Today is a special day in my life. Two years ago today I received the gift of life. I had a living donor liver transplant. I have been blessed to be able to enjoy the things a lot of people may take for granted. You always hear people who come close to death and say it changes there life, but you really can't describe what it's like. My wife will sometimes tell me things from when I was very sick in the months before my transplant. My doctors told her that I may not make it and to be prepared to talk to my daughter. In May of 07 I couldn't focus enough to dial a phone or read. At the time I never really realized how sick I was, but when hearing stuff like that I now know how lucky I am. In the last couple of years I try to enjoy the little things that I may not have normally. I remember taking my daughter to her first movie. I remember playing with my daughter and running for the first time. And then being so exhausted that I couldn't imagine how I was going to be able to play hockey again. I returned to work about five months after my transplant. Then six months and three days after the surgery I got back on the ice. I can still remember the ride to the rink, getting dressed, and skating that first lap around the ice. When I walked into the locker room that night there was a guy that I had skated with for five or six years in my pickup group. He says to me "Where the hell have you been?" I told him a had a liver transplant and he says "That's it?". It still makes me laugh when I think about it. As much as I missed playing hockey it was the friends I skate with that I missed the most. Whenever I have a bad day or I am bummed about something I try and take a deep breath and remember that I shouldn't even be here.