This is a Sign for Tori...We are praying for Tori over in England

Maria, Tori and Tim have made it to Los Angeles, California. In a matter of minutes now, they will be together with Brendan, Whitney, Grandpa, Grandma, Cupcake, Thumbs and Tinkerbell. The house will be full again as a family gets re-united.

As they are on the last stretch home, I wanted to make everyone realize that they all just lived the Longest day of their lives.

For matter of simplification, I am going to cheat a tiny bit on the hours so that it is easier to remember.

Maria, Tori and Tim left Shanghai at Midnight (00:00) on the morning of Tuesday the 12th. As of 8:30pm mountain standard time, it is/was still Tuesday the 12th for them and it has been for over 35 hours! Now it is/was only 8:30pm at the time and they would have just landed in Salt Lake City. So another 45 minutes drive away from home + 30 minutes to get the luggages from baggage claim and loading the cars. In the end, it is very like that their February 12th 2007 will have lasted for over 37 hours.

There is a tiny detail as well. The day started at midnight. The flight from Shanghai to Paris is a late night departure. This means they have been up all day on the 11th before that.

So they could have had:
- breakfast in Paris by getting there at 5:30am
- lunch in Los Angeles by getting there at 12:50pm
- dinner in Salt Lake City by getting there at 8:30pm

Looking to make sure I didn't make mistakes with the flights and timezones, I found out something interesting... Today's flight AF0111 from Shanghai (PVG) to Paris (CDG) was canceled! There were meant to come home today I suppose.

Love,
-Guy

Hi there!!!

Well, it is Sunday afternoon now and we have just about finished our packing. We should be leaving the XiaoShan Hospital for the Shanghai airport within three hours and our flight leaves Shanghai for Paris at 11:30pm tonight. We've been able to consolidate down from eleven large and heavy bags to 8 bags since we've used much of Tori's supplies during the month. I'm still a little bit concerned about the Shanghai airport since Chinese televising has been showing the enormous crowds and mayhem throughout the week... I guess it is now just time to endure another 30+ hour trip and get home safely!!! :-)

It's been slow during the past few days as Tori went through her normal PT, acupuncture and EMT routines. James and took her final muscle and joint range measurements on Saturday and they will compile the results and send them to me when finished. One result that really stands out is on her right knee as she could only bend it 7 degrees upon arrival. The final measurement was a 70 degree bend!!! That is HUGE improvement. Her other measurements will produce positive results as well and when I get them I will share them. I have ALOT of film footage as well that will be examined when home and carried onward. We are still looking for that PT person and now are in need of an acupuncturist.

All of the nurses have been saying their goodbyes over the past few days and we seriously wish we could just bring a couple home with us!!! Along with James of course ;-) There actually have been patient caregivers here who have done just that so it's not entirely an impossibility. We bought many gifts that we will share with the staff prior to departing to thank them for their outstanding care and support. We honestly do not have ANY issues at all in regards to our very kind and accommodating staff. The English lessons I have provided also seem to have been very productive!! :-)

Maria and I were able to get a Chinese massage Friday evening and we certainly were a little sore the next day but it was worth it for sure!! You can't really beat $10 for a sixty minute massage and in hindsight we probably should have took much more advantage of this.

Hi Tim
This is Meenu here in california. We been watching Tori progress for many days. It is been amazing and blessing.
We used to live in utah (salt lake city) and my husband worked for Huish Detergents from 1984 till 1992. After that we moved to california and he was daignoesed when we found out that he has parkinson. At this time the problem has progressed so much that it is unbareable.we want to know how the couple from Minnesota is doing if we can get thier contact or some other patients who has parkinson.I will be in touch with you guys . God bless.
Thanks in advance.

Meenu Chanana

As I was searching the net for stem cell treatments for BI, I found Tori’s blog. Tori is a beautiful girl, and I’m hoping you see great results with the stem cell treatments. My daughter, Brooke also sustained a tbi in a car wreck (1996). I am anxious to follow Tori’s progress with the stem cell therapies, and to also give your family encouragement with what we have been through.

Brooke had just turned 16, was an inexperienced driver & missed a curve. She was air-lifted from the scene & placed in intensive care. She was eventually weaned from the respirator and sent on to a coma stim program, remaining there for 2 months - unresponsive to all therapy. Three months after her wreck, they recommended we place Brooke in a nursing home, but we chose to bring her home. She was total care, in diapers, and on a feeding tube 24/7. She received in-home OT, PT, Speech & home schooling. Her therapy schedule was intense, beginning in the morning, and continued all day.

