The real story of August 14th

Well we got up early and drove to Chelan. We stopped for good pancakes on the pass and arrived by noon. The girls settled in and I did some shopping. We napped, we watched a movie and we ate some dinner. Whitney had a headache and a stomach ache that seemed to go away when PeptoBismal was offered.

We went to bed and I got up very early to have some coffee. M-E and Whitney had slept on down stairs couches. M-E went into my room after I was up so she could sleep. I was sitting outside when M-E came storming out and handed me my cell phone.

"Mom, your phone woke me up!!!!!!!!!!! "

Little did I know, that would be the last thing she would say to me in the time before Luuquemia.

It was the voice of Judy Sommerfeld. She is a friend from teaching days. I have known her since 1978. We have always been in touch and seems to spend time during challenging times during our lives.

"Sally, Dr. Garcia from Children's Hospital just called. It is an emergency and you have to call him right away. His number is ........." I hung up and made the call.

"Hi, this Sally Lanham, I am returning a call to a Dr. Garcia"

"Oncology, Garcia." (Can you hear my heart sinking through the earth?)

Deep breath..."This is Sally Lanham. Why are you calling me?"

"Where are you? We need you to return to the hospital immediately."
"We are at the lake." ( Mind on overdrive and nothing making sense.)
"Can we expect you in 30 minutes?" Said with a hopeful tone.
"No, we are at Lake Chelan, at least 4 hours away." (Said with terror coming from a place of deep fear.)

" Please drive directly here. Get here as soon as you can and you will need to be prepared to spend a few nights at the hospital."

"What does she have?"
" I don't want to tell you over the phone."
" You have to tell me. Are we going to do surgery? Should I keep her from eating? What is going on?"
"I don't want to tell you over the phone."
"Please, I need to know."
"She has a form of Lukemmia."
"I will see you as soon as I can."

The rest is a blur. I told the girls we had to leave. I called Belle, my parents and Thomas Kim. I called Johnny and Whitney's parents. I stuffed the stuff into the car, and then I told Mary-Elizabeth she had a blood disorder.

I cried, tried to make conversation, encouraged the girls to sleep and read. I prayed. I was running all the scenarios through my head.

They ran the gamut from: She can not possibility be sick to, will she die before I can get her home. How could I have been so stupid as to take her on vacation?

We arrived at the hospital around 1:00 p.m. They took us directly back. They had me sign some things and then the activity began. Blood draws, questions, people coming in and out. Johnny showed up and told me the doctors were wrong, she could not be sick.

Dr. Dow, age 12, came in and sat down and began and it went something like this:

"We have been trying to contact you. We drew the blood work and found that she had 26,000 white blood cells. 19,000 were what we call Blasts. They are unformed white blood cells. We are running the tests but your daughter has loochemai. There is no doubt. We need to do some other tests to determine what kind it is. That will tell us how she will be treated."

After that there was not much I comprehended. I heard words like:

Now she has 61,000
She will be treated for 2.5 years.
75% cure rate.
Oh, by the way she has a blood clot in her juggler vein.
She will not be having surgery on Friday.


You just go into shock and start making the best decisions you can.
Johnny will spend the night.
Who has to be called.
What do we need to bring from the house.

When do we do the next test, how do we survive this. How do we even comprehend this situation.

It has been so hard because she looked perfectly normal.
I simply left the hospital, and went home to bed.

I was sure she would be okay with Johnny, I was a bit worried that I had not met a single person treating her that looked older than she was. It remains a concern but I am ajusting.