Ten months in the past when the nights had been longest, Ned Rice emailed whole strangers to share his household’s unthinkable dilemma. These had been docs throughout the nation who had not met and didn’t deal with his 3-year-old daughter. Wynnie had mind most cancers. This was how Rice, a Phillies assistant basic supervisor, coped.
He needed to collect as a lot data as he may.
“I’ve nonetheless to at the present time by no means googled medulloblastoma,” stated Cary Rice, his spouse. “As a result of I can’t deal with it. And I’m an analytical thinker, too. But when it’s too emotional, I can’t do it.”
All the pieces about this felt inconceivable. Wynnie had misplaced her steadiness a couple of occasions — and now her dad and mom confronted a sudden and important choice. Docs at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) informed the Rices they may not deal with Wynnie with radiation; she was too younger. The neurocognitive harm from radiation would stop her from having an unbiased grownup life. However her possibilities of survival had been higher with radiation.
Ned Rice sought a second opinion from one other main kids’s hospital. They informed him it will be reckless to not use the therapy recognized to be one of the best — radiation — irrespective of the long-term results. Rice had negotiated participant contracts value lots of of hundreds of thousands — a high-stakes course of that blends goal valuations with a subjective hand. However this was so totally different.
It was a dad or mum’s worst nightmare.
Then Rice noticed an e mail. A neuro-oncologist at Cincinnati Youngsters’s Hospital named Richard Graham despatched a prolonged reply to one in every of Rice’s chilly calls. “I used to be actually panicking,” Rice stated. “He doesn’t even know who I’m. He has his personal sufferers and his personal life.” Graham shared his recommendation. He turned a frequent useful resource for Rice.
These small, considerate moments accrued.
An surprising present on the doorstep. A video from Wynnie’s classmates. Extra responses from out-of-town docs who would by no means meet Wynnie. Members of the family and associates who dropped every part to take care of her two siblings. Extra items. Nurses who didn’t simply take care of Wynnie — however her dad and mom, too.
“It hits you again and again,” Rice stated. “There’s so many individuals that wish to assist. All people does it in their very own approach.”
Rice known as his former boss. These weren’t like the late-night talks Matt Klentak and he usually had whereas they ran baseball operations for the Phillies. But it surely felt regular, though Klentak labored for the Milwaukee Brewers and Rice was on go away from the Phillies.
The telephone calls had been cathartic. They might dive proper into no matter was on Rice’s thoughts as a result of Klentak knew the newest on Wynnie by way of an Instagram account the Rices created to chronicle her struggle in opposition to most cancers. It’s grown to greater than 700 followers. Buddies of associates of associates now reply to posts with, “Go Wynnie go!” The account is a uncooked look into life with pediatric most cancers. It’s turn out to be a approach for Ned and Cary to precise sophisticated emotions.
Greater than something, it’s opened a door. “Caregiver burnout is a typical phenomenon,” stated Jane Minturn, Wynnie’s neuro-oncologist at CHOP, “and (Ned and Cary) have labored collectively to restrict this.” Wynnie is aware of she is sick, however she doesn’t perceive what mind most cancers is. The burden is shared by everybody round her.
It’s immense. Klentak may sense it, at occasions, throughout these late-night conversations. It’s isolating. However Rice began to hold the goodness of those that had entered Wynnie’s universe.
“I couldn’t actually relate to what he was going by way of,” Klentak stated. “And I feel only a few folks may. However that doesn’t cease folks from wanting to assist.”
The primary signal of misery wasn’t alarming. Wynnie was a cheerful and wholesome 3-year-old studying to maneuver sooner. That meant an occasional stumble. However Ned and Cary seen their daughter’s steadiness wasn’t enhancing; it appeared a fraction worse each week. They scheduled an appointment final December with their pediatrician.
He threw cotton balls throughout the room to Wynnie, who was content material to play the sport. She needed to bend over and fetch them. She wobbled. The pediatrician agreed one thing appeared off. He needed her to see a neurologist at CHOP. The subsequent appointment wasn’t for 5 months. He advised the Rices go to the CHOP emergency room — not as a result of it was pressing, however to assuage any fast issues.
