Chicago Marathon 2012

Chicago Marathon 2012
You Can Still Run For A Cause!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Have I Ever Said Thank You?

*re-posted from August 4, 2008 because today it needs to be said again*

I'm not sure I have here anyway, but to the all of the families out there that have the compassion and wherewithal to see past their own grief and say yes to organ donation when their loved one has died, I say thank you.

Thank you to my donor's family, who two years ago made the decision to donate their loved one's organs not only to people that needed it to survive but to the research that improved my own life.

Everyday I get up and say thank you. Everyday something happens and I'm glad I had the transplant, even on days when I'm whining about mouth ulcers and annoyed that I need to stop what I'm doing to take yet another pill and even when I'm forking out the cheddar to pay for one more script, I'm very aware of just how grateful I am to my donors family. And to everyone else that made my islet transplant happen.

So to my Donor: Thank you
to my donor's family: Thank You
to the people that help fund the Chicago Project and UIC's islet transplant program: Thank you
to the doctors that do the work they do: Thank You
to the transplant coordinator, and nurses and office staff: Thank you
to the researchers, lab techs and everyone else behind the scenes that make islet research happen: Thank you
to my family and friends for putting up with the trips to Chicago and with me in general over the past three years: Thank you

And to the people that read and leave comments: thanks to you too!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm the Campaign Manager for Donate Life Illinois and I just wanted to say thanks for putting up such a fantastic post. I'd like to share with our readers on our blog over at www.iamareyou.wordpress.com.

Thanks again for helping spread the word on the importance of organ donation. You should definitely check out our Illinois Donor Diaries section of our site.

-Scott
www.DonateLifeIllinois.org

parrotletzoo said...

I'll check it out. Thanks for the URL and feel free to use what you need from the blog.

Anonymous said...

I encourage you to read the following the news release of a biotech company I've been following for several years. My mother is diabetic and their research looked very promising. They have just announced they are teaming up with UIC.

The company is Sernova (www.sernova.com) and what they are doing is encapsulating donated islets in a special device that is surgically implanted into your pancreas so that the donated islets aren't attacked by your immune system. This would allow donors to help many more people with fewer islets going to "waste".

I encourage you all to visit the site and view their presentation.