What a difference a couple of weeks make. As this is being written, Lauren is currently in Dallas undergoing more tests. This happened fast. Even one week ago, she had resigned herself to waiting until her appointment at Johns Hopkins before making any progress.
Late last week, the doctor in Dallas called and said he had re-evaluated her situation and felt that she was in a good position to go through these tests. He also felt that they would really help the doctor at Johns Hopkins make any decisions. This is good news because she knows these tests are necessary and doing them now means answers will come more quickly.
On Wednesday she will be getting an endoscopy. This is obviously a fairly invasive test, but one the doctors consider necessary in order to determine her next steps. Then the next day they plan to do a test that involves her swallowing a pill camera that sends real time data to the doctor while she is in the area. Once it's over she will meet with the Dallas doctor one more time to go over the results and he plans to reach out to the Johns Hopkins doctor at that time too. All of Lauren's doctors say that they will follow the guidelines of whatever they decide at Johns Hopkins.
Due to all of this, she will be staying with relatives in Dallas over the next couple of weeks. Her husband and son can't stay with her the whole time because her son is still in school and her husband is saving time off for when they have to go to the East Coast.
Lauren is facing all of this with strength, but she is very nervous about the tests and then about her pending visit to Baltimore as it gets closer. She desperately wants to find a treatment, but it is still pretty scary to go through all of this.
In the meantime, both she and the Lunsford family have been mourning the loss of one of Gary's brothers that past away a couple of weeks ago. It's been a rough time.
With all this in mind, I'd like to ask that you reach out to her however you can - Facebook messages, emails, letters, phone calls, texts, whatever. It will help her to know that people are thinking of her and sending love and prayers. If you'd like to reach out to her and don't know the best way, send an email to helplaurenheredia@gmail.com and we can send it on to her or let you know of a different way, if you prefer.
Again, we want to thank you all for your continued thoughts, prayers, and notes. And thank you again for all the donations. They really have helped ease some of her stress.
If you still want to contribute or want to share this so others can, the ways to contribute are below. The funds go to paying hospital bills, travel bills, and their regular bills while her husband takes time off to be with her.
We appreciate all of you for taking the time to read and share this. All of the support has been so wonderful. We have all been so blown away by the kindness and love.
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Ways to contribute:
You can click the button
below to contribute to a Pay Pal account that is linked directly to the Benefit
Account for Lauren Heredia. Lauren herself does not have access to this
account, so it is anonymous to her and the funds are transferred to her bank account. If anyone wants proof of their donation,
please email helplaurenheredia@gmail.com (this is not a tax-deductible
donation).
You can also send checks made payable to Lauren or Fabian Heredia to:
Lauren & Fabian Heredia
PO Box 942
Carlsbad, New Mexico
88221
This goes directly to them. And you can go into any Wells Fargo location and ask to make a deposit into the Benefit Account for Lauren Heredia . It may be necessary to tell the teller the account was opened in New Mexico.
It has been a rough couple of days - for the country and for Lauren and her family. The horror of what happened in Boston on Monday hits all of us. Lauren's mom, Lisa, has actually run the Boston Marathon before and it was the highlight of her marathon career. She had qualified to run Boston again this year, but due to the race already being full when she qualified, she was put into NEXT year's race. While her family is grateful that she was not in the danger zone, they are - like the rest of nation - grieving for those who were.
The family is also distraught about the loss of one of Gary's brother's who passed away this week.
Lauren herself has been battling a bad case of the flu, which can be dangerous to healthy people and especially dangerous to those with compromised immune systems. Her doctors in Carlsbad are keeping an eye on her and she's been prescribed what medications can be used to treat something like the flu. Yesterday she was prescribed antibiotics on top of that to treat strep as well. Mostly she is trying to rest.
She got some disheartening news from the gastroenterologist in Dallas, who has determined that she should not do one of the tests he wanted to. They are being extra careful to not put her body through too much stress before a surgery, but of course, every delay is hard on her as well.
She is just about one-month out from her trip to Baltimore and it is both a relief that it is so close and a frustration that it is so far away. She knows that the doctor in Dallas is planning on working with the doctor in Baltimore and that is positive.
With all the negativity and the sadness that we are all feeling, she wanted us to again say thank you. The nature of her illnesses make it hard for her to socialize and all the kind words, thoughts and prayers that have come her way have really helped. Hearing from friends and family helps her to feel more a part of things. She also really appreciates all the donations that you have sent, recently and from the beginning. Again, the donations that went into Paypal are anonymous to her, but she has been so blown by the generosity, she wanted to say thanks to all of you.
Because of the uncertainty of what will happen, we have no way of estimating how much will be necessary in the coming weeks and months and that is why we will continue to share how to donate. Her husband will be taking time off to help her and that may add to the strain. We do want to share with you that your donations have helped pay for her recent trips to Dallas to see the doctor there and some of the medical bills that have come from that trip. They have also helped pay for her plane tickets to Baltimore. For all of that, and the continued love and prayers, we wanted to say Thank you. Thank you so much for everything.
With everything that has happened over the last couple of days, it reminds us of the need to let the ones you love how you feel. And she really appreciates all of you.
Ways to contribute:
You can click the button
below to contribute to a Pay Pal account that is linked directly to the Benefit
Account for Lauren Heredia. Lauren herself does not have access to this
account, so it is anonymous to her and the funds are transferred to her bank account. If anyone wants proof of their donation,
please email helplaurenheredia@gmail.com (this is not a tax-deductible
donation).
You can also send checks made payable to Lauren or Fabian Heredia to:
Lauren & Fabian Heredia
PO Box 942
Carlsbad, New Mexico
88221
This goes directly to them. And you can go into any Wells Fargo location and ask to make a deposit into the Benefit Account for Lauren Heredia . It may be necessary to tell the teller the account was opened in New Mexico.
Be good to each other.
