Saturday, July 2nd - Day 13 update

Our nurse told us today that Tori pretty much slept all night on Friday night. This was very good news and Tori was actually awake today about 80% of the time. Getting her sleep cycles back to normal has been a challenge for us so hopefully we are now on the right path. We were also able to get some more 'smiles on command' from her today which was totally encouraging!! Again, we can't wait until that massive tube is removed from her mouth... It is so very hard for us to be patient with Tori's progress because we want her ALL back right now!! Unfortunately, this will of course not happen and we can't expect to see new and exiting things each day. Patience - patience - patience. Hope - hope - hope. Prayer - prayer - prayer. Not necessarily in that exact order either.

We also met with the Trach surgeon today who analyzed Tori for Tuesday's surgery. He stated that Tori's cough is VERY strong and he actually predicted that Tori would eventually gain control of her upper respitory system. So the Trach and perhaps the G Tube would be temporary. Our goal with the Trach and G Tube is again to get her out of the PICU and into rehabilitation immediately. She needs stimulation by all of the Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapists and she just can't get that where she is currently at.

Guy and I also tried the Vanilla flavored Nestle Peptamen Junior food that Tori is taking via a feeding tube and vowed to eat it every day just like Tori until she is completely better!! Just kidding on that one - that stuff isn't very good at all... :-)

Thank you all and good night!!

-Tim