Thanksgiving

I have sooooo much to be thankful for. Volunteering at San Jose Clinic has completely opened my eyes to all of the people out there who need healthcare but can't afford it. Of course I know that it is a problem, especially in light of the new health care legislature that just passed, but at San Jose I can match faces and names to the statistics. When my grandpa was first diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma sophomore year, I was frustrated that his Medicare supplement plan was not accepted by M.D. Anderson. Of course, when you think cancer you think M.D. Anderson, but to go for preliminary testing and workups would cost ~$13,000 out of pocket. At the time, I did not realize how lucky he is that he even has access to any kind of healthcare, and thank God he is now in a partial remission. Anyhow, this thanksgiving even further indicated to me how lucky and fortunate I am as I heard on Wednesday about two young people from church who were in the hospital. One of them is a priest's four-month old daughter who (against all odds!!!) was born with trisomy-18. Most babies with this genetic disorder don't even make it to birth. Tuesday night was a rough one for her, and they decided to remove her breathing tube, but she is still going strong. Last week at San Jose, watching all of the children get helmets made me realize how much I take for granted. If I wanted/needed a bike helmet, I would just drive over to Target and pick one up. But some of these families don't even have a car, let alone the extra cash to buy something as seemingly unnecessary as a helmet. I bet most of those children do not even have bikes, which made me a little unformatable that we were putting the parents on the spot like that. I remember in health class in eighth grade, we went out to the football bleachers and watched our teacher toss two cantelopes off the backside of the bleachers: one with a helmet, and one without. The cantelopes were supposed to represent what would happen to the brain upon impact with concrete without the protection of a helmet. That image will stick with me forever, and I will never ride a bike without a helmet ever again. Anyhow, this thanksgiving truly was one of sincere gratitude thanks to my time at San Jose.