Hi, everyone. It's nice to see some familiar names , and heartbreaking to see so many new ones. (God, when will this end?) Anyway, just checking in to say that things are going as well as can be expected. Ben gained back the 20 pounds he lost before he returned home from college and Washington, D.C., so that's fantastic.

Behavioral therapy is a marvel, I must tell you, and it has helped him so much with his Cipro-and-caffeine-acquired OCD. It's almost a sure thing that he'll be going back to school at the end of next month. Then we'll see how it goes from there. He's been excellent about doing all the scary exposure exercises that Behavioral Therapy requires. He still had to do some mental rearranging re: his thought processes and faulty logic, but all told, not too bad for a kid who was...what else can I call it...a wreck two months ago.

He'll have to live with having OCD for the rest of his life, but he's getting the tools to handle it, I think, and if all goes well, life has the possibility of being good again for him. 

Thank all of you who have e-mailed me, asking about how he's doing. As you know, nothing comforts like compassion from people who really KNOW what being there is like. I hope, also, that those of you who are into praying will remember Ben in your prayers tonight. One of my doctors (believe it or not) prayed for him today during my office visit and asked that a "band of angels" surround him as he fights his way through this. So, maybe a prayer from a few of you will add an angel or two to the bunch. 

My hope is that all of you are doing OK and are prospering in spite of what's been done to you.