What I thought was going to be the easiest round of chemo yet for Lauren, has turned out to the toughest. We were warned that the chemo had a accumulative affect, but after 10-days of taking chemo, she was not showing any signs that she was even on chemo. That all changed on Monday, her 11th day when she woke up sick. She is now looking sick, feeling sick, and acting sick. She now looks like a chemo patient.

We spent thanksgiving at CHLA. Thankfully an organization provided the oncology with a turkey dinner, especially since all the restaurants in the area, including McDonald's was closed. Granda, granny, and Hil's bro Mike came down, as did her Uncle Victor and Lauren's cuz Kiera. We also had a surprise visit from Hil's Uncle John and Auntie Hilary from Canada (Toronto). That was a great surprise. And even though they ran out of turkey before we got there, with everybody eating around the table, it felt like thanksgiving.

11 A.M. on Friday, Lauren received her third and final stem cell transplant. We weren't really nervous, even though it's seriously enough of a procedure to require Dr. Finlay to sit by her bedside to monitor it, since Lauren had gone thru the first two (Sept. and Oct.) without any incidents. But this time, Lauren got really sick throwing up and having another pooping accident. She said the smell and taste of the stem cells made her sick. The chemicals that the stem cell are preserved in during freezing really stinks when it thaws. I think it smells like cream of corn. Dr. Finlay did say if she felt up to it we could go home. Lauren said she was and we prepared to leave. Unfortunately, right before we were discharged Lauren developed a bad rash. So they gave her Benadryl and kept us there monitored her. Around 8:30 P.M. they said she could go, if me and Hil felt comfortable. We did, since we were staying just across the street.

This morning Lauren woke with a low grade fever (100 degree). Our cancer book instructs us to monitor her for 4-hours. If after 4-hours, she still had a low fever to call the oncologist on call. After 4-hours Lauren still had a fever so we called the oncologist and packed our bags. Once admitted Lauren would be admitted for a minimum of 48 hours and pumped with antibiotics. The fear being, Lauren's immune system is weak, making her susceptible to infections. But suddenly, Lauren perked up, her fever vanished, and she was 100x better. So we're still here at the RMH, but monitoring her closely.

I don't know what the problem is, but the RMH staff have really tighten up on us. They made an exception of allowing us to have three adults in the room (me, Hilary, and granny) for our first two stays, but it is now a big no-no. So we are smuggling granny up. Since I work during the week, granny is needed to help Hilary and the kids. Hopefully we're not discovered, it would be very expensive, not to mention embarrassing if we got kicked out. Hopefully no one from the RMH read Lauren's blog.