They took Wynnie on Dec. 21, 2023.
“Positive sufficient,” Rice stated, “we had 5 neurologists in our room in a couple of minutes.”
Wynnie didn’t have every other signs. The docs scheduled an MRI in three weeks. It could possibly be a muscular illness. Perhaps it was vertigo. The Rices visited household for Christmas and Wynnie vomited twice. CHOP rescheduled the MRI for Dec. 29 and, that morning, Wynnie threw up once more. She stumbled a couple of extra occasions.
A physician summoned Ned and Cary throughout the MRI. He pointed to a display screen. There was a big tumor in Wynnie’s mind. Wynnie was sedated for the MRI. The docs needed to do fast surgical procedure to take away the tumor. It was 4 p.m. on the Friday of a vacation weekend. The process lasted 4 hours; it will take per week to know whether or not the tumor was cancerous.
All the pieces had spiraled so quick.
“It’s a protracted course of, however that was undoubtedly a low level,” Rice stated. “These first few days — you took a principally blissful, wholesome, candy woman in for an outpatient MRI. She wakes up and also you’re identical to, ‘Will we ever see that woman once more?’ That was actually arduous.”
Then Wynnie was recognized with medulloblastoma.
Cary lies with Wynnie within the CHOP ICU 4 days after her mind surgical procedure. Wynnie nonetheless couldn’t transfer or discuss. (Courtesy of the Rice household)
Throughout that first journey to the E.R., at first escalated, Rice was on the telephone with Dave Dombrowski. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s camp had instructed groups to make their final and finest affords for the star free agent. Dombrowski communicated the quantity to Rice, who relayed it to Joel Wolfe, Yamamoto’s agent. Yamamoto signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers that evening.
Rice didn’t point out the place he was.
The day Wynnie underwent surgical procedure, Rice known as Phillies basic supervisor Sam Fuld. He informed him what was taking place. Dombrowski was in a foreign country for a uncommon trip; Rice talked to the Phillies’ president of baseball operations quickly after New Yr’s.
“We’ll see you when it’s over,” Dombrowski informed him. “Take every part you want. We’ll utterly cowl it. Don’t fear about something.”
John Middleton known as a couple of hours later. The Phillies’ principal proprietor supplied to attach the household with docs. Cary is a lawyer and her agency, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, informed her to take as a lot time as she wanted. The Rices had been lucky; they’d the means to pay for therapy and ample time to direct consideration towards Wynnie. Acquaintances supplied to assist with regardless of the household wanted, however what they wanted was a remedy for most cancers.
All they needed was regular. It was an uncomfortable scenario that didn’t at all times need to be uncomfortable.
“We simply have this glorious type of village that stored displaying up,” Cary stated. “Saved calling. Saved texting. Even after I couldn’t reply. We’re simply actually grateful for that as a result of we’re nonetheless the identical folks. We nonetheless wish to speak about issues and do issues that don’t have anything to do with most cancers. We wish to really feel regular. We wish to have hope for a standard future. The worst factor you are able to do or say is nothing.”
Wynnie sits on a mattress at CHOP between cycles of her therapy. (Courtesy of the Rice household)
Wynnie lived on the third flooring at CHOP for nearly eight months. The Rices opted in opposition to radiation. However her therapy — alternating cycles of chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplants — was so grueling that almost all of it was inpatient. Ned and Cary would take 24-hour shifts with Wynnie. They had been ships passing within the evening with out a lot interplay.
They discovered a group contained in the hospital.
“These nurses, I imply, they’re not simply nurses,” Cary stated. “They’re therapists. They’re associates. They’re cheerleaders.”
Heidi Turner, one in every of Wynnie’s nurses, labored solely overnights. That meant a whole lot of late-night bonding. Wynnie was discharged Aug. 23. The final evening at CHOP, Turner handed Cary a letter to Wynnie.
