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 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 this present day 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.”
Every part about this felt unimaginable. Wynnie had misplaced her stability a couple of occasions — and now her mother and father confronted a sudden and demanding choice. Docs at Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) advised the Rices they may not deal with Wynnie with radiation; she was too younger. The neurocognitive injury from radiation would forestall 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 youngsters’s hospital. They advised him it could be reckless to not use the remedy identified to be the very best — radiation — irrespective of the long-term results. Rice had negotiated participant contracts price a whole lot 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 father or mother’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 grew to become a frequent useful resource for Rice.
These small, considerate moments amassed.
An sudden reward 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 buddies who dropped all the pieces 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 again and again,” Rice stated. “There’s so many individuals that need 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 typically 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 go away from the Phillies.
The telephone calls had been cathartic. They may dive proper into no matter was on Rice’s thoughts as a result of Klentak knew the newest on Wynnie via an Instagram account the Rices created to chronicle her struggle in opposition to 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,” 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 might 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 via,” Klentak stated. “And I believe 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 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 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 needed her to see a neurologist at CHOP. The subsequent 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 speedy considerations.
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 some other signs. The medical doctors scheduled an MRI in three weeks. It might 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 in the course of the MRI. He pointed to a display. 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.
Every part 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 comfortable, 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.
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 greatest provides 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 another 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 all the pieces 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 supplied 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; they’d the means to pay for remedy 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 state of affairs that didn’t at all times need to be uncomfortable.
“We simply have this excellent 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 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 standard future. The worst factor you are able to do or say is nothing.”
Wynnie lived on the third ground at CHOP for nearly eight months. The Rices opted in opposition to 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 stated. “They’re therapists. They’re buddies. 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 night time 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 staff executives final offseason however not served because the staff’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 need 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 if 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 items that I knew was on the point 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 stated. 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 top 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 staff’s entrance workplace and assist workers. Dozens of Phillies workers 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, big, outrageous reward wagon for Wynnie,” Rice stated. He had not met Strahm’s spouse till later that summer season on the staff’s household day.
“You’re wonderful,” Rice stated to her.
With Wynnie within the hospital, Rice watched from afar this yr because the Phillies sprinted to first place. “The Banatic!” Wynnie stated to her dad each time the furry inexperienced mascot appeared on the display. 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 this moment.
“Wynnie, she’s one thing,” Cary stated. “She has this tiny little voice and he or she’s so candy and delicate with all the pieces she does. We at all times form of thought of her this little delicate flower. However she’s a beast.”
Two weeks in the past, Wynnie had a birthday celebration. The Rices held it open air, 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 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 alternative methods this yr.”
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 top 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. Images: Ashley Blair Images)