Sunday, September 4th - Day 77 Update

Hi there!!

Tori slept pretty well for Maria on Saturday night and Sunday morning and she also slept with the trach button plugged for the first night!! She is still coughing quite often and she hasn't mastered swallowing after coughing so she gets somewhat excited at times. The phlegm is very loose but since she has inconsistent swallowing you have to get up and suction her mouth with the wand. It makes for a long night if she coughs alot...

The PT and OT therapists did some work on Tori this morning and Maria continued going right after they left. More of the same stretching and balancing exercises and after Maria was finished Tori took a late morning nap. She woke up again when I arrived at the HSH around 1:30pm or so.

Tori's visitors really started to appear at that point. Chris and Sheryl, Mark and Julie and the kids, Gary and Toni to name a few. I placed Tori in her wheelchair as soon as I arrived and we immediately went outside with all of Tori's visitors close beside. Tori spent a full hour outside getting some fresh air and watching just about anything that was moving or running by since Brendan and the Depalma kids were having a great time!! :-)

Afterward, we took Tori back inside for a real treat - a haircut!! Finally!! Tori's hair had grown to a somewhat uncontrollable length and Maria would spend an hour brushing out the tangles and blow drying it after each bath. So we went into the HSH hair salon and Julie proceeded to give Tori a good trimming. The finished cut looks far more comfortable and it should be much easier to maintain as well. With the haircut, Tori spent close to two hours in her wheelchair today.

Tori also had some late afternoon visitors. Jamie and her mom came into her room and spent some time and once again Tori fixated on Jamie for almost the entire time. Once they left, Whitney opened a can of tuna to have with her crackers and decided to give Tori a smell. She held the can below Tori's nose and Tori immediately turned her head away as far as she could!! I don't think she liked it much to say the least... Whitney then spent quite a bit of time hugging and talking to Tori. Tori makes quite a few sounds as Whitney talks to her. At one point Tori also moved her left arm over Whitney's back and had her in a nice hug position. Whitney loved it and stayed there a while and then she decided to get into bed with Tori for a bit. It truly was emotional and enjoyable for Maria and I to see once again!!

I'll close tonight by mentioning what a profound impact McKenzie's blog entry had on us all tonight. Reading it caused many tears to flow in Tori's room this evening because McKenzie's feelings are very familiar to everyone in our family. It greatly moved us and strengthened our resolve to help and support Tori in any way we possibly can. Thank you McKenzie for sharing this with all of us.

Until tomorrow,

-Tim