Ten months in the past when the nights have been longest, Ned Rice emailed complete strangers to share his household’s unthinkable dilemma. These have 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 common 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.”
All the pieces about this felt unimaginable. Wynnie had misplaced her stability a couple of instances — and now her mother and father confronted a sudden and demanding choice. Medical doctors at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) instructed the Rices they might not deal with Wynnie with radiation; she was too younger. The neurocognitive harm from radiation would forestall her from having an unbiased grownup life. However her possibilities of survival have been higher with radiation.
Ned Rice sought a second opinion from one other main youngsters’s hospital. They instructed him it will be reckless to not use the therapy recognized to be one of the best — radiation — regardless of the long-term results. Rice had negotiated participant contracts value a whole bunch of tens of millions — a high-stakes course of that blends goal valuations with a subjective hand. However this was so totally different.
It was a father or mother’s worst nightmare.
Then Rice noticed an electronic 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 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 collected.
An surprising 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. Relations and associates who dropped every thing to take care of her two siblings. Extra presents. Nurses who didn’t simply take care of Wynnie — however her mother and father, too.
“It hits you time and again,” Rice mentioned. “There’s so many individuals that wish to assist. Everyone does it in their very own manner.”
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, regardless that Klentak labored for the Milwaukee Brewers and Rice was on go away from the Phillies.
The telephone calls have been cathartic. They may 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. 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 grow to be a manner for Ned and Cary to specific difficult emotions.
Greater than something, it’s opened a door. “Caregiver burnout is a standard 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 feel 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 cheerful and wholesome 3-year-old studying to maneuver sooner. That meant an occasional stumble. However Ned and Cary seen their daughter’s stability wasn’t enhancing; it seemed 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 following appointment wasn’t for 5 months. He urged 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.
“Certain 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 could possibly 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 couple 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 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 will take every 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 mentioned. “These first few days — you took a principally blissful, 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 onerous.”
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., in the beginning escalated, Rice was on the telephone with Dave Dombrowski. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s camp had instructed groups to make their final and greatest gives 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 known as Phillies common supervisor Sam Fuld. He instructed 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 instructed him. “Take every thing you want. We’ll fully 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 medical doctors. Cary is a lawyer and her agency, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, instructed her to take as a lot time as she wanted. The Rices have been lucky; that they had 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 all the time must be uncomfortable.
“We simply have this glorious kind of village that saved 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 discuss 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 have been ships passing within the night time with out a lot interplay.
They discovered a neighborhood contained in the hospital.
“These nurses, I imply, they’re not simply nurses,” Cary mentioned. “They’re therapists. They’re associates. 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 in touch with participant brokers and rival group executives final offseason however not served because the group’s principal 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 mentioned. “Since you simply can’t be. It’s so all-consuming once you suppose, ‘My 3-year-old daughter has to undergo this.’ It’s onerous for fogeys and households to get their heads round precisely what’s on the point 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 point 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 mentioned. The Rices weren’t preserving 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’ 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 employees. 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, 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 superb,” 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 every time 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 remedies have been till a scan someday in December.
Their focus was singular. Get by way of at the moment.
“Wynnie, she’s one thing,” Cary mentioned. “She has this tiny little voice and he or she’s so candy and mild with every thing she does. We all the time 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 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 individuals saved sending them when Wynnie would throw up on hers.
This was a celebration of Wynnie and the village that fashioned round her.
“We have 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 may 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 he or she was right here.
She wore her face paint to the E.R.
(High picture: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Pictures: Ashley Blair Pictures)