Saturday's Update

I wanted to let everyone know that Tony is doing very well! He had his room moved today and showed some great improvement. He has been eating, sleeping, chatting, and he even went for a few walks around the hallways this afternoon. The nurses were very happy with his progress and he is in great spirits! We'll go visit him again tomorrow afternoon and I'll give an update again tomorrow night.

Friday's update

Here is the latest update. Early this morning we visited Tony and his spirits were great! After about seven hours of surgery, Tony's parents and I met with the doctor. He assured us that the procedure went well and he was very pleased. Tony is now in the ICU and progressing along well. We are going to visit him tomorrow morning! Thank you so much for praying for a safe recovery and I promise to keep everyone up to date tomorrow. I ALSO promise...Tony will be back writing the posts soon and you'll have more laughs again!!! Love, Lauren

Thursday update

Hello everyone! It's Lauren! Tony sent me home tonight with the job to update the blog. This should be easy right...NO WAY! How can I possibly try to write as well Tony nonetheless be as humorous as he is? So here is an update...Today Tony had his angiogram at Jefferson and we were lucky enough to have the neurosurgeon do the test. Everything came out as expected which was great news. The aneurysm was in the exact place as we thought and the surgeon felt confident that he wanted to take care of it as soon as possible. Tomorrow Tony will go in for the surgery and have it clipped. The surgery will be somewhere between 5-7 hours. He is in great spirits and we are all very positive that everything will turn out just fine. He is already making plans to challenge the Fares' biking adventures this summer on his purple beach cruiser. Please keep the positive thoughts and prayers heading our way because boy do we feel them! We love each of you very much and feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends in our lives.

Wednesday Update

What an age we live in...you can rent movies from the comfort of your couch, the Clapper has revolutionized the way we turn off our lights, and despite the fact that I am currently confined to a Philadelphia hospital bed, I am able to publish this blog post via email.The pace is quickening on the medical front. I went in to meet with our surgeon today, and to my surprise, he thought my headache symptoms warranted immediate admittance into the hospital. We wil be doing the angiogram tomorrow, and that will dictate which type of surgery is necessary. Any surgery would likely be performed friday, which means I'm here for the duration.I'm confident this process will go well, and it better, since my brain is kind of my money maker. I'm not the brightest guy, but I was blessed with a kick-ass short-term memory. Its the sole reason I have instant recall of vital information like internal revenue code sections, the 1992 Heisman Trophy winner, and the complete lyrics to every song ever sung in The Simpsons (see my vest, see my vest, made from real gorilla chest....see this sweater, there is no better, than authentic irish setter...)Apparently, my aneurysm is located in the part of the brain that controls short term memory, and I sure would hate to lose that gift with one stroke of a scalpel.I'm in great hands, as my surgeon is considered the best in the country when it comes to aneurysms. I even have a friend who was operated on by him and swears he's as good as it gets. Of course, when you think about it, everyone thinks their brain surgeon is the best, becase those that had shitty surgeons aren't really around to provide the negative feedback, if you know what I mean. On second thought, maybe its best if I don't think about that too much.This should all be over soon, and ill be recovering on the beach before you know it. In the meantime, if you see my wife over the next few days, give her a hug and a kiss for me (not on the lips, Carl).Thank you again for your positive thoughts and prayers. They will get me through this trying time. Talk to you soon,Tony

Never Underestimate the Staggering Drawing Power of the Garden State

After 2000 miles, 31 hours, nine states, and five and a half boxes of cheese-based snack foods, we arrived safely in New Jersey shortly after 3 AM on Monday night. None of it would have been possible without a truly heroic effort from my brother-in-law Rob, shown here shortly before getting smoked by yours truly in the 2005 Lake Lenape triathlon.

Rob left New Jersey at 3 AM on Sunday morning, landed in Denver at 10 AM, and promptly jumped into a Subaru smelling of beef jerky and puppy for the next 48 hours of his life. He's a good man, but I knew that long before this trip.

