Brendan Gates

Thank you all for the kind words, notes, emails, etc that I’ve received over the last week and a half. Your thoughts are all appreciated, and make this ordeal easier. I shudder to think what it would be like to do this alone – and what I’m going through is relatively insignificant. If you do nothing else today, think about somebody that matters in your life – is anything else really important?

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This afternoon I was released from the hospital, as my initial phase of treatment is over. Now I wait to see if my body will respond “kindly” to that initial treatment and start acting like it should. The wait could be weeks, it could be months. In the meantime I will regularly check into the hospital’s cancer center so that they can test my blood levels, and give me transfusions as needed. Hopefully the initial phase will end up being enough, but if it is not – the process can be repeated. Beyond that I think I am looking at transplant, but we’re talking pretty far down the line.

I dunno. Surreal doesn’t really quite do it – but I think it is the most descriptive way to articulate how I’m feeling. I just spent 10 nights in a hospital, and now have a semi-permanent IV dangling out of my arm and an order to wear a face mask when I go outside. What!? It’s such a departure from my previous reality that I don’t know I’ve really accepted it.

It’s not so bad. Really. I just wish I was allowed to eat a salad.

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I should mention that the staff at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center is second to none. Every single person was friendly, knowledgeable, comforting, professional – regardless of what capacity I encountered them. Okay, so there was this one “transport” girl that seemed a bit unprofessional – but everybody else was spot on. My doctors [Dr. Klix, Dr. Needles, Dr. Alsoufiev, Dr. Wen, Dr. Helton, Dr. Petito], my nurses [Gina, Hau, Noreen, Dave, Will, Amy, Paul, Phyllis, Jenny, Laura, Crystal, Tara, Sharon], my techs [Sadie, Bob, Jillian, Brent, Martha], Ken the Minnesota accent chaplain man, Doris the info-nurse; they (and everybody else whose names I am undoubtedly forgetting) were all great. Should you be in the StL area and find yourself in need of health care (trauma or otherwise) – St. John’s is the place to go.