About Me

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London, United Kingdom
Welcome to Shay's story and thank you for taking the time to find out how Shay is doing. It is a place to share our hopes, sadness and the happy times that our little man has. Shay in April 2008 was diagnosed with Pearson's Syndrome a Mitochondrial disease with no cure. Pearson syndrome is very rare, less than a hundred cases have been reported worldwide. It characteristically present in early infancy with pallor, failure to thrive, pancytopenia and diarrhoea. Additional manifestations often include progressive external ophthalmoplegia, proximal myopathy with weakness, and neurologic disturbances. Multiple organ involvement is quite variable. Most infants die before age 3, often due to unremitting metabolic acidosis, infection, or liver failure. Those few individuals who can be medically supported through infancy may experience a full recovery of marrow and pancreatic function. These children eventually undergo a transformation from Pearson's syndrome to Kearns-Sayre syndrome with the development of ptosis, incoordination, mental retardation and episodic coma. Life as we use to know it I cannot remember. We have to live in hope that a miracle will happen for our son.

Sunday 26 January 2014

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


Saturday 25 January 2014

A Brief Update on Shay 24/01/2014

Shay has been himself and battling along, as shay does, without any worries, no matter what happens or developments Pearson's syndrome gives us.

He has been diagnosed with Hypoparathyroidism for which he now takes Alfacalcidol drops.

Shay has had his peg changed at GOSH back in October 2013 and whilst this was done he had a lumbar puncture. Shay has had trouble remembering what he done in the morning or he will be unable at times to how to count. He will start to count, but then he will forget what number is next and then you can see he is trying his best to remember but he cannot remember. His face shows that he knew the number and he starts to get upset, so he will change what we were talking about.
With the lumbar puncture result it revealed that his CSF folate levels were low. With these results shay has started to develop symptoms associated with Kearns-Sayre Syndrome. He has been diagnosed with chorionic neurological disorder. He is now on calcium folinate which will hopefully slow the progression down.

A MRI and another Lumbar puncture is being booked in to happen in a few months, so they can compare and see how much his condition has progressed              

Regards
Alan