Lauren was up at CHLA for her scheduled weekly appointment for labs. For this appointment Lauren was actually excited about going, not only because she wanted to show off her new boots to the nurses, but because she was bringing Finlay. Lauren has been dying to show off and introduce Finlay to everyone, especially Dr. Finlay.

We didn't know if Dr. Finlay was going to be there or not so it was nice that he was actually there and Finlay got to meet him, and he even had a gift for baby Finlay. Unfortunately, Finlay was asleep and Dr. Finlay had a cold, so we didn't get a picture of the two of them together. Oh well. Next time.

Now about the appointment. As I mentioned earlier, we met with Dr. Finlay and told him some of the issues Lauren has been having, particularly her dizzy spells she's been experiencing. He wasn't too concerned about them. He doesn't think it's tumor related but steroid related. The blood test results were great, however, Lauren's blood pressure was high. They attribute the high blood pressure also to her prednisone (steroid), which increases her appetite and makes her retain water (which is ironic since her puffiness makes her feel like she needs to go the bathroom all the time), which causes her puffiness and high blood pressure. We asked about the possibility of speeding up the weaning process of her steroids. We were decreasing her steroid dosage approximately 10% a week, which I calculated in one of the prior blog updates, that at that rate it would take 33 weeks to get her completely off steroids. Anna (PA) wanted to be conservative and take it slow and stick with our current schedule of decreasing it 10%. She didn't want to have a set back and have to pump Lauren full of steroids again. However, Dr. Finlay said to decrease her current dosage of 20 mg to 15 mg, a 25% reduction. Anna indicated this makes her a little nervous, but that is why he is the doctor. The reason for the big decrease is because of the side affects that Lauren has been experiencing such as her dizziness, but also her other side effects that Lauren has been having, such as fatigue, being cold and getting chills, and insomnia. Thankfully she hasn't had one of the worse side effects (knock on wood) of steroids, which is increased emotions, and we know by experience from when she was on Decadron (stronger steroid) that her emotional episodes could be bone chilling. Think Linda Blair in the Exorcist.