Ryan's story

Ryan was diagnosed with Stage 4 High Risk Neuroblastoma N-MYC amplified in July 2008. He was out of treatment for just over a year when in November 2010 our lives were again turned upside down when we discovered the disease had returned in his bones and bone marrow. After a year of treatment re-staging scans in November 2011 showed that he had again achieved remission.

However just 3 months later, in February 2012, end of treatment scans gave us the devastating news that the disease has returned, this time with a tumour near his spine. In March Ryan started 4 weeks of radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy. Re-staging scans in May and August showed no evidence of disease. On the 4th September 2012 Ryan received treatment in Tubingen for a haplo-identical stem cell transplant. He is a happy, active boy who is now enjoying life to the full.

Friday 14 September 2012

Day -4

Yesterday's entry was slightly wrong in that Ryan does change to a second high dose chemotherapy today but has 2 doses in one day.  Then Saturday and Sunday he has the third and final high dose chemotherapy Melphalan.  It is during this final stage of conditioning that Ryan will start to deteriorate and the start of mucusitis will begin to appear.  It is the severity of mucusitis that no one can predict.

But we are taking each day at a time and today Ryan is well, still eating, still enjoying the x-box and has even made a lego robot that he had for his birthday.  He had another hour with his teacher and keeps telling us in German that he can speak German! 

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