Rachel went to the lab today and saw the films of my MRI and CT scans. In the normal brain, you have two big veins at the bottom, draining arterial blood away. They look like two adjacent trees. In my brain, there is only one tree, the left. The right vein is gone -- blown out by my "event" 11 days ago. It cannot be found on the scans! It was o-blue-terated. ("Yellow Submarine")

The miracle here, that makes me feel so giddy, is that the remaining trunk is expanding ach day, to accommodate the need for more drainage. So instead of getting headaches every time I climb a few stairs, I can climb more, and more, and more. It is as if some very clever entity said, let's make these things symmetrical, so if a part on one side fails, the part on the right side can pick up the standard.

I find that -- breathtaking!

If a surgeon went in before the "event" and tried to remove the tumor, in all likelihood he would have triggered the same kind of implosion -- only it would have doubled the trauma of the surgery -- tumor removal plus vein destruction.

Now, my brain has made the operation safer to do, by chopping down the tree in advance. And the blood in that vein simply clotted in it, and is being slowly resorbed into the boy, like a suitcase full of diamonds at the bottom of the sea. There is no danger of clots breaking up and going to my heart and killing me, I'm told, because of the freak way the tree was uprooted by the tumor.

Further, and as amazing ... I have been, as you may know, on a hellbound train for diabetes. At my weight, and with my genetics, it's inevitable, and it's quite dangerous and destabilizing combined with this other condition.

But for years I have not been able to marshall my resources and change my way of living. ("Why Change Doesn't Work!") I have some fair excuses, but that's all they are. And so I have felt sullenly doomed allt his time, and helpless.

But the cerebral "event" was such a shocker to me that I feel for the first time the urgency and the gravity of my situation. I have confidence for the first time in 10 years that I can reverse some of these lifestyle trends -- eating, drinking, like that. I've lost 8 pounds this week!

So if I succeed in doing that, then this life-threatening "event" will have actually saved my life, or extended my livabilty by maybe 15-20 years.

How bout that?

Get your signed copy of The NEW Why Teams Don't Work by Mike & Harvey Robbins from Berrett-Koehler Publishers Just click on the book cover! A fully revised second edition of this award-winning classic by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley Paperback Winner, Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award, Best Management Book - The Americas, 1995 Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. Table of contents and sample chapters of this book... Why Change Doesn't Work: Why Initiatives Go Wrong and How to Try Again and Succeed Harvey Robbins, Michael Finley Hardcover Just click on the book cover to order your signed copy for only $12.95. Table of contents and sample chapters of this book...

Why not bookmark Mike's columns for your weekly enjoyment?