Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - February 26th through 28th

Hello again,

Everything with Tori is about 'status quo' lately and the only issue to report is that she seems a little more agitated at times. We've been settling her down with half doses of xanax several times per day as of late but we don't know what it means of course. Tori isn't ill or anything like that so we'll continue to watch her. Her sleeping during the night is still going well but we're still using ambien to help her a bit. She is waking up a two to three times per night 'hollering' to be changed but she is managing to head right back to sleep afterward. Not for me tonight though since this is another 3:00am update...

I finally got to meet Tori's new PT person Shawn early this week and he has been working well with Tori. He's on schedule to come to the house twice per week at this time. Meredyth also came over on Tuesday and had another good ST session with Tori. She worked on the computer for much of it as Tori created a slide show of pictures by selecting the ones she wanted. She hit the 'Yes' and 'No' switch with her right hand to accomplish this and then watched her own slide show at the end. Meredyth also used cold packs on Tori's face in an effort to improve Tori's facial muscle control. We still don't have those smiles yet...

Tori was quite riled up when helpers from the high school came over on Wednesday so nothing was accomplished. She was so agitated she was vomiting and we hadn't seen that in a while either. Tomorrow we are headed back up to the PCMC (Primary Childrens Medical Center) in SLC for a baclofen pump refill and we will also try and schedule her next round of botox and phenol shots while we are there. She is about one month overdue on those shots and perhaps some of her new agitation revolves around that fact. Her arms, wrists, shoulders and back are very tight at this time and she is probably very uncomfortable.

"Imagine that your life, like Lee Woodruff's, was perfect. You have a beautiful family, the golden horizon. For 27 days, Bob was living his dream — co-anchor of "World News Tonight." Then in just an instant, David Westin, president of ABC News, wakes her with a phone call to tell her that Bob has been seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq and that there is shrapnel in his brain."

When I read Lee Woodruff's account of her husband Bob's TBI and her experience earlier this week I broke down and began to cry in my office for it created vivid memories of where I have been and where I still am today. Life in the ICU for so long, the coma, the fear of not knowing, the pneumonia's, sepsis, death all around you....They are not pleasant memories at all and I shared many of the same thoughts and feelings that Lee had as well. Bob Woodruff has made a miraculous recovery from the TBI he suffered in the Iraq war and I would encourage everyone who didn't catch his story on ABC's Primetime this week to go here to watch and read about it. It is a very inspiring story and we need many more of them because our own personal hell remains... I envy Bob, Lee and their family greatly because Tori cannot talk, walk or eat and is in constant pain... She cannot hug us, tell us she loves us and how she is feeling... The only hope that keeps us going is the possibility that some day she will be able do all of those things and Lord, I'm sure praying you make that happen.

Sincerely,

-Tim