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.

Friday, 6 January 2017

Upcoming Operation and facebook / twitter / YouTube account details

Hi all,

Shay is having a operation next week, a Lumbar punch to measure the fluid levels in his brain. His Professor arranged this urgently due to a stroke like episode a couple of months ago. The Lumbar punch in general is not a big operation, but for a Mitochondrial child it is a big operation.
Shay had one done just over a year ago and we said he would not have one again unless it was very important. This was due to how long Shay took to recover from it, shay struggled for about  5 days.

Hopefully we have covered all bases this year and he will get the medicine he requires straight after the operation.

I will try my utmost to keep this blog updated. You can also follow shay on his facebook page just search for 'Build for shay" he is also on Twitter @Buildforshay. Shay really wants to be a YouTube star so we have only just created his channel so please subscribe for all his videos on YouTube.

Shay will keep you updated more than me as he loves recording everything, I will promise he will have you laughing.

Please comment or contact me if you need to ask anything.