“I’m going to overlook you a lot,” Cary stated to Turner. “We’ll cease by and hopefully I’ll see you.”
She stared at Cary. The nurse replied she hoped to by no means see them once more.
“And,” Cary stated, “it simply caught with me as a result of it’s such a bizarre feeling to have.”
Rice, who has been with the Phillies since 2016, stayed in touch with participant brokers and rival workforce executives final offseason however now not served because the workforce’s foremost level of contact. The Phillies had began negotiating Zack Wheeler’s three-year, $126 million extension with B.B. Abbott, Wheeler’s agent at Wasserman. By January, Rice and Abbott had common talks that began with half-hour about Wynnie and progressed to Wheeler’s contract.
“You’re by no means what you wish to be for these households which are attempting to speak about this,” Abbott stated. “Since you simply can’t be. It’s so all-consuming whenever you assume, ‘My 3-year-old daughter has to undergo this.’ It’s arduous for fogeys and households to get their heads round precisely what’s on the brink of occur. The times and nights and hospitals. Watching their little woman lose her hair and be sick. All of these items that I knew was on the brink of come.”
For years, Abbott has raised consciousness for pediatric most cancers analysis by way of the Rally Basis and the Nationwide Pediatric Most cancers Basis. “I simply needed to be extra of a sounding board for him,” Abbott stated. The Rices weren’t protecting Wynnie’s sickness hidden; it was extra of an open secret. Abbott determined to assist subtly.
He requested Wheeler if he’d lend his identify to a fundraiser for the Nationwide Pediatric Most cancers Basis close to the top of spring coaching on the Phillies’ complicated in Clearwater, Fla. Everybody knew it was for Wynnie, however nobody needed to say it. Phrase unfold to the workforce’s entrance workplace and assist workers. Dozens of Phillies staff had their heads shaved or orange streaks painted of their hair. Gamers made donations to the muse.
Reliever Matt Strahm’s spouse, Megan, organized a gift from the Phillies’ wives and girlfriends. “An unbelievable, large, outrageous present wagon for Wynnie,” Rice stated. He had not met Strahm’s spouse till later that summer time on the workforce’s household day.
“You’re wonderful,” Rice stated to her.
With Wynnie within the hospital, Rice watched from afar this 12 months because the Phillies sprinted to first place. “The Banatic!” Wynnie stated to her dad at any time when the furry inexperienced mascot appeared on the display screen. There are particular rhythms to the baseball season. It’s monotonous however incorporates particular checkpoints. The Rices had none of that with Wynnie. There have been no common updates on her prognosis. They won’t know the way profitable her therapies had been till a scan someday in December.
Their focus was singular. Get by way of right this moment.
“Wynnie, she’s one thing,” Cary stated. “She has this tiny little voice and he or she’s so candy and mild with every part she does. We at all times sort of thought-about her this little delicate flower. However she’s a beast.”
Wynnie at her 4th party. (Ashley Blair Pictures)
Two weeks in the past, Wynnie had a party. The Rices held it outdoor, at a playground by the Schuylkill River Park, as a result of Wynnie’s immune system stays in danger. They’d bagels and low and a face painter. Cary handed each child a stuffed fox as a celebration favor. “Mr. Fox” was Wynnie’s fixed companion within the hospital; Cary had so many on the home as a result of folks stored sending them when Wynnie would throw up on hers.
This was a celebration of Wynnie and the village that fashioned round her.
“We had been surrounded,” Cary stated, “by about 85 of the buddies who’ve been there for us in so many various methods this 12 months.”
Wynnie’s hair has began to develop again, though she wore a purple knit cap that coated her head at her social gathering. Everybody may see the three purple flowers painted on her brow.
However Wynnie felt sick close to the top of the social gathering. She went to the emergency room with croup. One other problem. However she was 4 and he or she was right here.
She wore her face paint to the E.R.
(High picture: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Images: Ashley Blair Pictures)
