Allison and Joe weren't sure they were ready.
What if something happened? They woke at the slightest sound or cough. They checked on her obsessively.
That's a problem, Rand said. It's time for Nadia to sleep alone. Let her cry.
Allison and Joe weren't about to disagree with the doctor. But there was no way.
Still, two weeks later, Nadia's biopsy results were the best yet.
The cycle was broken.
A prescription for life
Rand was satisfied. Nadia's numbers weren't perfect, but they were steady. Rand and, more important, Nadia, could live with them.
Nadia had passed the most dangerous period. Now it was a matter of living as a transplant recipient. But as Nadia grew, and as her body changed, Rand would have to adjust her mix of medicines.
All told, CHOP was paid $528,092 for Nadia's care from her first arrival April 24, 2006, through her transplant and her subsequent hospital readmissions. Nadia was covered under Joe's health insurance. And because of her condition, Nadia qualified for Medicaid. The program paid the costs not picked up by their primary insurer.
On June 29, Rand went for her last radiation treatment. It had been eight months since her diagnosis of breast cancer. She was in remission.
But the cancer had left its marks on her.
She could see them in her mirror. Her hair was short. Her breasts were smaller and no longer quite matched. Her belly button was slightly off center, making her feel strangely asymmetrical.
Rand knew a recurrence, it if happened, was most likely between two and seven years. She hadn't wanted to get the odds, because in the end it would either happen, or it wouldn't.
Certainly, she hoped to see her kids graduate from high school and college, go to their weddings, and hold her grandchildren.
But it was best not to dwell on the possibility the cancer would return. Best not to go there.
She often told her patients and their parents that even in the face of serious illness, it was really important to focus on the moment, to truly live.
Rand looked ahead with optimism.
That weekend she went shopping with a friend while her children and husband went to a baseball game. She drove to the King of Prussia mall intent on reclaiming some control over her body. She stopped at the Piercing Pagoda and walked out with with two more earrings - clear rhinestone studs - in her left ear.
A little asymmetry of her own.
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