The Ballad of Katie: Somewhere Under Heaven Series

Day Zero

Katie's POV

Well, the day has arrived. Dr. Macy says this is "Day Zero." Apparently they count down the days from when I first receive chemo as a part of the conditioning of the body until now. She says this is the riskiest part because there's always the chance that it won't fully work.

It's also my 14th birthday which to be honest, I didn't expect to spend in a hospital but I keep thinking that 14 years ago, my dad didn't expect to be in a hospital delivery room with my mom giving birth to me so there's that. The nurses help my parents get a little surprise to me anyway because just before they start the graft, Valeria walks in with a giant bear. "Happy birthday, Katie," she says to me. 

My parents walk in after going through all the steps to put on the proper protective gear. "This is it," Mom says.

"Does anyone think it's weird what today is," I ask.

Dad of course knew it was May 13 and he says to me, "Guess we're both getting an amazing gift this year. I get to witness your rebirth, love."

My rebirth? I like that. They both sit next to me as Dr. Macy is handed the IV bag with the bone marrow. 

"It almost looks like blood," Mom says.

"It does, doesn't it," Dr. Macy says as she goes to hook the bag to the IV. "This is the moment we all been waiting for. This is the moment when Katie gets a new lease on life...we hope."

I've been videoing this whole adventure from start to finish. Ever since I started playing around with Mom's old GoPro, I took a real interest in filmmaking. My parents bought me a new GoPro for my birthday and I have also been learning how to edit both on my own and by sitting with my mom when she works on her projects. 

I decided to make a mini-movie out of my battle. Mom asked me why and I told her I wanted to document everything because it'll help other kids who are going through the same thing along with their family. 

It's another running joke in our family about how I want to become a filmmaker and spend every minute I'm not working on school stuff or playing lacrosse on shooting and editing video. "She's a chip off the old block," Dad would tease every time I go to work on a video to edit.

Dr. Macy opens the IV and says now it's a waiting game. "The Initial procedure will take a couple of hours," she tells us. "After that we need to monitor Katie closely and make sure she stays hydrated. She may also need a blood transfusion or two but we have that prepared in case." 

"But that's normal," Dad asks.

"It is. Also, Katie might have some nausea and vomiting during the infusion process but that's also normal."

"She'll fight through it," Mom says as she looks at me with a smile. "She always does."

Rob's POV

They just started the infusion. I know Casey's nervous but she's trying to hide it as usual. I look over at Katie as Dr. Macy puts the line into the port near Katie's collarbone and she says, "Well, this is it." 

"You're going to beat this, love." 

After a few minutes, I see Casey pulling out her laptop to get some work done. I knew she still had to get the final grades into the university's system. Sometimes I don't know how she does it all but she does. In the last few years, Case has done it all from being an Emmy winning journalist to a dynamo in the academic world having become a professor at Rider and now a dean. She's also finishing up her doctorate in education and after being mayor of Princeton, she's a member of the New Jersey State Assembly.

The one thing that always impressed me though is how Casey still finds time for the family. You'd think with the way she is always busy, we would have to hire a nanny but we never had to despite having to hire a housekeeper a couple years ago. Casey told me early on that she refuses to let anyone else raise our kids and she really means it. We're at every parent-teacher night, every football (yes, I know Americans call it soccer) and lacrosse game, and Casey's been the leader of Katie's Girl Scout troop several years in a row. She's even been the same with our foster kid, Jaxon to the point where he calls her "mama."