The Nihei's: Our Story

On April 1, 2008, our 4-year-old daughter, Lauren, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After her biopsy on April 8th it was determined that she had a bithalamic anaplastic astrocytoma with extension into her brain stem.

In the beginning of March we noticed a personality change in Lauren who normally is a very outgoing and happy-go-lucky kid. She became very clingy and shy. She didn't want to talk on the phone anymore, or play on the slide with the other kids at pre-school. By mid-March, Lauren started complaining about headaches. Her pediatrician thought it might be a sinus infection or that she may need glasses. He put her on antibiotics and we made an eye appointment.

A few days later when she started holding her head funny and her headaches returned we insisted on a CT scan. That's when her pediatrician sent us to the ER at Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) for a CT scan, and when our world was turned upside down and our nightmare began...

Story continues at bottom of page

Friday, July 18, 2008

Lauren's seem to be pretty much all the way back. She is back to running and goofing around, just being silly, like nothing ever happened. Amazing. I'm not sure how much more my heart can take. Also, her blood count is over 1,800 from 380 on Thursday. Amazing how quickly it went up. She has recovered so well that it looks like we'll be starting the 4th and final cycle of chemo of Phase One on Wed. July 23rd. But…, we are going to try and not worry about chemo or anything of that stuff, and just enjoy the weekend.

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