I am thankful for...

... my couette, aka my duvet. It is fluffy and warm and I love it.

... ice cream!

... The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series of books by Louise Rennison. Like Bridget Jones but with teenagers instead of 30-somethings. Absolutely hilarious. Not great literature but for those days (and I'm having a lot of them right now) where you just want something light and funny that you can pick up and put down easily.

... the wonderful doctors and nurses at my hospital who take excellent care of me, especially my doctor, Dr L. I saw him in clinic on Tuesday and not only was I yet again impressed by how intelligent he is and what a wonderful command of the literature he has, but also by how hard he is working for me. Late relapse after transplant is not very common (although as more people are surviving transplant they are finding that there are more and more late relapses) and then add to that the fact that the leukemia relapsed outside of my bone marrow in my digestive system, which is extremely, extremely rare. He is dealing with nearly unchartered territory and making up what to do as we go along, while always basing his recommendations in very sound science. As he said to me on Tuesday, I'm pretty much getting an individualized treatment. There isn't a lot of standard procedure to work with here because this kind of thing happens so rarely. I am so thankful that I have such a caring and competent physician who is willing to do absolutely everything he can to give me the best chance for a cure.

... My wonderful friends, who stick by me through thick and thin.

... My amazing family, who are stuck with me through thick and thin.

... being alive.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

PS I made my students make little turkey hands and write "I am thankful for ..." the past two years. They were so adorable! A very successful activity. They had a little trouble with the hand tracing part because I demonstrated it on the chalkboard first for them, but I am left handed, so the right handed kiddies were always a little confused. Kids are so cute!