Whitney, Megan, Kenzie, Amber and Kara posing with Tori on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Tori!!! We love you!!!

Yesterday was Tori's 17th birthday and we decided to keep this one close to our family and some of her good friends. We didn't have any party or anything of that nature. Holiday's and special occasions like this are always bittersweet of course and we do our best to balance happy and celebratory thoughts in our minds over the saddening ones that are always present as well... Honesty, it's a very tight line to hold sometimes... But at least Tori is still here attempting to celebrate with us and that in itself is a miracle and a blessing.

We did manage to take Tori to the Macaroni Grill for dinner with Grandma Harris, Maria, Whitney, Brendan and I. Tori did well but decided to try and take a nap in the loud environment and eventually she had a small startle seizure... Jake stopped by unexpectedly with a bouquet of wonderful flowers during the day and Tori was happy to see him once again. Thank you very much Jake. Marilyn and McKenzie stopped by and visited for a while and later in the evening several of Tori's good friends came over to wish her a happy birthday. In addition, Mike and Linda Newsome paid a pleasant visit as well. Once again, thank you to all who came and to those who posted on Tori's site for greatly helping keep our thoughts on the happy side of the line!! :-)

Tori did pretty well with Meredyth this week during her ST sessions. Movie trailers was a theme in one exercise with some extreme sucker manipulation and usage as well. Tori continues to sleep comfortably and well during the night and spends the afternoon and early evenings in her wheelchair with the rest of us. Much of that time is outside on the deck where she watches Tinker's intently and often takes a nap.

There was more good news on the stem cell research front and it involves Neurons which are most important to Tori and her injury. Here is the article:

I just wanted to wish Tori a very happy 17th birthday! We love you so much and can't wait to come see you today. Have a great day Tori and be so happy!!!!

Love,
Mare and Kenzie and Angel!

Hello again,

I had another couple of business travel days last week and Maria and Brendan are still in San Francisco enjoying some down time as I am typing this. They should return tomorrow evening. Grandma Harris, Whitney and I have been taking good care of Tori I am happy to report she is still doing quite well. She is still sleeping great, has very good awareness and is rarely agitated as of late.

Whitney, Tori and I went to see "Bourne Ultimatum" over the weekend and Tori watched almost the entire movie. She took a slight nap in the middle of it though I don't know how she did given how loud that movie was. She was wearing headphones for most of the movie as well. It seems to me like Tori's awareness has been at a very high level lately. She tracks people, birds, Tinker's the dog and even bee's with relative ease. When I am throwing the ball with Tinker's Tori follows it's trajectory from the deck and even turns her head as needed on long throws. If I throw it straight into the air she will follow it accurately as well. This is all great news of course and I haven't observed this level of attention to these activities even though they have been occurring all spring and summer.

Tori is also making serious attempts to roll onto her back when she is positioned on her side. The problem is her casts are so heavy she can't pick her legs up and swing then over to complete the roll over. We'll see what she can do once those casts are off again.

There was another interesting and promising article this week on Deep Brain Stimulation. I researched this option for Tori a while back but for her spasticity and muscle tone issues. Perhaps it is worth another serious look.

Thank you all for the continued love and support for Tori and our family,

-Tim

You all have to see this:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.html?g

If the link doesn't work, go to msnbc.com and look for the story about doctors bringing a man out of 6 year coma.

Whenever I'm down in the dumps, I always find another reason to carry on!

God Bless,

Lorraine

Good evening,

I'm long past due for an update on Tori and I apologize for the rather lengthy delay... Last week was very, very busy as I was on a business trip for most of the week and then I took Whitney and Brendan to Minnesota for a family reunion over this past weekend. It had been 4 years since we have attended so it was great for all of us to see our aunts and uncles and second cousins. The kids had a great time of course!!! Then Maria, Whitney and Brendan headed out to Park City for a few days for a dance competition and they return tomorrow. Then I take off on another business trip and Maria and Brendan head to San Francisco for another break this weekend. So we certainly continue to be quite busy around here.

The good news is that Tori has done very well over the past week and is now oxygen free!!! She is maintaining her blood oxygen levels well and is relatively calm throughout the day. Grandma Harris has also spent the past eight days helping us out at home so she left today to take a much needed break. Tori is spending more time in her wheelchair once again and has been very aware and attentive lately. She even picked out a jet very high in the sky and tracked it along it's path. She is now sleeping wonderfully at night and needs checking on only a few times while she sleeps. I also haven't given her pain medication for almost a week. The pain has definitely resided.

Grandma Harris and I took her to the PCMC for a checkup on her feet last Tuesday. They cut the left cast off to check the scar on her achilles heal. It is about 5" in length and healing very well. They even scratched Tori's foot which caused her to roll her eyes back and just enjoy it!! I can't imagine how itchy those casts are... Then they re-casted her foot and we were off for home. Her next appointment is at the Shriner's Hospital in late August.

