I just went to see John at St. Luke's today. Most of you know that John was stuck seriously ill by a staph infection in his sinuses about 6 weeks ago and was in the ICU for over a month. Then, just as he'd made enough progress to be moved to a long-term facility for physical therapy, he was hit by encephylitis, which is virus that inflames the brain. You can keep up on John's recovery at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnlutjen [1] It's a blog that Lynn and John's kids are updating pretty regularly.

So, anyway -- John's trying to put memories back together and he's making great progress everyday. We had a good conversation while I was there.

And he wants and needs visitors! All you ATS folks that have worked with John or know him -- you'd be helping him out by just going and having a talk with him. It felt pretty normal to me, though we "looped" on a couple of people every now and then.

I think he's doing pretty well for having had 2 separate life-threatening illness drop on him in a space of 6 weeks. It was great to see him.

AG