Birthdays..How many do you have?

      Many of you may think this a strange question. As for me, not at all. As I sit here with an excruciatingly painful toothache I've pondered this question.
      On January 1st of this year a friend came by to celebrate her 50th birthday with us. I grilled chicken outside with shrimp scampi as an appetizer. And yes, we were able to grill outside on our one warm day before the unbelieveable cold hit Florida. As a joke I made a banner that read "Happy 21st Anniversary of your 29th Birthday". As we age we seem to try and forget the most important day of our lives. In fact it is really the only day that matters, for without it we would cease to exist.
     As for me, I celebrate 5 birthdays. Yes my biological birthday is very important, but so are my transplant birthdays of which there are 3, plus my donor Susie (the only one I know). Many prefer to call their transplant birthday their anniversary, which has little logic for me. After all wasn't I given the Gift of Life?
If not for those transplants I would not be alive writing this today. Those who've had an organ transplant, know the emotions that go hand in hand with being a recipient. This Gift of Life can turn the hardest person into emotional mush. I can say this with clarity, because I was afraid of nothing before my first transplant. If my car broke down on a dark road, I'd walk home (this was before cell phones). Now, no way would I do this  and so foolishly run the risk of my donor families hearing I took this chance with what I was given.
    I remember a newspaper article that ws done on me in 1991 post transplant. In this article I stated I intended to enjoy each and every wrinkle and grey hair I get. So far so good. I' getting them. I'm tolerating them. I'm not doing anything about them. I will age gracefully with all my scars, wrinkles and grey hair completely intact.
    Now that this is written I can decide which will be more excruciating. The toothache or the cost of the antibiotics to make it go away.. Either way I will feel the pain, believe me.

By the way... My friend dropped me a thank you card for her celebratory dinner. She thanked me for making her "29th Anniversary of her 21st Birthday" so much fun.. Guess she wanted to be younger still