So Much To Be Thankful For...

Hello Pilgrims and Indians everywhere!

I don't want to get too soppy on Thanksgiving, anyway's there's no time - all that turkey to eat...

Our clan is gathering here, quite a contrast from two years ago, when, yellow and weak with jaundice, I pledged that I would ''beat this liver thing'' and everything would be back to normal. Normal is good. Normal has been back since shortly after after my Dec. 19, 2004 transplant.

We have so much to be thankful for - our families - our health - our friends - our happiness. In our family, we include my donor family - and all donor families around the world - who, while missing their loved ones, may find grace and joy and happiness in knowing how much they mean to organ donation recepients.

I am especially thankful for the opportunities presented to tell our story to the groups of patients joining the NYU Transplant Center waiting list - who hope this day as all others for their beepers to chirp a welcome call to the operating room - and, recently, to participate in a panel at the Somerset Hills YMCA. Nancy and I were thankful to be able to tell our story - how faith and attitude and love - played a big part - and to hear the tales of courage and love from others who have been donors and recepients and parent of an infant transplant recepient.
A note on the passing of Robert Altman...
The famed director passed this week to cancer at age 81. In recent years, Altman stunned an Oscar night audience by announcing that he had been a heart transplant recepient about 10 years earlier. Altman later said he hid the fact that he received the Gift of Life because he feared that he wouldn't be hired to work. I'm sorry he took that attitude - which shouldn't be the view of any transplant recepient. The best example proves to be Altman himself, who had a prolific and successful post-transplant career.
I know nothing of Altman's personal life, but I wish he had stepped forward earlier to show himself as a shining example of post-transplant life. We don't all have to win Oscars, but, transplant recepients know that life and can be ''normal'' and much, much better than normal post-transplant.

And that's a lot to be thankful for.
And that's today's word: Thanks!