At three quarter time, an open letter of thanks

Dear Mr Danks and team,

It’s a simple A Minor chord ...

If this note of thanks had a backing track, it’d start with an A Minor strum.

Though all’s not entirely over or indeed known yet on this bizarre journey of the past month, I wanted to give you my very sincerest thanks at what I hope is at least something of a three quarter time break, and this left hand formation perhaps best represents a soup of emotion post operation on my right temporal lobe.

With random scribblings of fears pre-op filling two and a half A3 pages, this three finger formation made by me soon after coming out of theatre is a picture of a joy indescribable, which I hope none of you ever have to know. It followed soon after I made my wiggle of toes and a four year-old’s whine about how the catheter felt like it might have a fish hook or burning ember at its end (to my embarrassment in hindsight!)

Those fears included coming out of surgery as a hybrid of three or more chapters from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – perhaps preposterous to you who understand the brain much better than I, but real fears to me nonetheless.

Then there were the visions of a life after stroke
. . . and worse.

After this simple right brain to left hand communication, I then formed G, C an D chords in my still groggy haze, then went through the 3X table – and a good many of those fears vanished, knowing things had to be working reasonably well up there.

From my very first meeting with Mr Danks, myself and family felt great comfort that I was clearly in the right hands – an important factor when resigned to the fact that the man in front of me was soon to go deep inside my brain with stainless steel (not to put too fine a point on it – excuse the pun).

I had prepared for a minimum four weeks, possibly eight, on my back and not much able to string more than a few words together: I feel that my recovery is remarkable and a testament to your excellence as a surgeon.

Perhaps equally important though is the obvious sincerity, empathy, compassion and clear articulation in layman’s terms of a complex and very frightening matter to myself and family at all times by yourself and your team.

You have shown real interest, real care.


It has been much appreciated at a very tricky time.

Again, thank-you all.

Sincerely,
James Clark-Kennedy 25.05.09