November 15, 2014
As we enter the Thanksgiving season, I felt it would be appropriate to talk some about this special holiday – perhaps the only major holiday that has yet to be tainted by commercialism and consumerism. Somehow, Thanksgiving has managed to retain its innocence and its dignity, which is why it is my favorite of all holidays. It is what it claims to be – a time to reflect, to take note of all there is to be grateful for.
For me, this time of year always brings me back to November of 1983, when I spent almost the entire month at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, receiving treatment for a rare and potentially fatal blood disease, aplastic anemia. The treatment was highly experimental at the time. My doctor, who was head of hematology, said it had only been in existence for three years.
I was fed horse serum intravenously twice a day for eight days. Somehow, the horse serum was supposed to reactivate my bone marrow, so that it would once again produce new blood cells on its own.