Day 2: ALL and True Love

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 - When the alarm woke me the next morning I had the split-second sensation of having had the most awful dream... then I noticed Chris was gone... then I remembered.

Julia went off to school with our good friends Kim and Will and their daughters Sarah and Hanna (I think they will be seeing a LOT of Julia in the next few weeks). I headed for MGH during rush hour (and found out that the normally-20-minute-drive can take an hour and a half with traffic). I made my way to Madeline's hospital room on the 18th floor of the Ellison Building, overlooking the gold dome of the old Statehouse and The Charles River--slightly better than the windowless exam room of the night before.

Mady was getting ready for surgery that day, but first she needed a chest x-ray and I accompanied the Hospital Transport woman that took her to the Radiology Department. The x-ray tech was friendly and accommodating when Mady said she felt a little faint when standing at the chest x-ray unit. He found a chair and improvised nicely. When she was done he asked her if she was too old for stickers and stuff, and she shook her head emphatically no! He gave her some High School Musical stickers and a red and white rubber wrist band that is imprinted "True Love," which she asked me to keep for her--and I intend to wear it (next to my LIVESTRONG wrist band) until she's cured.

When Mady and I got back to her room, Chris got a call from the oncologist. After a while I overhead her say "A-L-L" and I gave Chris the thumbs up sign. We still hadn't discussed the ALL/AML thing, but I knew we now had our first positive news! No one really felt like high-fiving though.