Another long day at the day clinic. Even though it was after 8 pm, Lauren came bouncing in as happy and hyper as ever. It must be the pre-med or something in the chemo that makes her all goofy. However, the last time she had chemo (two weeks ago), she was hyper and goofy too, but ended up waking up in the middle of the night sick. So last night we were prepared, but thankfully she didn't get sick. Except she didn't feel good after taking her daily dosage of Temador (chemo), right before bed. BTW: All the nurses loved Lauren's new pink hair strip. Lauren said they didn't recognize her when she came in.

We are still waiting for authorization from the insurance company for Lauren's next MRI, which Dr. Finlay wants done in the next 7 to 10 days instead of April, since Lauren's speech was slurry yesterday. While they don't think it's (slurred speech and headaches) related to the tumor and that it's probably related to the changes in her steroids, they just want to confirm that it's not the tumor and they also want confirm it's not related to her ventricles. The ventricles have something to do with producing and controlling the brain fluid. In the beginning, Lauren's tumor got so big it blocked one of her ventricles preventing fluid from being drained from her brain. In the beginning, since the ventricle was blocked, brain fluid started backing up and was trapped between her brain and the inside of her skull, putting downward pressure on her brain, which in turn caused her to start holding her head funny (as if she was balancing a gallon of water on her head), prompting us to finally insist on a CT, which then led to the discovery of her tumor. To prevent the fluid from accumulating in her head, they installed a shunt, which pumps the fluid out her brain and into her stomach. The shunt is located under the scalp on the back of her right side of her head and has a tube that runs under her scalp down her neck and chest and finally drains into her stomach (all under her skin). In some of the her posted pictures, you can see the bump from the shunt on the back of her right side of her head. When we first started going to Dr. Finlay, he had raised the possibility that Lauren may need another shunt on the other side of her head for her other ventricle. But so far, the one shunt has been doing the job. I think Dr. Finlay always believed/believes that Lauren will eventually need another shunt to drain the other ventricle. So this MRI will help determine if she needs another shunt. The danger of another shunt is that they would need to insert a tube all the way to the middle of her brain and also the shunt can get infected.

Lauren is now on 1 mg of Decadron twice a day and 7.5 mg of Hydrocortisone three times a day. I'm a little confused why she is on so much Decadron. She was doing fine when she was on .5 mg of Decadron a day. These are the times we really miss Anna and Dr. Patel. While the new PA/coordinator is nice and seems knowledgeable, it's going to take her time to get to know Lauren.

Lauren will be going to CHOC today at 3 pm for her first physical therapy appointment. While we try and play Wii Fit as much as possible, she is bored with yoga (so am I). Hopefully under professional guidance, she'll start getting better quicker. Her left side, arm and leg, are a lot weaker.