We thought this would be a good time to summarize Kieran's progress over the last few years. It has been very quick at passing as there are so many hospital visits. He was making good progress all round, but this year, 2004 has seen him take some steps back (as you can see in his Diary journal)
Kieran finished his treatment plan of Chemotherapy in April 2000 and once again the Tumor remained static, he then received 1/4 CT scans to monitor the Tumor.
Kieran started school in August 2000 and amazed everyone concerned with his stamina and courage. He is making new friends and is able to socialize much easier, although he still enjoys his own company. He loves to go Ten Pin Bowling where he claims to win all the time not bad for a little boy who went through so much with his surgery and his years course of Chemo.
We have enjoyed some memorable holidays, skiing in Austria in the early part of 2002, a great time in Florida in 2003 and all going to plan we are hoping to take Kieran to Canada in 2005.
At the moment Kieran is going through a tuff spell, and as you can read in his diary, and is due for more major surgery in the next couple of weeks. We just have to keep positive and look forward to better 2005 than the last year.
30.12.05
Today we were dealt some devastating news.
Kieran received his CT scan at Yorkhill Children's Hospital, this was to be his last scan. The scan was performed without any problems and Kieran lay still throughout. After the scan we made our way up to see Dr Murphy, Kieran's Consultant Oncologist. Dr Murphy explained that the scan results were now complete and that the shunt was working fine, deep down we had an idea of what was to follow.
He explained that the tumor mass had now reoccurred and was very large, spreading downwards towards the back of the brain stem and applying pressure to this area of the brain that controls the main functions of the body, sleeping, breathing, heartbeat regulation ext. This is the cause of the irregular sleep patterns Kieran has developed as well as the memory loss, slurred speech ext .
Kieran had now entered the final kilometer in his long and hard fought journey. Dr Murphy explained that all he could recommend was a course of steroids that may reduce the inflammations which was surrounding the tumor, this may or may not work as the brain sometimes gets immune to the excessive use of steroids. But hopefully it will, and should make Kieran a wee bit more alert and have a better quality of life in the last few weeks.
Dr Murphy continued to explain that because of where the mass was now situated it was most probable that Kieran would continue to become more and more sleepy and would in the end just pass away. He did also say that there may be a small chance of a major seizure ending Kieran's young life. We hope that this does not happen and the best option would be the first.
As you can imagine we are totally shocked and saddened that Kieran has now entered this chapter. We are now fighting with a huge range of emotions. Kieran was our life, we dedicated ourselves to him for the past 7 years of his illness. We went trough every operation, every scan, every headache. Lorna and I new nothing else for this period. We cannot comprehend a life without Kieran. We are also eternally great full for the time we had with Kieran. We had more time than allot of Brain Tumor patients receive. Kieran once again deifying the odds.
Kieran was an inspiration to a huge amount of people and will be sadly missed. He touched the heart and sole of every one from the American President to the Domestic Assistants at the hospital.
We now need to try and pick ourselves up for the last time and be strong for Kieran in the final weeks of his short life, we will try and do things as normal and as much as his small body can take. I will keep you updated as much as I can, but I'm sure you will appreciate time will become more precious now.
I will take this opportunity to thank everyone in the world who has left supportive messages and e-mails on Kieran's web throughout the last few years.
Kieran having his Radiotherapy Mask fitted. Jan 2005
