Lauren is off to CHLA today to get her bi-weekly chemo. While it only consists of two chemos (Avastin and Irinotecan via IV), it's usually an all-day affair. Not complaining just stating the facts.

Lauren has been doing "super" (knock on wood). I can tell she is feeling better because at a friend's birthday party on Saturday, she played on the jungle gym and was going up the ladder and down the slides. As I had mentioned in the past, one of the first symptoms that something was wrong was when Lauren showed a fear of slides and jungle gyms that she loves going on like any 3 and 4 year olds love to do. It's probably not a stretch to assume her tumor was throwing off her balance and maybe even causing vertigo. Another encouraging sign is that she has started to ride her bike again, which she hadn't touched in over a year and she is wrestling with her sister. While it's nice to see, it still makes me nervous. I just don't like her to shake her head too much.


We're slowly cutting back her hydrocortisone (steroid), so her appetite is slowly coming back to normal. Which is good because her face was getting really puffy, she was not fitting into her clothes and she was constipated. Now if only we could wean her off her Decadron, the other stronger steroid, that she is on. We just read on the information brochure that Decadron can stunt growth, and when your dad is 5''7" (okay, 5'6 1/2") and your mom is 5'2", that's the last thing she needs to be on. Not that we were expecting her to be 5'10" or anything, especially since Grandma and Grandpa Nihei are 5"2 and 5'6", respectively, and Granny and Granda Vernor are 4'10" and 5'5", respectively...and people comment that Japanese people are short!