Party Time

Katie, me, Meghan, Ben and Joe at Mulino's

My children took me out to a special birthday dinner last night, complete with a candle in my molten chocolate cake brought over by a waitress singing "Happy birthday."

Little did she know that it was really my fifth birthday, or my re-birthday, which actually fell on Jan. 31 – five years after my last bone marrow transplant.

Five years is the point at which transplant recipients are no more likely to get leukemia than the general population, and at which we can even dare to use the word "cure."

It doesn't seem so long ago that I wasn't sure I would live five days, let alone five years. I have so many things to be grateful for, and all of it thanks to my donor, Denise, who saved my life when I thought I was at the end of the line.

Definitely a day to celebrate!