My family and I are infinitely grateful to all the people who have been and are helping us, for the last two and a half years since my initial diagnosis, and especially over the last five months of chemotherapy.
The level of support has been absolutely astounding to us, and gratifying. I am going to give a general thank you right now, without mentioning any names; to all of you people out there, and follow up later with individual thanks.
21 people donated blood or platelets and more than a couple of people schlepped into Sloan Kettering and were turned down for various reasons. I never asked anyone to donate. The donations were organized completely by guys I used to play rugby with (and their wives) and by rugby guys I coached (and their wives). I had to ask people to stop coming in, as there was and is more than enough “donor designated” blood on hand. In fact it would be no surprise if I get blood and platelets tomorrow at my first doctor follow-up since my discharge.
None of the donations will go to waste – any donations approaching their “use by” time will go to other needy patients in MSK. And there are a lot of them. For example, there was a young person (early 20’s) in the next room having a bone marrow transplant (from a donor) to arrest leukemia. The family was up from Virginia, so very unlikely to have too many ready donors.
While I was hospitalized, a crew of people organized food for my family twice a week (the regular days my mother stays with us for the day). Great food – the boys loved it all as did my mother! And it took the heat off Brigid on those two days. This was part of the huge support we got from our town of Croton, from family members of students who go to school with Tim and Joe (St. Augustine’s school) and particularly members of our parish, Holy Name of Mary
Since my diagnosis in August of 2003 I have been on a number of prayer lists, and that number expanded exponentially when my chemotherapy started in September. An Episcopalian priest in Ossining, enlisted intercessors in the U.S, and in Europe. A Capuchin priest let me know he was going “straight to the top” when he went to Rome, heading over to the Tomb of St. Peter underneath the Vatican. I got a huge number of Mass cards (started thinking I was dead!), and prayers from parishioners, clients, business colleagues, rugby people, college friends, my pro-life friends, my in-laws in the U.K. and Australia.
No in-law jokes here – I have great in-laws.
And I got a gigantic volume of emails, phone calls, and more visits then I ever expected while I was in Sloan Kettering. To say nothing of the support Brigid got while I was in – people she didn’t know she knew were coming up to her in town and at Church to give their best wishes and prayers.
Another source of great help were the people, again going back to August of 2003, who had gone through cancer therapy (or weathered other illnesses) and gave me their personal stories and advice. This was hugely supportive and gave me real practical help. Again, I won’t give names and specifics but I will try and thank everyone individually.
Lastly, I was amazed at the number of people who contacted me because of this web journal, who either have lymphoma, or have a friend or relative with lymphoma. None of us asked to join this particular “club”, but everyone in it is trying to do the best they can for their families. Contacting them has been particularly uplifting.
So, I will try and reach out with an individual word of thanks, to everyone who has done so much for my family and me.
And don’t forget:
We accept prayers in all Denominations
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