Tom,

>There is a Chinese expression I have embraced since I was a teenager. “Make haste slowly”. I hope it has meaning to you – it means a lot to me.

Yes, that does. Steve has been trying to talk me into finding some way to take a break or slow down the schedule for the book because he saw how stressed I was. There was a lot going on! <s>

In this case I'm exchanging disappointment for a reduction in stress. Its not the trade I wanted to make, but I am OK with it.

Treating Steve's infection was really complicated, because it started on his chest near his left arm. If the debridement operations hadn't worked, there would have been nothing left to do as there was nothing to amputate. A lot of people who get this type of infection lose appendages -- amputations are a very common treatment. You can't amputate someone's chest, though.

We are very fortunate that he had already been seen by both of his primary doctors at the time he went to the emergency room. The ER physician talked to his family doctor and cardiologist right away, ruled out both a heart attack and flu, and made a very early diagnosis. That communication between the three of them saved his life. If it had been a few hours later when the symptoms would have been more acute and it would have been much easier to tell what the problem was, he would have died.

He had a swollen area on his chest, heart stress, and a fever. If he had been treated for a heart attack the treatment would have killed him because of what what _causing_ the heart stress. They could have mistaken it for several other things at that point, but instead they got it right and he survived. There's nothing better than that!

We both believe his doctors were miracle workers. Figuring it all out as quickly as they did was simply amazing. Most doctors have never even see an infection like that, and our family doctor had seen it only once before. His previous patient had died, and he was determined it wouldn't happen again... and it didn't!