First piece of good news

At midday, Sally and I had an appointment to see Skye's Consultant to obtain the results of his lumbar puncture. For the first time in months, we have some good news. The spinal fluid is clear of live cells. There is evidence of debris, which is great, but no sign of any live cells. This is a great relief to say the least, and it makes decisions easier, in that we can forge ahead with treatment, rather than having to go back to the drawing board with our Consultant and start looking at a variety of options. As soon as Skye's blood recovers from Radiotherapy, he will start High Dose Thiotepa, with stem cell rescue. This is likely to be the 3rd of February, but possibly a week after that, depending on recovery. Obviously there are still a lot of unknowns! We know that cells that were evident within the SF are no longer there, but we don't know what is happening at the original tumour site, as well as at the peripheral sites around the brain where the tumour had metastasised. What we do know is that these sites are no longer shedding cells and disseminating them around the body, and therefore the assumption is, that their progress has, for the time being at least, been halted. We have been in discussion with both Dr Mark Gaze in London and our Oxford Consultant Sheila Lane about which charities would most benefit from our efforts. There is some specific research work going on in relation to Medulloblastoma and this is where we would like to focus future efforts. They are going to do some work on our behalf, chatting to their colleagues at the forefront of medulloblastoma research and give us guidance. Please do watch this space and start thinking of fundraising ideas!