Sunday, September 18th - Day 91 Update

Hi again,

Tori cooperated very well with Grandpa and Grandma Schmanski Saturday night. She woke up only once at around 1:30am after a repositioning and the corresponding Valium dose kept her sleeping until 8:30am in the morning.

A physical therapist arrived after Tori was up and did some therapy on her arms, hands and shoulders once again. Tori's left arm and hand seem to be a little bit better but her hand remains swollen. Both arms and wrists were placed into the inflatable splints after the therapy was over. A couple hours later Tori was taken downstairs to have the ultrasound completed on her arm. The ultrasound highlighted NO blood clots in her entire arm. So we now believe the swelling is just water retention from her constant wrist pressure. To eliminate it we must keep massaging her hand and try to push the water back up Tori's arm. Dr. Gooch, the rehabilitation doctor, visited Tori again today and brought some much needed help for Tori's left arm. More Botox!! :-) She injected more Botox into the back of Tori's left shoulder and into her left forearm which should cause much less wrist tension. When we previously injected Botox into her calves, biceps, lower back and neck it ended up doing wonders for Tori's muscle tone and spasticity.

Tori had many visitors today including our neighbors Chris, Sheryl and their daughter Jacki who taught Tori in dance - Mark, Marilyn, McKenzie and Brady - and finally Julie, Shaid, Serin and Julie's sister Josie, who happens to be a massage therapist!! :-) Josie gave Tori's shoulder, hands and arms a total massage for over 30 minutes and Tori responded very well. Through massage you can just ease into the stretching and Tori tends to relax much more quickly. We are planning on incorporating Josie's massage routine into Tori's routine much, much more moving forward.

Tori's feeds of Nutren 2.0 are continuing at 80 milliliters per hour. Her digestive system also seems to be doing much better today as her Bilious output was lower and she has had normal bowel movements during the past week. Tomorrow we are going to weigh her once more and we hope to see progress!! A 100lbs would be nice Tori!!

Sunday's are pretty slow around the PCMC and today was no exception. It was nice to see Tori interact with all of her visitors today. She mainly tracked and focused with her eyes and she was also easily drawn to sound. She was hardly agitated and her behavior seems to finally be back to how it was two weeks ago. Now it is time to get back to full time therapy and rehabilitation and I will provide details surrounding this when I know exactly where and when it begins.

Thank you all so much,
-Tim