After a few days at home, Brooke slowly began to respond. Her first response was to reach out for a therapist, we later saw a crooked smile, then her first tiny word came 90+ days after her wreck.

Brooke’s junior year of high school was spent at home. Thirteen months post accident, she returned to school part-time. The following spring, she graduated with her senior class, and presented the baccalaureate address.

Brooke has continued to improve - she enrolled in our local community college and earned her AA Degree, then moved onto a university campus & lived in the dorm (this was her most difficult step). With a great deal of support, she earned a BS Degree in Social Work in 2006. The local TV news did a feature story about her, if you would like to have a link to it, I would be happy to send it.

We used several alternative therapies: 300+ HBO treatments with Dr. Neubauer in Florida, scalp acupuncture with Dr. LiXin in Denver (specifically for stroke/BI), as well as regular acupuncture, biofeedback, cranial/sacral therapy, etc. It has been a very long road and the injury has left Brooke with several disabilities. Life is different-- for sure -- but good. I wish you the very best in Tori’s recovery.

Hello again,

Tori's fifth and final SCT went very smoothly Wednesday afternoon. This time it was purely a spinal injection of 10 million cord stem cells. She slept on her back for three hours afterward then woke up and watched a couple of movies in the DVD player that we positioned vertically for her. We were able to move her and elevate her head again after the six hour minimum time frame. Thankfully it cooled down outside Wednesday and Thursday because Tuesday afternoon it was quite hot in Tori's room... They did find us a fan though and it helped alot. Tori is very uncomfortable when she is hot and her body temperature seems to rise much quicker and higher than the rest of us and that tends to greatly worry the staff here.

Tori had PT Wednesday morning only due to the afternoon SCT and Thursday was a normal therapy day complete with PT, acupuncture and EMT. The PT room is now pretty busy during the morning as there are three additional patients from Hungary and another one from the USA is arriving on Saturday. All of the activity in the room seems to help Tori because she is watching everything else going on and not really focusing on what James is doing to her. Tori has alot of new friends here!! :-)

I also finally met 7 year old Maya and her mother on Wednesday. Actually, Maya introduced herself to me by walking over to me on her own and placing her 'etch and sketch' right on my lap where she proceeded to draw for me. She is a sweetheart!! :-) This is Maya's second trip and I spoke with her mother Belle(?) about her improvements. Maya didn't experience any real improvements until 2 to 5 months after her first SCT trip. Maya has epilepsy and before the SCT she was having many seizures each day. Now has has basically none and her medicine intake has been drastically reduced as well. She speaks and concentrates better and now completes puzzles that were an impossibility before. She is also stronger and she has more stamina, balance and coordination. So now Maya has returned for her second round of SCT and they are hoping for even greater progress and improvement. And now we are hoping and praying as well.

Ni Hao everyone,

At least I have learned some basic Chinese while I've been here but everyone chuckles at my pronunciation of course. Hello! = Ni Hao!, Good morning! = Zao Shang Hao!, Good evening! = Wan Shang Hao!, Good night! = Wan An! and finally Thank you! = Xie Xie! Hey?!?! I'm trying just like they are trying English so it keeps us all laughing most of the time :-)

For Monday and Tuesday, Tori has been on her normal routine of PT in the morning followed by acupuncture and EMT in the afternoon. She looks and feels good the vast majority of the time and Maria thinks she is more alert and quicker in her response times. I believe she has much more control of her arms and hands. During the medical staff inspection this morning I asked and mimicked for her to demonstrate some of her new movements. Her right thumb to her nose, ear, chin and forehead. Everyone was excited and she giving out 'thumbs' all around!! It's somewhat of a 'high five' I guess as Tori likes to extend her thumb to touch yours. Of course we've also dubbed this movement either 'thumbs' or 'thumbing' :-) James was ranging Tori's right knee during PT today and measured a 65 degree bend in it!! Remember, it was only 7 degrees when we arrived and when Tori is resting in her wheelchair now it can easily rest at a 45 degree angle. Instead of having both legs extended in her wheelchair we are now extending the right one much less than the left. James basically has five days left before the final measurements will be taken and the improvement marked. We want to range Tori again when we return home at the PCMC because they have their measurements prior to us leaving. I know they will be quite impressed with her progress on this front. Now we just have to keep it up when we return home...

We always joke with James because his English is the most limited of the bunch here. We're still trying to bribe him into coming home with us by offering room and board at our home and access to the beautiful American women that are all over town :-) We can certainly make him blush especially when there are others who can translate around because they also enjoy ribbing James as much as possible.

One of the tour boats on West Lake.

Here is Tori watching all of the crazy drivers and traffic twenty floors below her room.

The fountains in West Lake.