More about Evie Mae Parker
On the 11th of January 2010 Evie was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Prior to being diagnosed with the illness Evie attended an appointment at her local surgery for her first immunisations and check up, it was at this point that the circumference of Evie's head was abnormally large. Evie's GP did not seem overly concerned and decided to monitor it again in 4 wks time.
Evie's parents were concerned as Evie's head was misshaped but put it down to flat head syndrome as she would only lie in one position. Emma’s Mothers instinct then kicked in and we called our local health visitor for a 2nd opinion, we were told that we were just being overprotective parents because Evie did not have any other symptoms. Not satisfied with this we called another health visitor the next day and she also said the same as the previous health visitor.
As days went by my wife decided to measure Evie's head this was on the Sunday 5 days prior to her seeing her GP: Evie's head had grown another cm within those few days Emma then called NHS direct. Following the bad weather, with the ice and snow, it was not feasible to take Evie out down to our local hospital which was 25 miles away, so we decided to make an appointment the next day to see a different GP. On the Monday morning we saw our GP who thought it would be better to get a 2nd opinion so Evie went to Treliske hospital in Truro to see a paediatrician. They decided she should have a cranial ultra sound scan of her head, In the afternoon of Monday Evie went down for the cranial ultra sound scan, she was accompanied by her parents and her nanny. Whilst the procedure was being done it was noticed that there was a mass and multiple cysts within her brain. These had to be removed and the only appropriate place was Frenchay hospital in Bristol.
Evie also had an MRI scan at Treliske hospital and these images were sent to Frenchay. It was then decided that Evie would need to travel by night via an emergency ambulance. At this time it all felt like a dream and it wouldn't end. At Frenchay we saw the neurosurgeon who informed us that Evie was a critical baby who only had a 5 - 10% chance of survival!
The tumour was removed successfully and was called a choroid plexus papilloma grade 2 (Link to .) We had previously been told, if she pulled through, because of the speed and size of the tumour, it would be quite possible that she would need chemotherapy.
To our amazement she beat all the odds and at this stage she is being constantly monitored weekly at Treliske hospital and having MRI scans every 3 months without the need of chemo! She is a little miracle and a fighter.
Evie has a very close family and a big brother called Lewis who is nearly 12 and a sister called Freya who is 7. Evie was recently christened which was a wonderful occasion. She is nearly 5 months old and doing amazingly well.
