Friday, July 29th - Day 40 Update

Hello again,

Finally!! Tori decided to give herself, Maria and I a much needed GREAT night's sleep last night!! She also only had one dose of Hydromorphone and one dose of Valium at around 11:30pm Thursday evening. She then slept very comfortably and silently until about 8:30am this morning and we did too!! We are hoping for the same result tonight as Guy and Grandma Schmanski are taking a shift while Maria and I head home with Brendan and Whitney. We will hope and pray their night will be as nice as ours was and I prepped the nurses on 'Tori procedures' before we left tonight :-)

Tori's mid section doesn't seem to be causing her nearly as much pain and discomfort as the past few days and we initiated a slow 10 milligram per hour continuous feed around noon and Tori was still holding steady when we left the hospital at 9:00pm tonight. The Antibiotics still seem to be working on her E coli bacteria and on her Pnuemonia since her lungs are sounding much better as well. Tori also had an excellent physical therapy session this morning and her muscle Tone and Spasticity are holding up very well. The physical therapist team also upped her dosage of Baclofen to try and rid Tori of the minimal Myoclonic Jerks or newly diagnosed Dystonia. The physical therapists are unsure of which one it is at this point... Luckily, both conditions are treated with the same types of medications including Baclofen and Botox. Dystonia occurs generally with injuries to the Basal ganglia which is Tori's primary area of brain damage according to her MRI. Again, we believe Tori could be totally calm, comfortable, aware and awake if she didn't have either of them... I also found the following information on the internet concerning Dystonia:

"A large number of drugs are capable of causing dystonia. In most cases, the dystonia is transient but in some patients exposed to neuroleptics, such as Haldol, the dystonia may be persistent. This disorder, known as "tardive dystonia," in contrast to dystonia associated with other neurotoxins, commonly manifests isolated dystonia without additional neurological problems" (Source: http://www.dystonia-foundation.org/defined/causes.asp)

Yes, our past favorite medication Haldol has a direct association with Dystonia...

Tori also needs to have another PICC Line inserted from her arm to her heart because they are poking way too many IV's into her arms presently... This is planned to occur tomorrow.

I think that is it for tonight.

Thanks again everyone for all of your prayers and support!!

-Tim