A Rose for Melinda Read Online Free PDF

Concerned
Subject: Doctor's Report

    Now that we know the worst, we're hoping for the best.
    First of all, thank you for all the cards, notes and gifts you've sent Melinda since we learned thenews. Her hospital room looks like an annex for a boutique! Really, your generosity is much appreciated and has cheered Melinda greatly.
    Melinda has been transferred to All-Children's Hospital, where she'll be supervised by a team of physicians in a state-of-the-art complex associated with St. Jude, the famous children's cancer research hospital in Memphis. She has a hematologist, an oncologist, a psychiatrist (for adjustment to the diagnosis), a nutritionist, a social worker—in short, a whole team of people to help her cope with her cancer (the latest concept in treating the patient as a whole, not piecemeal). A good idea, I guess, but there are a lot of new people in our lives, the kind that parents hope they never have to meet under circumstances we never think we'll face.
    Melinda had a blood transfusion to elevate her red cell count and she looks and feels much better. She's also on antibiotics to deal with the bone marrow infection and is fever-free for the first time in days. Tomorrow she'll begin her first round of chemo, which her oncologist, Dr. Neely, hopes will put her into remission. Once they adjust her levels of chemo, which is pretty potent stuff,she'll get to return home. Then she'll go onto outpatient status. She'll have to come in for more treatments (the doctors call them protocols), be hooked up to an infusion pump for a few hours at a time and have more chemo dumped into her via IV, but at least we'll be able to take her home after each treatment.
    The goal is to get her into remission and keep her there. Some patients never have a relapse. Others can have one after being cancer-free for a few years. A patient is considered “cured” if there are no relapses after five years. Frankly, there's so much to learn and adjust to that we're all overwhelmed. I asked Dr. Neely how we'll get through this and he said, “The same way everyone else gets through it—one day at a time.”
    More later,
Lenny

    MELINDA'S DIARY
    July 15
    The chemo started today. IVs in my arm, wads of pills in my mouth, a whole schedule of stuff thatis poisonous. Dr. Neely says it has to be strong enough to kill the cancer cells. I hope it doesn't kill me along with it.
    I asked him if I was going to lose my hair. He said, “Maybe not.” I sure hope he's right. I imagine a bald ballerina and I start to cry. The doctors told me that I can return to dancing as soon as I'm in remission and feel up to it. They want me to be physically active. But no one understands how hard dance is and how far behind I'll have fallen. Where will I ever get the energy to compete again? I'm sick to my stomach and have to stop writing. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME????

    TO:
Jesse
Subject:
Melinda, of course

    I wish I could answer the questions you ask me, but I can't. Yes, she's really sick. Yes, she's really unhappy. I don't know about the dying part, but I won't even THINK that! I did get to go up and visit her and she looks pretty good. Skinnier and paler, but still like Melinda. Just to prove it, I'll bring a camera next time I go and take some pics of her and her hospital room and I'll sendthem to you. I'll be your eyes and ears, Jesse. I promise!
    Bailey

    Elana's Journal
    Midnight
    I bought this journal today because I have to start writing things down …private things that I can't share in coast-to-coast e-mails, not with Lenny, certainly not with Melinda. I see my daughter, my dear child, writing in her little diary that she puts away and locks if anyone comes into the room while she's writing in it (as if I'd ever read her personal and private diary!). I know it's a release for her. The psychiatrist, Dr. Sanchez, was pleased when she learned that Melinda has the habit of keeping a diary. She told me that “journaling” is therapeutic. God knows I need