By Molly Lovell
Staff Writer
    Two-year-old Ella Palmer’s parents describe their daughter as full of energy, smart – she remembers everything – and “a goofy little squirt,” as dad, Mike Palmer affectionately refers to her.
    Ella’s mom, Lori Palmer describes her as very “verbal,” and with a little encouragement, Ella begins singing “Hit the Road Jack,” with a big smile on her face.
    Sitting at the kitchen table in their Freeport home, with Ella contently snacking on a pancake and mandarin oranges, the Palmers said no one would know their daughter has neuroblastoma, a form of cancer more commonly found in children. 
    “It’s hard to wrap your mind around that she’s a cancer patient because she doesn’t look as if she is,” Lori Palmer said.
    Neuroblastoma is a cancer that forms in the nerve tissue and usually begins in the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys. Doctors caught the disease so early Ella never developed visible symptoms.
    During Ella’s two-year checkup in January her pediatrician suggested further testing because Ella was small for her age.
    “She said if it were her child, she would do it,” Mike Palmer said.
    Ella had to endure weeks of being poked with needles and tubes inserted up her nose for various testing. A lot of times she was under anesthesia and a medication that would put her into an amnesiac-like state, so she wouldn’t remember the painful procedures.
    In late February Ella had a sonogram, which revealed a large adrenal gland, a key indicator of neuroblastoma.
    “Knowing we were going to the Maine Children’s Cancer Program [in Portland] was something. It was an eye opener,” Lori Palmer said.
    She said just weeks before she was reading an article about the disease in Parent Magazine. Coincidently, one of the children affected had a sibling named Ella.
    “You feel sad for these people, but you don’t think it’ll happen to you,” she said.
    Ella’s grandfather, Ron Palmer, a long time employee of the town of Scarborough said he didn’t know anything about neuroblastoma when she was diagnosed.
    “I did research on the Internet to find out more about the disease. With Ella not showing any symptoms, my first reaction was, ‘Gee, she’s fine, just a young kid growing.’ How wrong I was,” he said, adding when his children were young, as long as they appeared to be fine, he didn’t feel there was a reason to go for regular checkups.
    “You look at her and stop and think, ‘What’s going on in her body?”
    On March 31, Ella had surgery at Maine Medical Center in Portland where doctors removed a one-inch in diameter mass on one of her adrenal glands, which Mike Palmer said was pretty much the entire gland.
    There were no complications during the two-hour surgery, but it was difficult seeing her initial recovery, Mike Palmer said.
    “I heard her hollering, ‘I want my dada,’ so I went running in there,” he said, adding she had ripped out part of her catheter and seemed confused about what was happening.
    “You might as well take your heart out and throw it on the floor,” he said.
    While Ella’s initial recovery was trying, he said the day after her surgery she was running around the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital with an IV, catheter and epidural anesthetic and finished 16 laps around the wing, which is one mile.
    “She had so much fun there,” he said.
    During surgery doctors also removed a piece of her liver and lymph nodes and took bone marrow from her hips to ensure the cancer hadn’t spread. Mike Palmer said tests revealed cancerous cells in her lymph nodes, meaning Ella will undergo monthly urine tests and CAT and MIBG scans every three months.
    An MIBG scan is a nuclear test that uses injected radioactive material and a special scanner to locate the presence of neuroblastoma.
    Lori Palmer said Ella never had any symptoms of neuroblastoma before the surgery because it was caught early. She also said research on the disease isn’t intensive and 650 to 800 cases diagnosed a year.
    “That’s compared to 250,000 breast cancer cases,” she said.
    Mike Palmer said through his own research, he’s found doctors don’t know what causes the disease and sometimes it disappears on its own.
    “It can be frustrating, but on the other hand, we’re glad they had the research they did,” Lori Palmer said.
    Mike Palmer said Ella is on a “five-year plan,” meaning the urine tests and CAT and MIBG will continue until she is 7 years old.
    “You want to believe it’s gone,” he said.
    Lori Palmer said they are lucky she never had to experience chemotherapy treatment.
    “She looks normal and acts like a 2-year-old should, it’s just we have no idea what’s going on inside her body,” she said.
    Lori Palmer’s mission is to encourage parents to take their children to well care checkups on a regular basis.
    The Palmers’ insurance provider doesn’t cover such visits, but they felt it was important to remain up to date with them.
    “People don’t do that all the time,” Lori Palmer said, adding, “If we hadn’t have gone to it, in a few months it could have spread to her bone marrow.”
    While the Palmers do have insurance, they are not sure what their out of pocket cost will be for Ella’s surgery and future testing.
    To help with the family’s expenses Ron Palmer is hosting a benefit yard and book sale scheduled for May 31, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hunnewell House on Black Point Road. Items and donations are welcomed. For more information, call 730-4040.