Fifteen years earlier, I had been thirteen years old and sitting inside Room 314 at St. Jude’s Medical Center. My feet couldn’t reach the floor as Dr. Robert Lawson sat across from my parents holding a tablet, preparing to tell us something that would divide my childhood into a before and an after.
“It is acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”
The room seemed to shift beneath me. Dr. Lawson explained that it was the most common form of childhood cacer and that aggressive chemotherapy offered a strong chance of survival.
“It is the most common type of childhood cacer. With aggressive chemotherapy, Emily’s survival rate is around eighty-five to ninety percent.”
I heard the words treatable and survival. I remember waiting for my mother to take my hand or my father to tell me that whatever happened next, we would face it together.
Instead, Thomas asked the first question.
“How much?”
Dr. Lawson explained that treatment would likely continue for two or three years and that, even with insurance, my parents could face significant expenses. He immediately mentioned assistance programs and payment options, but my father’s attention remained fixed on the potential cost.
“The full treatment protocol usually lasts two to three years. With your insurance, your out-of-pocket responsibility may fall somewhere between sixty and one hundred thousand dollars, though there are assistance programs and payment options.”
My father laughed once.
“You’re telling me we have to pay a hundred grand because she got sick?”
“Thomas.”
