Long Awaited Update

I am sorry in not updating this blog for some time.

Since the previous update shay has not had any hospital admissions, things have been happening but overall shay has been keeping well. He is always smiling, laughing and having fun, even winding people up when he is feeling poorly.
He has a fantastic sense of humour, this is something which keeps everyone relaxed.

Shay's eyesight and hearing is still declining, and should be getting a hearing aid very shortly, he has been getting a new prescription every 6 months for new glasses as he is struggling to see in daylight hours due to the brightness, he also struggles to see at night.
I can walk into his room and walk right beside him and he will not see or hear me.

Shays leg muscles are getting weaker and uses his new power wheelchair more and more. When shay gets home from school and goes straight up to bed he is normally joined by his beloved German Shepherd, Holly. They have a fantastic connection, holly licks shays painful legs, and shay says this helps him.
Shay is currently in love with Supercars, always screaming in the car when he sees any.

Please feel free to message me on this to ask any questions, I will try my best to update shays blog, but we have been very busy with numerous appointments. If you wish I can PM a email address to keep more updates.

Latest Update

Again I start this off saying sorry for not keeping this updated.

Since I have last updated this back in January, shay has had lots of appointments, test and he takes everyone of these in his stride.

We have had the results of the Lumbar Punch and this confirmed our thoughts that the syndrome has now progressed into the next stage, meaning that shay has diagnosed as having Kearns-Sayre Syndrome. In very simple terms it means the condition has and will effect his brain. (A positive from this is that we know we have shay around for more years than expected). Shay has been given a medicine which helps slow down the effects on the brain, this has help in his memory recall.

Heart block is one of the main things that we are keeping our eyes open for as this is the next main thing that will effect his life.

Shay has had appointments at his specialist hospital checking his eyes and hearing, and the syndrome has now effected both eyes. Shay had a appointment 6 months earlier and on his latest test they have changed again, so new glass 6 months after his last pair. Shay still complains of pain to the front of his head, and even now a month after his last change of glasses he is complaining that some vision is blurred even with his glasses on and the headaches are back. Shay had a hearing test last month and I was expecting a change in this but not to the level we were told. Shay has is barely just under the level to have hearing aids. The results showed that one ear is worse than the other, his next appointment has been brought forward

Always waiting for more results

I am sorry in the delay, I do keep check on this site and please fell free to leave messages etc for shay. I will always try to answer any questions.

I find that we await results of tests but normally we never get a full answer, as it always opens up more questions. Normally we need to go for some other test to find out what the next step is or to find answers for the current test. So always on going tests and awaiting the next result and then the next.

In August 2014, I wrote about waiting for results of a MRI scan on Shay Brain. I was building myself up for a change in Shays brain, this was due to several things, his memory getting worse, speech, vision, bad migraines and more.
The appointment was a surprise but opened up more questions. His scan showed that it had not got worse than the year before, but this did not answer the question that other problems were arising. So now awaiting an appointment with a neurological consultant, a Lumbar Punch, more eye and hearing tests.

Our Pearson's Professor was happy with the scan, but puzzled with what symptoms he was now showing. Shay was booked in to have his Lumbar Punch at GOSH, normally a day surgery, but with he was booked in to stay overnight.

We arrived early morning for the operation, Shay took longer to come out of recovery due to vomiting. Shay was moved back to his ward after an hour or so, he did not recover like he normally does, he was struggling this time, sleeping, not want to play or even eat a sweet. His feeds went on but on a extremely slow rate. He could not even tolerate this, he would vomit everything back up. He was getting extremely bad migraines , so bad that he just wanted to sleep, whenever he woke he would get sick with the pain.
Shay was on very strong painkillers but this was helping, we stayed a total of 5 nights and it took this time to try and manage his pain, once this was managed he was able to keep down his feeds.

Since our stay in GOSH, shay has had his ophthalmology appointment and been given a stronger prescription, his eye movement is getting restricted by the muscles tightening up.

We are now awaiting more tests re his brain, eyes and hearing.

I will post a photo shortly.

Regards

Dad

Shay

This is just a short message to let you know that Shay is busy with numerous hospital appointments,  its that time of year again with the yearly appointment. We are awaiting certain result and will update here when I get them.

Shay has had a MRI scan, we are awaiting the results which will be when we see main Mitochondrial consultant. Shay has seen his GOSH heart specialist which went well, and after a discussion he is going to have a heart monitor on for a day, due to somethings which occurred over the last few months.

We are awaiting his main hearing and eye sight test at GOSH, I have a feeling on what these results may show but we always keep strong.

Regards
Dad

Ps I am aware that we can go a couple of months without writing on the blog, this is down to shay being well and also busy family life. I would like to let you know that I do look at the site regularly.

Shay worried about moving to Junior school

Tonight Shay was in bed and not in a good mood, he called me and just wanted me to sit with him. After about 10 minutes he says "I don't like juniors, I will miss my friends. I don't want to leave infants"

 

I do my utmost to reassure him that he will see his friends and that he can always pop into infants whenever he wants. He says "I cant pop in every day" (This tells me its more than his friends he does not want to leave, but his teacher / welfare lady). I have told him he can pop in to see his infants teachers anytime.

 

Shay had me with a tear or two rolling down my face, when I looked at him he had tears rolling down his face,
 

Shay fell asleep, but the picture looks like he was in a deep thought before he fell asleep.

 
Shay does not like change, I wish we could keep his teachers and his special people with him. They are worth the weight in gold.

 

 The lady with shay is one of his special teachers. This year would have been so much harder without her. Thank you.

 

Update

Since January Shay has had a couple hospital visits re his bones / joints/ muscles. He has been unable to put pressure on his foot due to pain in his ankle, x-rays are clear so not sure what is happening.

We are awaiting a few hospital appointments re lumbar punch and other test, So July will be a busy month for him. When I have further re his hospital I will keep you all updated.

Shay has managed to do his First Holy Communion, something which I never thought would see.

Shay meets Harry (From McFly)

Shay had a fantastic day yesterday, he met another rock star, Harry from 'McFly'

Harry was impressed with shays dress sense and told him that he will be wearing the jeans and boots in his next video, as shay looked cooler than he did. This impressed shay, who's smile started to get bigger and bigger.

Shay asked me several times if I had said thank you to Harry for meeting him. I did, but shay never fails to amaze me, he always thinks of other people.

My little rock star.

Regards

Alan