Her doctor's goal was to shrink the tumors before her surgery.
Rand wanted to keep working as much as possible. She would continue office hours on the weeks she didn't have chemo and work from home when she couldn't come in.
But like her liver patients, Rand was now more susceptible to infections. She contracted pneumonia, throwing off her plans for two weeks.
Even so, she stayed engaged. She got daily updates on her patients from the team on 8 South and dispensed orders for their care. She worried that she was adding to the burden of busy colleagues while she sat at home.
She was bored.
Rand had plenty of time for paperwork and contacted patients via e-mail. She went in for her outpatient clinic as much as her treatment allowed.
Those were her best days. At CHOP, she snapped out of the surreal nightmare of her illness. At CHOP, she could feel connected to her world - to her patients.
By Nadia's next checkup, Rand's hair was gone. She didn't wear a wig. It felt too much like hiding.
The doctor demanded a lot of her patients and their families. She figured the least she could do was be open with them about her illness.
She remained her cheerful, optimistic and upbeat self, despite private fears for the future.
Joe and Allison worried. They liked and depended on Rand. She embodied CHOP and their hope that Nadia would be cured.
Would Rand be OK? Was she going to take time off? Would she be there when Nadia got her liver?
The long-awaited call
There was little to cheer about on Christmas Day at the Kadis.
Nadia, Allison and Joe had been waiting for a liver for weeks.
Nadia was listless. Allison and Joe grew worried that she seemed so out of it, but she didn't have a fever.
The next day, however, her temperature spiked. The doctor on call told them to take Nadia to the emergency room at Doylestown Hospital.
It was serious.
Nadia had a bloodstream infection. It was E. coli.
At 3 a.m. an ambulance rushed Nadia to CHOP, where she was started on an array of antibiotics - Unasyn, Zosyn, Ciprofloxacin, imipenem and fluconazole.
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