Big smiles from beautiful twin boys. Photo / supplied
One of the Rotorua twins battling a rare form of cancer is recovering from open-heart surgery and starting to smile again as his family hope it marks better health for the boys.
Little Laken Snowling had five-and-a-half-hour surgery at Starship Hospital last week where surgeons patched up a large hole in his heart that was more than 2cm long, as well as fixing two smaller holes and carrying out some other repairs.
The 9-month-old and his twin brother Theo were diagnosed with Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML) after their birth in September. The condition accounts for about 1 per cent of all childhood cancers and it is almost unheard of for both twins to have the condition.
Both also had holes in their hearts.
Speaking from Starship Hospital, the twins' mum Stephanie Archer said Laken was getting better "slowly but surely".
"He has started smiling again [yesterday] and I even made him giggle."
She said the support the family had received had been huge.
"It makes me happy to know just how loved my little boys are. The amount of support is incredible and therapeutic, it has helped me so much through this emotional journey."
Miss Archer said all going well they might be transferred back to Rotorua Hospital by the weekend to continue Laken's recovery, which would include echocardiograms at least every year, for the rest of his life.
"By fixing his valve it has caused another problem [it leaks] so one day in the future he is going to need another cardiac surgery to get a valve replacement. That could be anytime, hence the regular monitoring."
Miss Archer said they had been "so lucky" to not need any chemotherapy treatment yet. Miss Archer was pinning her hopes on the possibility the JMML may disappear by their first birthday.
"We are still awaiting genetic testing results to see if the boys have a syndrome [which may mean the cancer goes away]. These results should hopefully be not too far away. They are being tested for 13 different possible gene mutations that are associated with Noonan's syndrome."
She said while Theo also had some holes in his heart, they were smaller than his brother's and the hope was that as he grew the holes wouldn't, so he might grow out of the problem.
Miss Archer said while regular appointments with the paediatrician were a given, she hoped the heart surgery would mean less hospital time for the boys.
"This operation should certainly bring Laken better health, his heart won't be struggling so much now."
-To follow the boys' journey, go to Theo and Lakens JMML journey on Facebook
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