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, October 27, 2009

Lauren was up at CHLA yesterday for a scheduled appointment to draw labs. Her lab results indicated her hemoglobin are at 8.9 up from 8.7, not as high as I was expecting/hoping. Her color seems better lately and she seems to have more energy. Hopefully, she has turned the corner. One of the test numbers, however, went up indicating her bone marrow was still working overtime to produce hemoglobin. This number needs to decrease/return to normal before we can start chemo again.

Other stuff:

With the baby coming out on Sunday and Dr. Finlay going out of town, they are trying to squeeze Lauren's next MRI in this weekend instead of Nov. 4th, but we haven't heard anything yet.


Still waiting for Lauren (and the rest of us) to get the swine flu (H1N1) shot. I know a few of my friends and their children have already gotten theirs. I was hoping we'd have priority since we have a house full of high-risk people, obviously Lauren and her compromised immune system, but also prego Hilary and the soon to be newborn.

Posted by admin at 11:14 AM

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