is doing for Tori and our family. The overall support and contributions from ALL of you has been fantastic and it is greatly appreciated. I am finalizing some treatment and care for Tori now that will utilize all of your contributions and I will provide an update on this soon.

Thursday proved to be a great day for Tori!! Tori's daily agitation periods usually occur right on the clock. About 80-90% of the time Tori will need a 'half and half' as we like to call it each morning between 8:00am and 11:00am. The 'half and half' consists on 1/2 Xanax is used for anxiety and 1/2 Zanaflex which is a muscle relaxer that addresses high tone. About 100% time until now, Tori will need an additional 'half and half' between 4:00pm and 7:00pm and this is typically given while she is in her wheelchair during the early evening. We don't know why of course, but on Thursday afternoon Tori was in a completely calm and very aware state and she didn't require anything additional for the entire afternoon and night!! It doesn't seem like much but we always notice ANY and ALL changes in Tori's routine even if it is very small. Meredyth was working with Tori from 4:00pm to 5:00pm and Tori was just 'sharper' than normal. She went 12 for 12 on some objects on picture card questions where she had to look at two cards each with multiple objects and pick the card where a particular object was foremost. A ball in front of a table for instance. It was probably the hardest card selection test she has had to date. Then Tori worked with the switch doing puzzles on the computer. Her right thumb and left pinky were used to press against the switch and Tori seemed 'smoother' than normal on her control of the switch where each press filled in a puzzle piece. Tori closed the ST session with some mouth, tongue and lips therapy and enjoyed some pixy stick candy.

I was home during Meredyth's visit and witnessed most of Tori's effort and Tori was placed in her wheelchair immediately afterward. Tori still has the bad tendency to lift her left shoulder and arm directly in front her face. She basically places her elbow on her forehead and can't get arm back down no matter how hard she tries... It drives her crazy and us crazy as well... But last night, I mimicked Tori with my left arm on my forehead and just told
Tori to pull it down to her side like I do. This has never worked in the past but this time Tori just calmly and relatively smoothly brought her arm down to the pillow on her lap!! It's probably crazy that something this simple brings excitement but welcome to the Schmanski household :-) So Tori is not agitated and moving her hands well so let's try the 'place the hand' game where I hold out my hand in various positions and ask Tori to give me her hand. Tori is usually pretty good with her right hand on this but last night she using both her hands quite effectively and often at the same time!! So after placing her in bed I got out the disco ball and switch and set the timer for about 4 seconds of light and action once the switch is pressed. This makes Tori have to hit the switch alot to see the action ;-) Tori was very much on target with her right thumb and left pinky once again so I decided to challenge her by moving the switch around to different locations so she had to move her entire shoulder, arm and hand at times to reach it. What can I say?!? Tori just excelled and could get it basically anywhere I placed it and pretty much with EITHER HAND.

Again, why was Thursday night different than ALL of the other nights when we try the same stuff?!?! We don't know of course and welcome to the wonderful world of dealing with a severe brain injury... We'll always keep pushing Tori and we will continue to hope and pray for more days like Thursday, November 16th, 2006.

Here is a great closer for the update today. While Tori was operating the disco ball Tinkers the yorkie was watching the entire time from the chair next to the bed. I am not exaggerating in the least here but when I set the disco ball and switch back onto the floor that dog immediately went over and pressed that switch with her paw!! She would hit the switch, step back and watch the disco ball for four seconds then step up and hit that switch again, and again, and again!! It was totally hilarious and I had to finally pull her out of Tori's room to get her to stop!! :-)

Thank you all as always,

-Tim