Yesterday was a tough long day. Lauren woke up with a fever 101.7. This time we were able to get thru to the on-call doctor at CHLA (last time we didn't and made the decision to take Lauren to CHOC, which is a lot closer, which made a HUGE difference.). Hilary was instructed to bring her to the hospital, either one (CHLA or CHOC). Hilary chose CHLA since she is more comfortable there and they already drew blood to culture the day before. Since it was a weekday, the day hospital was open, also where all of our nurse friends work. So Hilary took Lauren there. They have an urgent care room (which is basically a a 10x15 foot area with a glass sliding door). By this time, Lauren had a temperature of 103.9 (on of the first thing they check her for was the swine flu, since a high fever is one of the first signs of it. Thankfully it was a negative). But after giving her Tylenol and antibiotic, her temperature dropped, but so did her blood pressure. I was told her blood pressure could drop as the antibiotic works. However, this was very reminiscent to the last time she got sick and crashed (went into shock). The level of intensity picked up, soon there was over 10 nurses and doctors in and standing outside the door of the tiny urgent care room. To increase her blood pressure they forced in fluid (saline) via IV into her. They tried to add another IV line (in addition to the IV line in her port) in her wrist, so to get more fluid in her. After several attempts of finding a vein, without numbing cream, they gave up. Poor Lauren, her wrist is all black and blue, but once again we were reminded what a trooper and how tough Lauren is. While it hurt a lot, she never cried or moved her arm when they were poking around her wrist trying to find a vein. She always makes daddy proud.

When her blood pressure dropped, they made the decision to transfer her to the ED, emergency department (I was told they no longer want to be referred too as the ER since it is not a room but a department). The ED is better equipped than the day hospital, if she were to crash. When Hilary (who was by herself) was told this started to get very nervous. A friend asked me if we still get nervous when things like this happen, and the answer is YES. In fact we were probably more nervous this time than the last time, since we now know how serious and fast things can take a turn. At one point they pushed everyone out of the tiny room and drew the curtains so that they could examine Lauren, of course, that was the same time granny, granda, and Marissa arrived. They saw the tiny room surrounded by nurses and doctors with the curtain drawn. The sight and not knowing what was going on really shook them up. Even Marissa seemed unusually shy and antsy the rest of the day. When she was in the emergency room, all she wanted to do was touch and hug Lauren.

Nurse Chris, who we can't thank enough, she is awesome, really took charge of the situation. She hand squeeze the IV to force in the liquid, to increase Lauren's blood pressure. Questioned and/or corrected every decision and recommendation made, and finally got Lauren stabilized. We are so fortunate to know and have so many good and capable nurse friends at CHLA. It sure makes everything a lot easier. So by the time they transferred Lauren to the ED, she was stabilized and the ED didn't have to do anything. BTW, the ED is the worst place to be. Small bed, small room, mean guard, limited visitors (they only allow two guests into the room at a time, even though we exceed the max. when we're able to get them past the mean guard, who takes his job way to seriously), no windows, no nurse friends (except for Chris boyfriend), no clock, no food allowed (even though we sneak food in). We stayed in the ED for about 7 hours, around 8 pm a bed on the oncology floor finally opened up, and Lauren was transferred there. What was a nice treat, our favorite regular hospital night nurse cara was working. I saw her walking in for her shift and let her know Lauren would be transferring up there, so she made sure she was assigned to Lauren. While it may seem we're being petty and spoiled (which we are) it sure makes life the stay so much easier. It's already hard enough being there. What was also nice was that since Lauren was sick and possible contagious, they can't risk putting another chemo patient in her room. Which is very nice.

Today was suppose to be the first day of vacation. We were suppose to be waking up in the Bay Area at Grandma and Grandpa Nihei's house. The plan was for me to work a partial day on Thursday and drive up and arrive in El Cerrito by mid-night. Me and girls were all excited to go, and if Hilary gets as excited to see her in-laws as I do, then she was the most excited. But plans are for normal family. Instead, Lauren and mommy are waking up at CHLA (Lauren cried when she found out we were postponing our trip to the bay area), Marissa is waking up at granny and granda Vernor's house, and I'm waking up at home by myself. Every time we think our lives are becoming normal, we are reminded that they are not.