There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

Adrenal Insufficiency Ryan's lymphoma is being driven by the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) which causes glandular fever. The EBV invaded his T-cells whilst he had Glandular Fever and turned them cancerous causing dysplastic lymph cells to grow in his throat resulting in a soft tissue tumour forming. The good news at the start of chemotherapy cycle 4 was that his EBV plasma readings had come back as zero for the second month, which tells us that no more cancerous cells are being made in his bone marrow.  There are still EBV cells in his blood so hopefully, this cycle and next 2 cycles will finish killing off the cancer cells that are still in his blood. Ry will be given remission status when the EBV plasma has been zero for 6 months and still faces at least two years of maintenance ahead after the six chemo cycles have finished.  The week of SMILE chemotherapy went well although he had some impressive fluid retention on day 4. This can be a sign that the kidneys are not working...

Glandular Fever The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), which causes Glandular Fever, is still proliferating in Ryan's immune system and is what is driving his head and neck - NK/T-cell lymphoma cancer. The Immunology team looked at Ryan's DNA to try and work out why his body has not been able to kill off the EBV from 2 years ago. They wonder if he has an underlying immune problem. They also wanted to know if we as a family have any Asian descendants in our history as this type of head and neck cancer usually presents in Asian men over the age of 50 who have a background of alcohol and tobacco addictions. Ryan is Caucasian, aged 14 and has never drunk alcohol nor smoked. 90% of the population have been exposed to EBV. Like chickenpox, it is in our memory cells, but for Ryan, it is still a live virus so they are tracking it through his plasma to know if they are able to successfully kill it off, with the radiotherapy and chemotherapy. If even 1 cell remains in his plasma then the cancer...

The build up to moving from Primary to Secondary school became more and more apparent as the months rolled by and the time crept ever closer. Ryan's meltdowns increased and he took to regularly sleeping on his window sill. In his bedroom he has a lovely deep sill that we made into a window seat. He spent a lot of time sitting, contemplating and so it appears, sleeping. Unfortunately Ryan was once again excluded during year 5 for violent behaviour, which although is inexcusable the reasons go back to that metaphorical fizzy pop bottle . The instances of bolting from school and becoming angry with the world once again escalated, but we now knew why these were happening and the SENCos from both schools where in close contact helping us all to prepare for Ryan’s next biggest challenge. Ryan was given extra ‘transition days’ in his new school to prepare him and make it a little less daunting, but the stress was too much and Ryan developed Shingles. He was really poorly for ...