Wednesday, July 13th - Day 24 (mid-day update)

Hello everyone!!

Tori has compelled me to post a mid-day update today!! She FINALLY slept very relaxed in a nice and cool environment last night and it is paying off now. I just spent about four hours with her and she was totally aware and awake!! She is making up for the past few days by smiling so, so much today!! I am sooooo tempted to take a picture of that beautiful face and smile of hers for all of you to see!! Maria isn't very keen on that idea quite yet but perhaps if we wash Tori's hair and 'doll' her up a bit it might be ok ;-) We shall see.

Isn't it amazing that if you drop the temperature in the room from the low 80's to about 72 degrees that Tori's temperature follows?!?! Go figure... Tori went from 39 degrees Celsius to a cool 36.1 presently and she is very relaxed and comfortable and it shows greatly in her behavior and demeanor!! She has also been off the respirator for over four hours and her breathing rate has been between 15-20 and her O2 Blood Level is between 95-98%. She is doing absolutely great today!!

Two more positive notes. She hasn't really given us a hand grip on command but today it appears to me that she might be giving a slight 'fish hook' grip with the ends of her fingers on top of my finger or hand. I will continue to experiment with this throughout the day. I've also been playing a little 'hide and seek' with her to see how well she can locate me via my voice. She is pretty good at it!! It is exciting to see her eyes scan and focus around the room while trying to locate me. I am also typically rewarded with a smile when she finally locks onto to me so I'll play this game alot!! :-)

I'll post more later tonight!!

Thank you all!!

-Tim