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 normal supervisor, coped.
He needed to collect as a lot info as he may.
“I’ve nonetheless to at the present time by no means googled medulloblastoma,” mentioned 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.”
The whole lot about this felt inconceivable. Wynnie had misplaced her stability a number of instances — and now her dad and mom confronted a sudden and important determination. Docs at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) advised the Rices they might not deal with Wynnie with radiation; she was too younger. The neurocognitive harm from radiation would stop her from having an impartial 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 advised him it will be reckless to not use the therapy recognized to be the very best — radiation — irrespective of the long-term results. Rice had negotiated participant contracts price a whole lot of tens of millions — a high-stakes course of that blends goal valuations with a subjective hand. However this was so completely different.
It was a guardian’s worst nightmare.
Then Rice noticed an e mail. A neuro-oncologist at Cincinnati Kids’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 mentioned. “He doesn’t even know who I’m. He has his personal sufferers and his personal life.” Graham shared his recommendation. He grew to become a frequent useful resource for Rice.
These small, considerate moments amassed.
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. Relations and buddies who dropped the whole lot 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 over and over,” Rice mentioned. “There’s so many individuals that wish to assist. Everyone does it in their very own manner.”
Rice referred to 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. Nevertheless it felt regular, despite the fact that Klentak labored for the Milwaukee Brewers and Rice was on depart 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 towards most cancers. It’s grown to greater than 700 followers. Mates of buddies of buddies now reply to posts with, “Go Wynnie go!” The account is a uncooked look into life with pediatric most cancers. It’s turn into a manner for Ned and Cary to precise sophisticated emotions.
Greater than something, it’s opened a door. “Caregiver burnout is a typical phenomenon,” mentioned 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 instances, 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 mentioned. “And I believe only a few individuals may. However that doesn’t cease individuals from wanting to assist.”
The primary signal of misery wasn’t alarming. Wynnie was a contented and wholesome 3-year-old studying to maneuver quicker. That meant an occasional stumble. However Ned and Cary seen their daughter’s stability wasn’t bettering; it regarded 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 wished her to see a neurologist at CHOP. The following appointment wasn’t for 5 months. He recommended the Rices go to the CHOP emergency room — not as a result of it was pressing, however to assuage any rapid considerations.
They took Wynnie on Dec. 21, 2023.
“Certain sufficient,” Rice mentioned,” 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 may very well be a muscular illness. Possibly 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 number of extra instances.
A health care provider summoned Ned and Cary in the course of 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 wished to do rapid 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.
The whole lot had spiraled so quick.
“It’s an extended course of, however that was positively a low level,” Rice mentioned. “These first few days — you took a principally glad, wholesome, candy lady in for an outpatient MRI. She wakes up and also you’re identical to, ‘Will we ever see that lady once more?’ That was actually exhausting.”
Then Wynnie was identified with medulloblastoma.
Cary lies with Wynnie within the CHOP ICU 4 days after her mind surgical procedure. Wynnie nonetheless couldn’t transfer or speak. (Courtesy of the Rice household)
Throughout that first journey to the E.R., in the beginning 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 night time.
Rice didn’t point out the place he was.
The day Wynnie underwent surgical procedure, Rice referred to as Phillies normal supervisor Sam Fuld. He advised him what was occurring. Dombrowski was overseas 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 advised him. “Take the whole lot you want. We’ll utterly cowl it. Don’t fear about something.”
John Middleton referred to as a number of hours later. The Phillies’ principal proprietor provided to attach the household with docs. Cary is a lawyer and her agency, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, advised 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 provided to assist with regardless of the household wanted, however what they wanted was a remedy for most cancers.
All they wished was regular. It was an uncomfortable scenario that didn’t at all times need to be uncomfortable.
“We simply have this glorious kind of village that stored exhibiting up,” Cary mentioned. “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 individuals. 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 traditional 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 ground at CHOP for nearly eight months. The Rices opted towards radiation. However her therapy — alternating cycles of chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplants — was so grueling that the majority of it was inpatient. Ned and Cary would take 24-hour shifts with Wynnie. They had been ships passing within the night time with out a lot interplay.
They discovered a group contained in the hospital.
“These nurses, I imply, they’re not simply nurses,” Cary mentioned. “They’re therapists. They’re buddies. They’re cheerleaders.”
Heidi Turner, one in every of Wynnie’s nurses, labored solely overnights. That meant a number of late-night bonding. Wynnie was discharged Aug. 23. The final night time at CHOP, Turner handed Cary a letter to Wynnie.
“I’m going to overlook you a lot,” Cary mentioned 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 mentioned, “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 involved with participant brokers and rival group executives final offseason however not served because the group’s essential 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 can be making an attempt to speak about this,” Abbott mentioned. “Since you simply can’t be. It’s so all-consuming while you assume, ‘My 3-year-old daughter has to undergo this.’ It’s exhausting 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 lady lose her hair and be sick. All of these things 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 wished to be extra of a sounding board for him,” Abbott mentioned. The Rices weren’t retaining 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 tip of spring coaching on the Phillies’ advanced in Clearwater, Fla. Everybody knew it was for Wynnie, however nobody needed to say it. Phrase unfold to the group’s entrance workplace and assist employees. Dozens of Phillies staff had their heads shaved or orange streaks painted of their hair. Gamers made donations to the inspiration.
Reliever Matt Strahm’s spouse, Megan, organized a gift from the Phillies’ wives and girlfriends. “An unbelievable, large, outrageous present wagon for Wynnie,” Rice mentioned. He had not met Strahm’s spouse till later that summer time on the group’s household day.
“You’re superb,” Rice mentioned to her.
With Wynnie within the hospital, Rice watched from afar this yr because the Phillies sprinted to first place. “The Banatic!” Wynnie mentioned to her dad every time the furry inexperienced mascot appeared on the display screen. There are particular rhythms to the baseball season. It’s monotonous however comprises particular checkpoints. The Rices had none of that with Wynnie. There have been no common updates on her prognosis. They won’t understand how profitable her remedies had been till a scan someday in December.
Their focus was singular. Get by way of in the present day.
“Wynnie, she’s one thing,” Cary mentioned. “She has this tiny little voice and she or he’s so candy and delicate with the whole lot she does. We at all times type of thought-about her this little delicate flower. However she’s a beast.”
Wynnie at her 4th celebration. (Ashley Blair Pictures)
Two weeks in the past, Wynnie had a celebration. The Rices held it outside, at a playground by the Schuylkill River Park, as a result of Wynnie’s immune system stays in danger. They’d bagels and occasional 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 individuals 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 mentioned, “by about 85 of the chums who’ve been there for us in so many alternative methods this yr.”
Wynnie’s hair has began to develop again, though she wore a purple knit cap that coated her head at her celebration. Everybody may see the three purple flowers painted on her brow.
However Wynnie felt sick close to the tip of the celebration. She went to the emergency room with croup. One other problem. However she was 4 and she or he was right here.
She wore her face paint to the E.R.
(High picture: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Pictures: Ashley Blair Pictures)
