Strategic Discipline Blog

My journey through Acute Myeloid Leukemia continues with another segment from Chapter VII from CANCER CURED – Miracle Moment – Decision Made

I was about to face the most serious health issues I’d had since arriving at the University of Iowa Hospital.

Between the time I’d been home and returning to the hospital, I’d contracted pneumonia. As part of my learning for Scale Up coaching, I read The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande. Gawande noted in the book, most patients who enter a hospital don’t die from the diagnosis they enter for. Once they’re in the hospital, they contract some infection or ancillary malady in the hospital, which eventually leads to their demise.

While it drove me crazy, Michelle’s obsessive, compulsive attention to sanitize everything, disinfecting every doorknob, counter, and object I might touch, was something I greatly admired and appreciated. I couldn’t go anywhere outside the hospital without Michelle reminding me to wash my hands or put hand sanitizer on.

I’m sure whatever caused my pneumonia was not caused by disregard or neglect. She was fastidious about keeping our home and me away from any form of possible infection.

Michelle was either guarded or unwilling to share what the doctors were telling her. The doctors and nurses at the University of Iowa Hospital had a realistic, if pessimistic, view about my future and chance for recovery. I believe it might have been something she never revealed to me so as not to deflate my attitude. I’m not sure if that’s the real reason. She never let me know, however, if true, God bless her!

By not telling me, I remained hopelessly optimistic.

When I interviewed one of the nurses, April Cline-Jones, who cared for me at the hospital, she had a different interpretation of Michelle. She felt we were disconnected. She could see I was planning; I had this vision of how it would be when I would get out. She didn’t feel or see that in Michelle. She felt Michelle was expecting to lose me.

You may be familiar with chemo brain. Chemo brain is a common term used by cancer survivors to describe thinking and memory problems that can occur during and after cancer treatment. Chemo brain can also be called chemo fog, cancer-related cognitive impairment, or cognitive dysfunction.

I don’t believe I ever recall suffering from this. One of the requirements Kevin Hackett, my Physician Assistant, assigned to me when I’d asked if I could work while in the hospital was to assess my cognitive ability each morning. He’d done this for about 3-4 weeks before he determined it wasn’t necessary.

The only time I recall being remotely in a fog occurred the first week of July after I had returned to the hospital to prepare for my clinical trial.

As my pneumonia condition deteriorated, the doctors sought more treatments to prevent my health from worsening.

Despite my health, I wrote a blog shortly after what turned out to be a fight with death. The topic of the blog was accountability. Being responsible for my health remained a firm resolution of mine during my entire time in the hospital.

This is that account. It should help you to understand the seriousness of my situation:

Accountability. It’s a critical element in organizations that grow.   Last Monday at about 2:15 AM, one of the doctors took accountability for me, deciding to send me to the ICU, possibly saving my life.   I didn’t want to go there; I liked being in the familiar.   He looked at the larger picture. The trends he saw disturbed him. Continuing fever for two and a half days. Hemoglobin was being absorbed almost as fast as they could put it in me. Plus, the disturbing rate my heart was pumping at, and the balance between the low and high numbers they give on blood pressure. (The bottom number is not good if it drops below 60.

So, I disliked the decision to move all my material and go to the highest level of health care. What convinced me is the way he approached, saying
“Doug, my first concern is for you as a patient." I want you to make it.”

Well, from 2:15 AM on Monday Morning until today, about 3 PM today, I was under a flurry of activity as teams of doctors came in to see me regarding my condition.   The most important team might have been the Internal Disease Control. They specifically identified what type of bacteria was causing the issue, sending IV drugs to take them out. I am at a hopeless zero in white blood cell count, which is the type responsible for getting us well.

Notice I said a team of doctors. Almost every time, a specialist would come in to ask questions, confer, and get back to me.   In one case, two of the supporting assistants wanted to put a PIC line in my neck.   I pushed back. Once the leader and his team got back to me, due to my blood pressure ratio steadily improving, he agreed that a line in my neck wouldn’t be necessary.

I’m the number one person on my team to get me healthy.   When I see something that doesn’t make sense, I stand up for it. I’m back on the fourth floor out of ICU and feel like I’m dialed in on my Priorities.   To get healthy is the goal, which includes a sub-priority to meditate for at least one hour and 10 minutes. More on this in another blog.

I posted this blog on Tuesday, July 3^rd, 2012, less than 12 hours after I’d gotten out of the ICU.

What I didn’t post on my blog was much more important and impactful than what I did.

Call to Action

Challenge your team, your business, yourself. Contact Positioning Systems to schedule a free exploratory meeting to challenge, inspire, and ignite purpose and passion in your business!  

Create an environment where everyone is inspired to give their best.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

Have you ever had a prayer answered? Have you ever felt like the Creator heard your plea, your cry, your desperate need, and responded? Next week, I will share what I feel are the keys to receiving an answer, how and what you need to do to allow Universal Power to intercede on your behalf.

Building an enduring great organization requires disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action, superior results, producing a distinctive impact on the world.

Discipline sustains momentum over a long period, laying the foundations for lasting endurance.

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic Disciplines: Priority, Metrics, and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.

Let Positioning Systems help your business achieve these outcomes on the four most Important Decisions your business faces:

Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $500M+) businesses Scale-UP. We align your business to focus on Your One Thing! Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.

NEXT BLOG – CANCER CURED - CHAPTER VII – The Heart & the Mind