Very, very long weekend. Lauren has been admitted (in the hospital) since Thursday with some type of infection or virus. On Thursday, Hilary rushed Lauren to CHLA with a temperature of 103.9 where they immediately gave her antibiotics, which caused her blood pressure to drop. Fearing she was going septic (going into shock) they pumped fluids in her to increase her blood pressure, which it did. Thankfully that did the trick and she stabilized. She was kept overnight since she kept having fevers intermittently.

On Wed. during Lauren's bi-weekly chemo, they took a urine sample from her since she has been having some issue down there. The samples came back negative on Wed, but by Friday the cultures indicated a urinary track infection. We were then informed that she will be admitted for 10 days!! Once they start an antibiotic, she needs to be on it for 10 days. And since she was so sick, this antibiotic needed to be given via IV. This would be the longest stay ever.

The good and bad of the situation.

The good: since she has a cough and we are staying on the oncology floor, where the other chemo patients are with compromised immune systems, Lauren is in quarantine. Meaning she gets her own room. We have two beds and two TVs.
The bad: Lauren is not allowed to leave the room. By Saturday she was feeling a lot better and since she couldn't leave the room she was extremely bored.
The good: Since Lauren could leave the 15x20 room, the family got to spend quality family time together.
The bad: Too much family quality time.


On Saturday we got some good news. Since she was doing so well, they told us there was a possibility of sending her home on Monday or Tuesday if they could set up home care (have a nurse come out to our house to administer the antibiotic via IV). I would think our insurance would jump at this opportunity. Having a nurse come to the house has to be 10x cheaper than us staying in the hospital and it has to be a lot better for the hospital since by sending us home, that would free two beds and a room for another sick child. It is scary to see how many children have cancer. The only disadvantage is Lauren would be accessed (have an IV tube connected to her port in her chest, which we would have to flush every so often ourselves.

On Sunday, we got some great news. Since Lauren is doing so well (except she really hasn’t been eating at all though), there is a chance they’ll send her home on Monday and she will only be on oral antibiotics and she will no longer need to be accessed. Yeah! But in order for them to allow this they first need to do an ultra sound on her kidneys to make sure they are working fine. Even though, I’m not sure exactly why they have to do this, or what could have happen to have affected her kidneys, hopefully Lauren will be coming home today.