Thursday, July 14th - Day 25 update

Good evening,

Tori had another great night of sleep through Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. Her sleep cycles seem to have returned to more normal hours and this is truly a benefit for us. Today she acted just as she has during the past couple of days. She was very awake, active, and alert and she interacted with many different people today. Smiles were once again abundant!! She was awake from 8:30am until 5:30pm, she then had a nap until 6:45pm and was still up when I left the hospital at 10:15pm.

Tori had a few of her dance friends visit her today. Kourtney, her mother Michelle and Nicole came in and gave Tori all of the juicy details of the NYC trip they just returned from. Tori was just glowing and smiling through the whole conversation!! We truly believe the stimuli provided by hearing and seeing various people throughout the day is greatly helping Tori. Tori even responds to the doctors and nurses who visit her and as Cory, one of our favorite nurses, pointed out - Tori seems to be more attentive and responsive to the guys... Lucky for me I guess... :-)

Tori demonstrated a few new tricks for us today. She no longer has the 'fish hook' type grip I mentioned in yesterdays update. She now has a full blown, grab your hand hard grip!! She uses it quite frequently especially if she coughs at all. She has also been using the newly found grip to get a hold of her breathing apparatus at times so she really has to be watched at this point. I still can't quite get it on command but I think it is close. We also noticed Tori several times today turning her head completely from one side to the other to look at something. Normally she will just roll her eyes to the sides as far as she can go. Another new observation is that she can completely lift her head and neck off of her pillow just prior to coughing or sneezing. That is her preparation for a cough which will propel mucus across the room so everyone typically takes cover or grabs a kleneex to cover the Trach as fast as possible. Her swallowing is also improving and whenever she gets a mouthful of saliva we have been telling her to just swallow and she seems to respond to it most of the time. I think that is because she absolutely hates when the suction wand goes down her throat...

I also happened to walk into the room today to see Tori in a sitting position on the side of the bed. She was being held up by three or four people but she actually had her head straight and looked pretty comfortable with it. One of the medical technicians was taking her measurements for a custom wheelchair just for her!! I cannot wait to wheel her around in it!! How does the license plate 'MRCL GRL' sound for the chair!?! ;-) It will be soooo nice for Tori and everyone else to get out of that room for a while.

As I'm typing this I am realizing just how busy Tori's day was. She also had a 'Day at the Spa' because Maria gave her a great massage with lotion, painted her finger and toe nails, shaved her legs and armpits (sorry Tori...), and even plucked a few eyebrows. Don't shoot me!! I'm just the messenger for all of this behind the scenes action of Tori's day!! ;-)

Tori ended up breathing on her own today from 9:00am until 5:00pm and she did very well again by maintaining her Respiratory Rate and Oxygen Blood Levels. She will be on the respirator for four more hours then off again. At approximately 6:45pm tonight Tori actually gave all of us a bit of a scare. Her Heart Rate dropped drastically and quickly while she was sleeping. It went from 80 beats per minute to less than 40 and it lasted a couple of minutes I guess. The doctors and nurses were scrambling and we were just watching and scared beyond belief yet again... The Lead Doctor on the shift examined her and determined that it might be the result of the Beta Blocking drugs she has been getting to treat her high blood pressure. The problem is that she USED to have high blood pressure yet she was still getting ample doses of the drugs. He cancelled giving her any further doses and Tori will be watched very closely tonight and tomorrow morning. Maria decided to spend tonight in Tori's room because of this.

One of the Pediactric Physical Therapists also stopped by tonight and he made the recommendation to begin giving Tori Ritalin which will stimulate her brain. Ritalin is typically used to calm children down but apparently it helps create brain activity in neurologically damaged patients. We shall see I guess. Amantadine would be the next drug tried to stimulate Tori's brain if Ritalin does not provide results.

Maria will be getting her own tour of the Health South Hospital in Sandy tomorrow. We spoke with one of the nurses there this evening and this might be our best option since we can't get into Utah Valley Regional Medical Center quite yet. Our Discharge Planner was also researching some new Home Health Care options and she is supposed to inform us of them tomorrow as well.

I think that is enough for now. Thank you all so much and I'm sorry that the update was quite lengthy tonight. There was just a lot of news to report on today.

-Tim