Family Picture 1 Month Prior to Transplant

This was the gang together for my daughter, Heather's graduation from Columbia law school.

It is rare to catch all the Koffmans in one photo. And none of us with bunny ears or goofy faces.

That trip to New York City was my last air flight for quite a while. My transplant happened about a month after this photo. In retrospect, my cancer was on a fast march then, but was halted in its track by the drastic procedure.

Now it is almost a year and a half later, and I have recovered well enough to make two trips back to Manhattan from SoCal in 9 days, but am sick enough to worry about when and how I will fair with a second transplant.

And I am on edge about the trip and my speech.

Why am I so emotionally broiled for the short keynote address I am giving at the Ezer Mizion fundraiser on the upper east side? I speak regularly in front of hundreds of doctors on topics that are not particularly my specialty and walk away with rave reviews. I even did a comedy routine about leukemia and got some good laughs. This will be a friendly crowd of 50 or so.

I guess I really do know why. These are the people that found my donor. Without these people, without these people....... I don't even want to think about that.

I want to do my best by them. Not just because they are a great non profit organization, which they are, not just because they save lives, which they do, but because of the cold reality that I will need them again to come through for me.