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

Monday, October 6, 2008

Lauren has been complaining of headaches lately, so we are taking Lauren into the hospital today for a CT scan, blood test and to check her shunt. They want to see what's going on up there. While we don't expect any changes to the tumor, there could be a number of things that could be causing the headaches from swelling, the shunt not working or not set right, to just normal headaches (they told us, young kids do get headaches). We are hoping the cause of the headaches is because the tumor is shrinking. Nevertheless, even though they don't expect to see any changes these times sure make me nervous.

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