Lauren was up at CHLA yesterday for her bi-weekly chemo, monthly pantamidine (helps prevent pneumonia) and this time x-rays. As I mentioned in my last blog posting, Lauren got dizzy and fell on New Year's Day. She later complained that her arm hurt. There wasn't any real noticeable swelling, but then again, it's hard to tell since her whole body is swollen from all the steroids she is on. It took Jen, the PA, one look before she declared "it's probably broke." She could tell by how tender Lauren's arm was and she could feel a little bump on the top of Lauren's forearm. Her next words were, "you probably should have brought her in the day she hurt it," since both chemo and steroids can make her bones brittle. But we wouldn't know for sure until after the x-rays. Sure enough, the x-rays showed that it was broken, proving once again how tough Lauren is, walking around with a broken arm for 6-days, except it wasn't "broke" where the PA thought it was, it was under her forearm (Lauren is always the exception to the rule). The break was small enough that they thought maybe a sprint instead of a cast would be all she needed (it was so small the radiologist could have easily have missed it). But, a few moments later, they came back in to tell us that people who break their arm in that location often break a bone near their elbow, so they wanted to check her elbow area, which we came to find out is also sore. So off to the x-rays again. Anna (PA) came in to tell us the X-rays were inconclusive, but the good news is she doesn't need surgery. Huh? We didn't even know that was even a possibility. We thought the options were either a splint or cast.

This is part of the story where we are so grateful for the people at CHLA. They really do take care of Lauren and us. Orthopedics was too busy to see Lauren yesterday, we needed to come back on Friday. So Nurse Tina called her nurse friend down at CHOC to see if she could get us an appointment in their orthopedic unit today. Her friend wasn't even working yesterday but she took the time to call CHOC to get us an appointment. Meanwhile, there was the question about how the insurance portion would work since my Company just switched insurance carriers as of Jan. 1st. So Jen the PA and Bob the insurance specialist went to work on figuring out that side of it. How awesome is that? The next thing you know, Jen says, "You must have some connections here, because CHLA's ortho wants to see Lauren now." Not only that, but Lauren was going to be examined by the head orthopedic doctor. So to make a long story, a least a little shorter, they couldn't tell if her elbow was broke so they extended the cast over her elbow. The casting guy was very impressed in what a great a patient Lauren was. He said he gets kicked, punched and scratched a lot, he's also the person that drew the Hello Kitty on it (see picture). Lauren is very proud of her cast. It's all about how you sell it. She'll have to keep it on for three weeks.

Other stuff:

For peace of mind, we asked if we could move up Lauren's MRI (currently scheduled for Feb. 3rd). Dr. Finlay said "no." He is absolutely confident that the dizziness is caused by the steroid and is not tumor related. While this is not what we wanted to hear, it does in a way make us feel better. If he would have said, I think you're right we should move it up, we'd be even more worried.

Lauren's daily dosage of prednisone was lowered from 10 mg to 7.5 mg a day, a 25% decrease. Dr. Finlay wants Lauren off the prednisone ASAP. He is convinced that the steroids are the cause of her dizzy spells and high blood pressure.

After almost two months and receiving two shots of the swine flu vaccine and two shots of the regular flu vaccine, Lauren went back to school yesterday. She was very excited and had a good time. We weren't too nervous about her going to school yesterday since it was a half day and Hilary stayed with her. Today though, she'll be there by herself. Which makes us nervous. Even though she is battling cancer, she still needs to live as normal a life as possible. As much as we'd like to, we can't keep her locked up in a bubble.