One week after the tragic September 11, 2001 attacks on America, My wife Robin was diagnosed by an emergency room physician with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. Prior to that diagnosis, we suspected her symptions were due to either a bad cold or, worse case, pneumonia. In reality, she had developed a fist-sized tumor in her chest. After having spent the majority of the day in the ER, she was admitted to the hospital and our medical adventure began.

As you can imagine, we were in shock and found ourselves in a situation neither of us had ever experienced. I found myself asking the same four questions of the hospital staff that I ask myself during times of crisis at work:

1. What is the problem?
2. How did the problem arise?
3. What tools are needed to solve the problem?
4. Who is going to solve the problem?

I searched frantically for a way to record the questions I had for the staff and the answers they were abundantly providing. The next day I began using a small writing tablet I had purchased in the hospital gift shop, but soon my precious pages of information began tearing loose and were in danger of being lost.

A week later I found a sturdy blank-paged wire-bound project planner at an office supply store and taped my previously developed pages into it. The names and phone numbers of every hospital staff member involved in Robin's recovery, from surgeons to social workers, were carefully listed. The pages were dated and numbered, medications were documented, test and procedure names were written down and many, many questions were asked and answered. Everyday new and important information was added to the pages of the journal.

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