Hi,

Last night we received the results of Zach’s MRI scan from that day and it’s great to be able to share with you our GOOD NEWS!!!!! His brain tumour has reduced in size by half and the residual disease around his brain has gone. The tumour in his eye looks like it may have disappeared too. We will still need to have that checked out by an ophthalmologist, but it was clearly visible in his first scan, so that is very promising.

The next milestone now is to have Zach’s bone marrow stem cells harvested and implanted prior to his “Mega therapy” protocol starting. The harvest will be done in Birmingham which will be done through Zach’s Hickman line therefore not causing him any discomfort. There is also a Retinoblastoma clinic there which just happened to have been set up by our Consultant, Professor Grundy. At the Clinic in Birmingham they have a “Retcam” so they can take pictures of the retina and compare it to previous pictures.  

Zach is now starting to keep down his feeds that he receives through his nasal line. This helps in two ways. Firstly it means that he will get nourishment from his food and help him recover quicker and secondly it will protect him from the fluid that he has been receiving. If you don’t have enough protein in your system, your blood vessels start to leak fluid. So by giving him feeds it means that he will get rid of the fluid in a more conventional way other than it leaking out into his body. The doctors think that this may have contributed to the respiratory problems he had the other week.  Another advantage is that we are also able to give Zach his medication through his nasal tube, which is less upsetting for Zach.

Speak to you all again soon.