The Chabad Rebbe came in today and blew the shofar for all of us. It was really nice to have a private shofar blowing just for our immediate family - - Me, Pam, Jody and Amy.

One of the things I noticed during our visits to MD Anderson clinic [before checking in] is that there are signs all over the place saying that no matter what your native language is, there is an Anderson person who can speak in your native language. For a while I thought that was an overstatement. The longer I'm here and the more doctors and nurses I meet I'm convinced this is a mini united nations. Doctors and nurses from all over the world, speaking every dialect you can imagine.

This hospital doesn't take a wait and see approach with any infection. Because the patients have surpressed immune systems, you can't let something get going or they may not be able to stop it.