Monday through Sunday, January 28th through February 17th

Good evening,

Thank you for your patience and for the many emails informing me that Tori's site was down. As Guy mentioned in his earlier posting to the site, there were some unscrupulous and malicious individuals who exploited Tori's site for fraudulent activities. It saddens me to know there are truly pathetic people out there trying to take advantage of not only Tori's site but many others just like it... It has been a long, long time since I have approved any new users to Tori's site and that it is due to actions like this. It will take a personal introduction email to me after applying for an account before access will even be considered. So once you apply for an account you will need to reply to the email which is automatically sent to you with information about yourself and why you want to participate on Tori's site. I'm sure there are many more of you who would like to contribute and this is an unfortunate precaution that must be taken. Now onto what this site is all about - Tori.

Tori continues to do pretty well but has had a few 24 hour flu type days since the last update. Slight temperatures, some vomiting, agitation and just feeling miserable like all of us feel when we are ill. Tori likes it about as much as we do... Maria, Whitney, Brendan and I have all fought through the same symptoms at times during the past three weeks as well. I'm happy to say that as of right now no one in the family is ill and we hope it remains that way.

Therapies for Tori are now back into full swing as our new insurance company has granted permission for PT sessions. Tori should be able to get two PT sessions per week for the rest of the year which is wonderful of course. Cari will continue to provide the PT sessions as well so Tori won't have a new therapist to get used to. Jake from Timpanogos high school visits Tori three times per week and tries various educational exercises for Tori. Tori certainly lets him know what is interesting and what isn't by either ignoring the exercise or by trying to pay attention to it. Word and object matching and questions are part of the normal routine. Tori still doesn't provide a clearly distinguishable 'yes' or 'no' method. We have to try and read her eyes and gaze for answers if she provides the effort. Meredyth visits twice per week for ST and she provides similar exercises. Therapies are canceled and rescheduled often depending on how well Tori is doing throughout the day.

Tori has a baclofen pump refill and checkup early next week at the PCMC and we'll probably get her fitted with her new braces at Shriner's Hospital during the same trip to SLC. Whitney's competitive dance season is now beginning and it is now my busy season at work as well so that will keep our schedules full over the next several months.

Thank you once again for all of your prayers and support,

The Schmanski Family - Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan