This site is dedicated to Tori and everyone who loves her. It should allow all of us to share our feelings for her and our stories about her. We will also enter all updates on Tori's condition and progress to this site. Please feel free to direct others to this site for information on Tori. We thank all of you greatly for your love, prayers, thoughts and support. -- The Schmanski Family

sending our love to your beautiful daughter

Hello,

Just a quick note to send our love and prayers your way. I'm praying that Tori is doing okay and that you've just been too busy to post a new update in a while. I have to admit, I get a little worried when a lot of time has passed in between updates. Tori grabbed my heart from the moment I read her story in 2006 and she is with me and in my prayers all the time.

Love and positive thoughts for all of you,

in His love,
Diana Palumbo

Michael

Don't give up on the Stem Cell therapy. Michael Mobley from www.justiceformichael.com is going back to China for his second stem cell treatment. That appears to encouraging news as according to the father, the stem cells are have some improvement. Perhaps he should compare notes on the matter and pool your resources. You both share the same situation. Hope all is well with Tori.

Tori is in my heart.

Hi, Thanks for the update. I check daily and get disappointed when there isn't a new update. I UNDERSTAND though really and don't expect anything. It's just that Tori and your family has a place in my heart and I like knowing how things are going for her. I keep praying that I'll read about more and more awareness and progress. I want that so badly for all of you. Us really. All of us dealing with brain injury and our hurt children. I watched the video this morning and was quietly taking in your beautiful daughter and her smiles. She is a beautiful girl. I'll continue praying, Tim. God will see us through.
in His love,
Diana Palumbo

Wednesday through Sunday, September 5th through 16th

Good morning,

Time seems to be flying by and summer is officially over unfortunately... Most of Tori's wounds on her feet are now healed and her feet are looking almost totally normal. We now need to get the AFO's re sized a little so she doesn't get the pressure sores. Tori's health, anxiety and behavior has been pretty stable and consistent since my last update though she is about due for another set of botox injections. We can tell because her arms and shoulders are tightening up again and she is beginning to raise her left arm up over her face more frequently. When she does that she also has a tendency to put her hand and fingers in her mouth and she currently has some cuts and scrapes from doing so.... We are trying to schedule for more botox during the beginning of October.

Brendan and Whitney are well into the school year now and are enjoying it for sure. I have been traveling a little more lately for work which is always keeping me busy and Maria continues to provide daily outstanding love and care for Tori. Maria's mother, Grandma Harris, also has been spending most of the days during the week at our house helping out as well. She typically leaves home for the weekend and we greatly appreciate her love and support!! Thank you Grandma Harris!! :-) My parents, Grandma and Grandpa Schmanski, should be arriving from their summer visiting of family later during this week.

Thank you all so much!!

The Schmanski Family

Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan

Monday through Tuesday, August 20th through September 4th

Hello again everyone,

Tori is now finally cast free!!!! :-) She had them removed last Tuesday and did re markedly well during the cast cutting procedure. Her feet look much, much more natural but they have really been hyper sensitive since the removal. But they are finally becoming less so at this time. She also had her new AFO's (Ankle Foot Orthosis) placed on her feet. They are basically plastic support 'shoes' that help keep Tori's feet aligned and prevent them from going back to how they were. She will need to keep them on as much as possible. Tori was in a alot of pain and discomfort about 3 days afterward and we finally removed the AFO's only to find some pressure sores.... So we have had to keep them off for a while now as they heal. We also put Tori in her wheelchair, leaned it way forward and placed her feet in a large bucket of hot water and Epsom salt. We soaked them good and Tori loved it!! Her dead skin was just layering off of her... She still has some sores from her skin being stretched so far as well but they are beginning to heal.

Other than that Tori is doing pretty well. She is eating plenty of yogurt and 'Dippin Dots' ice cream. She is spending her afternoons in her wheelchair as usual and is back to being rarely agitated. Meredyth continues to come and complete ST sessions twice per week with Tori who does well on the majority of exercises.

There was a great NBC news video on Brooke Barels trip to Hangzhou, China. It was really nice to see all of the friendly faces of of the SCT staff at the hospital and of course we wish Brooke and everyone else going through SCT the best. Here is Brooke's website as well. Here is an LA Times article on Samantha Palumbo which is another great and inspiring story.

Saturday through Sunday, August 11th through 19th

Hello again,

I can't believe it has been 9 days since my last update?!?! My apologies again... The summer days seem to be just flying right by us all. Tori continues to remain healthy and is in good spirits the majority of the time. She still has her moments of agitation but they seem to be less frequent as before. We continue to treat her agitated states with xanax and zanaflex which typically calm her down in about 15-30 minutes afterward.

There was another nice article called Utah families encouraged by stem cell treatments in the Daily Herald newspaper that focused on Tori, Travis and Dena who all have been to China and back for SCT. Please offer your thoughts and prayers to them all as they continue their recovery journeys.

We have been making a focused effort lately to get Tori out of the house as often as we possibly can. She has been so calm and attentive while out lately and she certainly soaks in everything going around her. We took her to the new IKEA store in Draper last weekend for several hours and she did wonderfully. She saw Shrek 3 this weekend and we also went to the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City for an entire afternoon. While there we also visited a Children's Discovery Museum that kept Tori, Whitney and Brendan entertained as well. Guy set up a large set of PVC piping pieces strategically placed on a magnetic wall so a plastic ball could travel downward through all of the pieces. Tori could track that ball through the whole process with ease. I'm sure if she could she would have told Guy how to place the pieces correctly as well :-) We then ate at z'Tejas and even got rained on a little bit before we left. Tori also went to the Training Table restaurant as Guy's pictures prove. It is also always nice to hear from people who know of Tori's Story and have followed this site closely. As I passed by a table a young couple asked me if that was Tori and told me they have been following the site for a long time. So after they finished eating they stopped by our table and were introduced to Tori. We thanked them for their support and generosity and gave them some Pray4Tori bracelets as they departed. For all of those living locally please, please don't ever hesitate to introduce yourselves to Tori and our family if you happen to catch us while we are out and about. Your love, prayers and support means a great deal to us all and hearing how Tori has touched your lives is very important to us as well.

Schmanski @ Training Table (camera phone)

Schmanski @ Training Table (camera phone)

As part of a very busy Saturday, 19th August 2007, they all decided to go to training table after watching Shrek III (what an interesting invention the dollar theater...).
As we were getting situated and just after Whitney and Brendan were done being mad at me for picking up the phone and ordering the food for them, we very nice gentleman and his girlfriend stopped by to introduce themselves to Tori and her family.
I wanted to personally thank Anthony for introducing himself to Tori and taking a few minutes out of this time to be kind and very generous to the Schmanski's. He so kindly addressed Tori it was really moving. Farewell and prosper Anthony.

Love,
-Guy

Family @ The Gateway (camera phone)

Family @ The Gateway (camera phone)

Tim brought everyone up to Salt Lake City to visit the Gateway Discovery museum. We went to a few stores, enjoy a late lunch at Z'jetas and followed it with a few hours at the Discovery museum there.
Buster really liked the Helicopter. Whitney thought the whole thing was pretty cool and I must admit that the magnetic wall kept me amused for while. If anyone of you is a "The Incredible Machine"(here) fan, I recommend it :-).
After that Tim and Buster headed back home while the girls went shopping for a while.

Dance for Tori Front

Dance for Tori Front

Dance for Tori

Dance for Tori

i was bored so i made another shirt :)