SHOCK & AWE

As I wrote earlier, I had less than 10 hours of vacation/sick time accrued due to maternity leave over the summer and Liam being in the hospital around Christmas. Although I was not worried that I would lose my job by taking time off for surgery/treatment, I have to admit that the idea of taking a lot of unpaid leave, although possible, made the prospect of taking the recommended 2 weeks off after surgery and god knows what after treatments start daunting.
In any event, I ultimately decided to take advantage of my company's paid-time-off donation program-- where people can donate their vacation time into my sick-time account. I was quite hesitant to do this because a big part of me felt it was like panhandling. Ultimately, though, I did it, in the spirit of admitting that in this case I do actually need help, and the recognition that I would be more likely to take (likely needed) time off if I had some banked.
In any event, I checked with HR today to see if I had enough time to take off the remainder of the week (turns out those doctors aren't really kidding around with those post-surgery recommendations)...
So far (since Friday) people have donated over 260 hours (6+ weeks) of their time to my account. Note that this is not sick time. They've donated time they could be on vacation so that I can stay home and get better. I am humbled by and in awe of this. I asked the HR rep if I can have a list of names so I can write thank you notes, but she said I can't.
All I can do, I guess, is hope that some of you are reading this... I hope you know what a difference your generosity makes to me, especially today, when I was feeling particularly ineffectual and like the road ahead may be a bit too long for me to handle. I want the sweet neighbor who just dropped off another incredible dinner to understand that us being able to just sit down to dinner without the hassle of preparing anything makes it easier for us to relax and enjoy another (less) hectic evening with the kids. Our friend who took the car today to get the oil changed should know that jim will be that much less stressed knowing that he doesn't have to find nonexistent time to do that particularly nagging chore. I want people who have sent cards to know that they are all stuck up on the wall in the kitchen and they brighten every day. And you should know that when I can't sleep I come downstairs and read your comments and emails. They fortify and encourage me during particularly scary times.
My mother-in-law keeps reminding me that "it takes a village"-- and we are lucky enough to have one to help on days like yesterday, when both kids were sick and needed to stay home from school. Lucky, lucky me. Thanks to the Internet, I've gone global.
Thank you for everything. It makes all the difference.