Ten months in the past when the nights had been longest, Ned Rice emailed complete strangers to share his household’s unthinkable dilemma. These had been medical doctors 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 might.
“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.”
All the pieces about this felt inconceivable. Wynnie had misplaced her steadiness a couple of instances — and now her dad and mom confronted a sudden and demanding 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 injury 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 youngsters’s hospital. They advised him it could be reckless to not use the remedy identified to be one of the best — radiation — regardless of the long-term results. Rice had negotiated participant contracts price a whole bunch of thousands and thousands — a high-stakes course of that blends goal valuations with a subjective hand. However this was so completely different.
It was a mum or dad’s worst nightmare.
Then Rice noticed an electronic mail. A neuro-oncologist at Cincinnati Kids’s Hospital named Richard Graham despatched a prolonged reply to certainly one 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 turned a frequent useful resource for Rice.
These small, considerate moments accrued.
An sudden present on the doorstep. A video from Wynnie’s classmates. Extra responses from out-of-town medical doctors who would by no means meet Wynnie. Members of the family and pals who dropped every little thing to take care of her two siblings. Extra presents. Nurses who didn’t simply take care of Wynnie — however her dad and mom, too.
“It hits you time and again,” Rice mentioned. “There’s so many individuals that need to assist. Everyone does it in their very own method.”
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. However it felt regular, although 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 most recent on Wynnie via an Instagram account the Rices created to chronicle her struggle towards most cancers. It’s grown to greater than 700 followers. Buddies of pals of pals now reply to posts with, “Go Wynnie go!” The account is a uncooked look into life with pediatric most cancers. It’s develop into a method 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 might 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 via,” Klentak mentioned. “And I feel only a few individuals might. 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 sooner. That meant an occasional stumble. However Ned and Cary observed 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 speedy considerations.
They took Wynnie on Dec. 21, 2023.
“Positive sufficient,” Rice mentioned, “we had 5 neurologists in our room in a couple of minutes.”
Wynnie didn’t have some other signs. The medical doctors scheduled an MRI in three weeks. It may very well 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 instances.
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 medical doctors needed to do speedy 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 could take per week to know whether or not the tumor was cancerous.
All the pieces 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 largely pleased, 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 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 the start 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 in a foreign country for a uncommon trip; Rice talked to the Phillies’ president of baseball operations quickly after New 12 months’s.
“We’ll see you when it’s over,” Dombrowski advised him. “Take every little thing you want. We’ll utterly cowl it. Don’t fear about something.”
John Middleton referred to as a couple of hours later. The Phillies’ principal proprietor provided to attach the household with medical doctors. 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; that they had the means to pay for remedy 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 needed was regular. It was an uncomfortable state of affairs that didn’t all the time should be uncomfortable.
“We simply have this glorious type of village that stored exhibiting up,” Cary mentioned. “Stored calling. Stored texting. Even once I couldn’t reply. We’re simply actually grateful for that as a result of we’re nonetheless the identical individuals. We nonetheless need to discuss issues and do issues that don’t have anything to do with most cancers. We need to really feel regular. We need 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 remedy. (Courtesy of the Rice household)
Wynnie lived on the third flooring at CHOP for nearly eight months. The Rices opted towards radiation. However her remedy — 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 pals. They’re cheerleaders.”
Heidi Turner, certainly one of Wynnie’s nurses, labored solely overnights. That meant a whole lot 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 predominant 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 need to be for these households which are making an attempt to speak about this,” Abbott mentioned. “Since you simply can’t be. It’s so all-consuming whenever you suppose, ‘My 3-year-old daughter has to undergo this.’ It’s arduous for folks 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 via the Rally Basis and the Nationwide Pediatric Most cancers Basis. “I simply needed to be extra of a sounding board for him,” Abbott mentioned. The Rices weren’t maintaining Wynnie’s sickness hidden; it was extra of an open secret. Abbott determined to assist subtly.
He requested Wheeler if he’d lend his title to a fundraiser for the Nationwide Pediatric Most cancers Basis close to the tip 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 group’s entrance workplace and help workers. 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, enormous, 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 wonderful,” Rice mentioned to her.
With Wynnie within the hospital, Rice watched from afar this 12 months because the Phillies sprinted to first place. “The Banatic!” Wynnie mentioned to her dad at any time when the furry inexperienced mascot appeared on the display screen. There are specific 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 understand how profitable her remedies had been till a scan someday in December.
Their focus was singular. Get via right now.
“Wynnie, she’s one thing,” Cary mentioned. “She has this tiny little voice and she or he’s so candy and delicate with every little thing she does. We all the time sort of thought-about her this little delicate flower. However she’s a beast.”
Wynnie at her 4th birthday celebration. (Ashley Blair Pictures)
Two weeks in the past, Wynnie had a birthday 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 shaped round her.
“We had been surrounded,” Cary mentioned, “by about 85 of the chums 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 lined her head at her occasion. Everybody might see the three purple flowers painted on her brow.
However Wynnie felt sick close to the tip of the occasion. 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. Photographs: Ashley Blair Pictures)
