August 25, 2008 was my brother Glenn's birthday. On that day, Lauren started feeling badly.

The next day was worse, and she went to the emergency room in her little hometown of Logansport, Indiana. On Wednesday, August 27th, she was admitted to Riley's. A scan revealed the abdominal cavity tumor had grown another 50% since her last scan on August 12th, and a new tumor was seen. At that time, a staff member stated that she felt she had only about 4 weeks to live. We had been looking into other treatment options and found the University of Michigan through clinicaltrials.gov. They were performing a clinical trial in which children with Wilms, but in remission, could receive a bone marrow transplant and an experimental cancer vaccine. In the hopes of entering the trial, Lauren was given near-lethal doses of two chemotherapy drugs. She did not fare well. For the first time, chemotherapy really put her down. She ended up with hemorrhagic cystitis…she could not urinate and ended up with huge clots in her bladder that had to be forced out. She was in extreme pain. In the end, scans revealed that this massive dose of chemotherapy had not worked……and had damaged her bladder. Needless to say, Lauren did not qualify for the U of M clinical trial.