Monday, August 8th - Day 50 Update

Hello everyone,

Tori decided to try for her 'staying awake' record during late Sunday night and today... Tori ended up not sleeping at all throughout Sunday night which meant I didn't sleep much either. She truly seems to have super hero strength if she does not want to sleep. We tried just about everything we could during the day - 5 doses or more of Valium, additional doses of Zanaflex, Tylenol, Bennedryl, Motrin and even the newly added Keppra. During the night she was more agitated because the Phlegm I mentioned earlier is getting thicker and stickier so it does not come out of her Trach very easily. In fact when she coughs it bypasses the Trach and enters her mouth which intiates her to swallow it... The Respitory Technicians had a heck of a time getting a culture because of this and the culture they eventually got on Saturday still shows negative for any bacteria. So they will continue to monitor this and actually 'Bag' Tori when they need to deep suction her lungs.

So Tori finally went to sleep around 3:00pm today which gave her a total time of 31 hours straight of being awake. She didn't beat the record which is I believe 38 hours straight... She slept until 6:00pm then woke up again until 8:30pm and is now still sleeping as I am typing this update. I do have to state that while Tori is up during the day she isn't necessarily very agitated. She is very sedated so her eyes can barely open but she is definitely still up and can see and hear. It's kind of strange and it seems like she just doesn't want to miss anything or something like that...

In regards to Tori's digestive system, Tori did vomit slightly during Sunday night. We didn't even notice it until the morning when we checked under her and noticed traces. It basically came out of her Trach and ran down her neck. There wasn't a severe vomiting episode like in the past. We quickly stopped the feed and drained her stomach contents from her G-Tube which showed about 300 milliliters of Bile. There wasn't any of her feed in it so it appears the NJ Tube is still working correctly and placing the feeds into her small intestine. So we are kind of stumped as to where the vomit came from... We then restarted the feeds and continued to vent Tori's stomach through the G-Tube. She did well throughout the day as we upped the feed all the way to our goal of 75 milliliters per hour and she remains there at this time. We are really hoping and praying for Tori to handle the feeds because her weight is now approximately 94lbs which is not good at all... She has lost close to 23lbs since her injury. She did have another bowel movement this morning so yet another positive sign her digestive system is recovering.

The physical therapists also ran Tori through her routine and her legs and arms are still doing well with muscle tone and spasticity. The Botox in her arms has worked especially well and we can now move them in almost any direction with much less resistance from Tori as in the past.

Tori's Valproate (Valproic Acid) level was 80.6 today so we started the Keppra. The list of Tori's various medications now stands at 16. 11 of those are consistently given and 5 are as needed. Again, the goal is to trim this list once the Keppra effects are known.

Maria and I have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 1:00pm with Tori's medical doctors, therapy doctors and neurologists. We will discuss Tori's current condition and prognosis and try to decide on the details for her next direction.

Well, I believe that is it for today.

Thank you all so much for your support!! As I began typing this update there were 139 total users on the site which is truly incredible and the numbers just continue to grow. I hope these updates are beneficial to everyone and again, I will strictly provide the facts around Tori's condition and progress and I never intend to 'sugar coat' them at all.

Thanks again and good night,

-Tim