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

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

In preparation of starting Kindergarten in July, Lauren had her first physical with her pediatric doctor in Corona today. Lauren hasn't really seen him since all this begun. So it was nice to hear Dr. Shih was excited to see Lauren and even got the girls' gifts. That was really nice of him. Also, since Lauren is still limping around from when she tripped over my shoes, he is ordering X-rays. He's not taking any chances. Also, since the girls' have had runny noses for a couple of weeks, he is prescribing antibiotics. But, we'll need to run it by our doctors/NP from CHLA, to make sure it's going to take with her chemo.

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