UPDATES 5-13-2008

Thank you for visiting our site and welcome to our weekly update on Lauren.

Lauren is home and is just as active as always! It is hard to believe that she just had surgery last Friday (5/09) because she is crawling and standing like nothing happened. Lauren is now the proud owner of 2 shunts. Dr. Tomita put in a cystoperitoneal shunt that drains from the arachnoid cyst in her back to the stomach area. Last week, I had incorrectly called it a lumbar peritoneal shunt. Dr. Chin did end up being the general pediatric surgeon that assisted Dr. Tomita by making sure that he placed the shunt into a good spot in Lauren's peritoneal area. Dr. Chin was also able to do the first steroid injection into Lauren's g tube site while she was still sedated. We will need to get 2 more injections over the next few months to try to prevent the growth of the large keloids that surround her g tube.

Next up, we will have more spinal MRIs to try to see how everything is looking with the pressure off of her spine. There might be more surgeries coming, but we are taking it one at a time. Mike and I are so relieved to have this particular surgery behind us. While shunt revisions are always a big possibility, it always seems worse the first time around.

On a fun note, Katelyn had a great time downtown this weekend. For her, this was kind of like a vacation. She got to stay in a hotel with an indoor pool and what can be better than that! She likes the "hand hospital" (what she calls Children's due to the hand symbol on the logo) because they have the McDonald's in the basement and the nurses always take good care of her too. I do think that Lauren has a right to be bitter that Katelyn has fun while she is in surgery and stuck in the hospital.

I wanted to wish a belated Happy Mother's Day to all of the mom's who read this. I know that bringing Lauren home from the hospital on Mother's Day was the best present that I could ask for. Thank you to all of the participants and the people who helped out with the Lauren Nardulli Classic last Saturday night!