Zachary Pierce was born March 2, 1989 in Albany, New York. He has four younger sisters (Emily 9, Sarah 6, Lauren almost 4, and Abby 1 1/2). He loves the Power Rangers and went to CA to meet them in 1996 through Make-A-Wish. Zachary likes to draw and had a picture chosen for the American Brain Tumor Association's 2000 calendar. His drawing was of himself bowling! He currently bowls in a wheelchair due to nerve damage by vincristine, which is a chemo he was taking. Zachary loves to eat, especially italian food!
Zach very rarely complains. Once in a while, he gets mad at himself because he can't do something but usually we try to laugh things off. He is a true inspiration to everyone who meets him. He is in a special class because he needs extra time for processing and writing and stuff, but he NEVER gives up. Everything is 100 times harder for him than other kids, but he just plugs away and does whatever he is asked. He also loves to play games on the computer. He has a great sense of humor and a wonderful ability to perservere. He is a wonderful son, friend, and big brother.
When It All Started
When Zach was 5, he started acting kind of crabby and klutzy and was throwing up in the morning, but then he would be fine the rest of the day. We took him to out pediatrician several times who kept saying nothing was wrong. We finally went to another doctor who sent us right to the hospital. He had surgery to remove a brain tumor to his cerebellum that filled his cerebellum.
He had surgery and the surgeon felt he removed all of the tumor. Unfortunately, the swelling after the surgery left Zach unable to do
anything (move, swallow, talk).
After one month in the ICU he was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital for 3 months because he needed to relearn how to walk, talk, swallow, move, etc. He did a great job. He progressed nicely with a few lingering deficits (balance problems, fine motor problems, vision trouble, and slow processing--nothing we could not live with). He was followed regularly with MRIs every 3-4 months.
Unfortunately, this year, he needed a VP shunt and, after several surgeries, we found out he had two small tumors in cerebellum again and also that the tumor has spread to his spinal fluid and had probably be there 2 1/2 years because the fluid was FULL of tumor.
At that point, we went to Beth Israel in NYC. In 1999, Zach endured 6 surgeries (mainly shunt related). He then was on carbovincristine (a chemo) that caused severe nerve damage.
Above and to the right is a picture taken in early 2006 of Zach with his new pup. Someone had called the hospital, wanting to donate a purebred chocolate lab, to kind of be a helping dog to someone. The hospital called us and we jumped on the chance. Zach has named the pup KOKO (for Keep On Keepin' On, which is definitely Zach's motto). KOKO is also featured on Zach's website at http://www.caringbridge.org/ny/zacharyp
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Zach had a bad month. After feeling sickly for a few weeks, he had a shunt series (xrays) which said his shunt looked good. After another week of feeling bad, I told doc I had a bad feeling so she had a CT scan done. Sent us home, but within about a mile of the hospital, got called back to go to ER. Shunt malfunction. He had surgery at around midnight on 9/18 and it turned out to be the valve in his shunt. He was able to go home the following day and then had to be home another week or so until his followup with the neurosurgeon. This past week he finally got to go back to school on Wednesday and he is feeling much better.
He's a senior this year (he's 20) so he's gotten his senior picture taken (awesome, I must say) and now I'm trying to think of some extremely WONDERFUL thing to write in the yearbook to him!! Words just can't express how awesome I think he is and what an inspiration....any ideas?? LOL!
p.s. Here is Zach's website.
