NORTH SALT LAKE — There were two ways things could have gone Saturday as Chelsea and Patrick Carver shaved off their daughter's hair: (a) they could feel grim or (b) they could make a party of it.
The Carvers chose Plan B, and by the end of the day 300 friends and strangers had shown up to lend support, cheering as 4-year-old Cami — diagnosed five weeks ago with leukemia — took electric clippers to her father's head, and then he took the clippers to hers.
As Cami said: "Who needs hair, anyway?"
Cami used to have what she and her best friends call "princess hair," long and thick. But after she began chemotherapy, all those tresses began falling out in clumps, sometimes falling into her food as she ate, always covering her sheets when she woke up each morning.
Cami was diagnosed with acute B cell lymphocytic leukemia on July 10, a diagnosis that seemed to come out of nowhere. In fact, just the morning before, things at the Carver house couldn't have been better. Chelsea snuggled with Cami and 2-year-old Caden as they watched Mickey Mouse. Later, Cami played with her friend Elle Lee while Chelsea and Caden went to the store.
But when Chelsea got back, Elle Lee's dad noted that Cami had spent most of the time sitting in a stroller in the garage. And it looked, he said, as if she was limping a little. Later that afternoon, when Cami hadn't perked up, Chelsea called the pediatrician.
"I felt almost silly when the nurse asked me her symptoms," writes Chelsea on her blog, kissesforcami.com. "I'm sure she rolled her eyes when I said 'her hips have been hurting for a few days, and she is acting really mellow.' "
The pediatrician thought Cami looked healthy but a little pale and ordered a blood test. He called the Carvers at 11:30 that night and told them to take their daughter to Primary Children's Medical Center immediately. By morning there was the diagnosis.
"I had a million questions I didn't want answered," writes Chelsea. "How can a body so little and fragile fight off such a terrible disease? ... Did I feed her something or expose her to something that caused this? ... How can my heart ever handle this heartache?"
At this point, everything made Chelsea cry: looking at Cami, looking at Pat, seeing the bicycle in the hospital hallway in this home for sick kids. It took her a couple of weeks to reassess her situation and decide this: "It is such a waste of time to walk around in misery, dwelling on all that is wrong in my life. Cami deserves better, I deserve better, our family deserves better and I am going to stop wasting all of our time on the sad stuff."
With the help of their sister-in-law, Natalie Carver, co-owner of a North Salt Lake dance studio called Dancin' It Up, Saturday's head shaving for Cami turned into "Cuts for Cami," with 12 hair stylists who volunteered their time to cut the hair of anyone who showed up. They plan to hold the same event for the three years of Cami's treatment and then hope to turn it into "Cuts for Cancer," with proceeds donated to charity.
Saturday's event was part fundraiser and part cheering section. Jessica Dowdy got a foot of her hair cut off for a family she doesn't even know. Jensen Moncur, 16 months old, wailed as he got his first haircut ever. A man who identified himself only as Bootay, hype man for the band Scenic Byway, got a swath of his long golden locks shaved off the top of his head, a style known as a skullet.
And then, finally, it was Cami's turn to shave her dad's head.
"Hair is overrated," Patrick said, as Cami patiently moved the clippers through his curls. Then Cami's brother got a buzz. And then it was Cami's turn. "Goodbye, hair," said Cami, as the crowed applauded. Her wispy hair fell away, leaving her face, rounded by steroids, rounder than ever. She was sitting on her mom's lap so she couldn't see how her mom's eyes teared up. Suddenly the reality of the afternoon had caught up with Chelsea.
This is the lucky-unlucky part of Cami's cancer: It has one of the highest cure rates of childhood cancers, 80 percent to 90 percent, but it's still cancer. Chelsea and Patrick are focusing on the lucky part.
e-mail: jarvik@desnews.com