Seventy-two days in hospitals, 129 visits to clinics, 13 trips to emergency rooms.
Four strokes.
She had suffered multiple compression fractures of her vertebrae, excruciatingly painful, requiring her to wear a “turtle brace” for 13 months. For six months, she had to use a wheelchair or walker to get around.
This kid, I kept thinking as I wrote down the numbers. This sweet, courageous kid.
Between 11 years old and 13, she had had 19 X-rays, six CT-scans and four MRIs. She had made 20 visits to a psychologist and 34 to physical therapy. She missed 60 days of fourth grade, 98 days of fifth and 62 days of sixth.
But Ali beamed and told me that she had had her last chemo treatment that summer, and there were hopeful words from doctors, and she was so excited, so eager, to charge into seventh grade.