Little Feet - Long Walk

Hello and welcome to my blog. This blog is the journey of our family after Millie, our 2 year old daughter, was discovered to have a large brain tumour. The tumour was caused by an aggresive cancer named anaplastic ependymoma. Please feel free to read as much as you want and spread the word. If you want to know more details about the diagnosis then it is best to start at "The beginning ... " which was written in May 2011. But you are welcome to follow us from today. I have created pages that summarise the events leading up to the start of going to Florida for proton radiotherapy at the beginning of June 2011, about 8 weeks after diagnosis.

The MRI Scan

On the last day of the spring term (early April 2011) I noticed that Millie's head was leaning to the left as if she didn't have the strength to hold it up. Following my instincts I whisked her off to a GP. We ended up seeing 2 GPs who, understandably, initially assessed her for meningitis. They then decided that we should see a paediatric consultant the following week and our GP rang the hospital to try and get to arranged. Then suddenly I was told to go in NOW.

My eldest was at ballet, having been collected from school by a friend. So I needed to make rapid arrangements for her to be looked after, dashed back to the house to get some things together and phone my husband, then took Millie to the hospital. At this point I was still confident that we would be out within a few hours. Initial questions were asked and bloods were taken, We were given a bed for the night and told that Millie would be the subject of many investigations over the next few days. I was beginning to get a bit worried by this stage.

The next morning the consultant wanted to watch Millie move so we duly moved to the play room and tried to show what she could and couldn't do. Not only was she not able to walk but she was extremely wobbly and shaky when trying to pick something up. As if she had lost her ability to balance and coordinate. A couple of hours passed and then we were told that Millie would be going for an MRI scan at midday the following day (Sunday). Now I started to worry.

The next day arrived, she was given an anaesthetic and taken away. She was back an hour later looking groggy and really bad tempered. We had to wait another hour for the results which turned out to be the worst news we could imagine. Our darling daughter had a large tumour on the left side of her brain which was thought to be growing fast. It was so large that it was pressing the brain up against the right side of her head. We were told it was really bad and that she may not survive. We needed to go to Bristol Frenchay hospital NOW.