Dena Brehm of nearby Park City, Utah recently returned from China where she received SCT and there was a nice article about her trip in the Salt Lake Tribune today.

Hello again,

Tori is still having pain in her feet now and then but only when we have to move them for some reason or another. She is faring much better now and we have eased way back on the pain medication. She still gets herself 'worked up' now and then which increases her heart rate over 150 beats per minute... We have been using inderal to ease her back down.

She is now requiring oxygen only at night and only about 1 liters worth for her to maintain her blood oxygen level in the 95% range. We are once again back in the habit of getting her into her wheelchair every afternoon and early evening. She is tolerating it well and her feet seem to be very comfortable stretched out and up over her pillows while in the wheelchair. Sleep wise Tori is doing well again and has been sleeping through the night for the past few days. It certainly helps all of us when her sleep patterns are back to normal.

Meredyth did stop by this week for some ST sessions and Tori did pretty well on the last one where she did some word matching exercises and played on the computer somewhat as well. Tori did get tired more quickly than usual probably due to her pain medications.

And that is the quick update for tonight. Thank you all!!

The Schmanski's
Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan

Good evening,

It is Sunday night and Tori finally seems to be out of the great pain she was in all week after her surgery. We have had to give her steady doses of Lortab every 4 hours or so. She was also coughing up alot of phlegm and has been on 2-5 liters of oxygen since her return home. For the first three nights we had to wake up every 1-2 hours and suction her throat out because she wasn't swallowing and her blood oxygen levels were dropping below 80% even with oxygen. Thankfully she seems to be beyond that stage now as she is coughing much less and can be without oxygen while in her wheelchair. While she is sleeping we give her 1-2 liters of oxygen so she can maintain and 95% range or so.

We are keeping busy helping Tori in her recovery and there isn't really much else to report on this time. Grandpa and Grandma Schmanski left earlier this week on their summer trip and we will miss them greatly. This week we will attempt to get her back on schedule with ST and we have another visit to the PCMC for a check on her feet. Her casts are orange and cover each foot and they extend to just below her knee. She certainly knows they are there and if you point them out to her she will begin crying... So we know they don't feel to great to her.

Thank you as always for the love, prayers and support,

The Schmanski's
Tim, Maria, Tori, Whitney and Brendan

Hello again,

I wanted to quickly provide an update tonight that Tori's tendon release surgery went well and she did make it home last night. We had to wake up just after 4:00am to make it to the hospital by 6:00am. Tori went into surgery ahead of schedule just after 9:00am and was out at 11:45am. We then spent the day in the recovery room where she received alot of pain medication... She is definitely hurting right now. But she was well enough and certainly ready to go home and we arrived there just after 10:00pm last night. It was a long day but we are ALL home now as Maria and Whitney arrived home from NYC just after us at 1:30am or so.

Tori is now sleeping alot since we are giving her heavy pain medication every four hours or so. I'll provide another update this weekend on her progress.

Thank you,

-Tim

Good evening,

We have been focusing on keeping Tori as healthy as possible over the past week because on Tuesday she will have the tendon release surgery completed on her feet at the Shriner's Hospital in SLC. She has done well and hasn't been ill at all over the past seven days. She is also fully breathing on her own again during the day and night and typically maintains an 88-98% blood oxygen level. We are being sure NOT to mention anything about surgery or visiting a hospital while around Tori... My parents, Brendan and I have been taking good care of her lately as Maria and Whitney are still in NYC. From what I have heard Whitney has made the top 10 finalists for the Outstanding Dancer award of the competition and the various teams from The Dance Club have fared nicely as well. Considering the best dancers from all over the country are participating they all did a marvelous job!! Congratulations to them all but we are sure ready for them to come home.

Tori had a great 4th of July as she watched a fireworks show in our backyard. She liked the various lights and colors but wasn't as keen on the noisy fireworks... She has been spending more time in her wheelchair lately and I have held off feeding her as much as I should for fear of her aspirating and getting ill again before the surgery. She will be in foot casts for 6-8 weeks after the surgery so that should be interesting. They are also going to create splints for her feet and hands while she is under anesthesia. Tori's hands and fingers seem slightly less rigid after her baclofen pump adjustment. I'd like to see more improvement of course and I'm sure we will be increasing the amounts of the 'bursts' she is now getting every 4 hours.

Meredyth continues to work very well with Tori doing ST (speech therapy) every Tuesday and Thursday. She is working hard to get her to drink from a straw of course and now that Tori can actually blow air on command somewhat consistently we are hoping the inhaling action will begin to occur. Tori always can always indicate what she is tasting through flash cards at least. I'm in the process of calling all of the available PT (physical therapy) providers through Tori's new primary insurer. I hoping to have one or two selected this week and then we will probably be in a trial scenario until we find the right therapist.