Today was our first day at home, and like with a lot of things in my life right now, I'm dealing with some conflicting emotions. On the one hand, it's great to be back around family, and spending time with my nieces, who are innocently oblivious to my current medical drama, allows me a brief respite from the otherwise relentless thoughts that have dominated the past few weeks of my life. But of course, this comes with a price. Inevitably, the distraction ends and you're forced back to reality, and you remember exactly why you're home as early as you are. The more effective the diversion, the more painful that realization is.

My headaches have also increased in frequency, duration, and intensity, but I suspect they are tension in nature rather than being a portent of something more ominous. I've got to constantly remind myself that in the two weeks prior to receiving this diagnosis, I was feeling just fine; climbing and skiing and running and hiking without a hint of a problem. Then I got the news, and three days later I woke up to a pounding headache that has basically repeated itself every day since.

Now, when looking at this logically, it's quite easy to tell yourself that it's really not medically possible for the aneurysm to have fundamentally changed in that short period, particularly when the doctors tell you that the aneurysm has likely been with me most, if not all of, my life. But man, when your head starts ringing, it's rather difficult to trust in logic. It's much easier instead to convince yourself that something is seriously, seriously wrong, and that's how you end up with a panicked trip to the emergency room like we did on Saturday.

All the speculation and uncertainty should be over soon, however, as I have my first appointment at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia this afternoon. I have a sneaking suspicion that as soon as my surgeon looks at my aneurysm and tells me what he sees, a big part of this guessing game will be over and my headaches will decrease dramatically.

My father has offered to take Lauren and I into the city, which while a nice gesture, now makes the drive to the appointment somewhere between 20-30 times more dangerous than the aneurysm itself.

Lauren and Maci, shown here during simpler times, are doing great. My little girl has spent the past few days frolicking in the back yard, showing off her new tricks for everyone, and sniffing everything in the neighborhood. And Maci's been having her share of fun, too.

This is Spinal Tap

Ouch. I've got to tell you, when the ER doc told me today that I needed a spinal tap, I thought the experience would be fun and zany, you know, like that movie - Spaceballs. But instead it was dark and disturbing like that movie Spinal Tap.*

I woke up with a rather pounding headache, and when the pain didn't dissipate within a couple of hours, I got a bit concerned that something was amiss. So Lauren and I made our second trip to the ER in two months, just to make sure my aneurysm (or as one of Lauren's more charming kindergarteners called it yesterday, "that freaky brain thing") wasn't bleeding.

Rather than do a CT scan, the doc ordered a lumbar puncture, which while a touch uncomfortable wasn't nearly as bad as medical lore has it. After an hour of nervous tension, we got the news that everything was OK.

So we're off to New Jersey tomorrow. Thirty hours in the car, with Lauren looking to complete her quest from previous trips of eating at every Subway for 2,000 miles.

*joke borrowed and modified courtesy of The Simpsons

Thursday Update

Armed with the information acquired during the day from our visit with the neurosurgeon, Lauren and I sat in a Denver hotel room on Tuesday night prepared to plan our immediate future. This was to be a huge decision; one that we would likely second-guess and micro-analyze for the remainder of our lives, and if made correctly, could set into motion the steps necessary for me to beat this aneurysm forever. But then Teen Wolf came on AMC, so we bagged it and decided to wait until the next morning. Hey, we're only human.

So Wednesday AM, clear headed and determined, we surged forward. Now that we knew the aneurysm likely didn't present any immediate emergency, why spend the next week sitting around waiting for more tests when we could use that time to head back east, where we know we want any procedure to be performed?

To that end, we spent Wednesday confirming that we had an appointment with our desired surgeon for next week, and once so confirmed, we quickly decided to pack up our summer clothes and head home.

Aspen Elementary School has treated Lauren wonderfully from the start, and that continued on Thursday as they did everything in their power to make this transition as easy as possible. Today will be her final day, and we will be heading back to New Jersey sometime on Sunday.

Of course, that gives us only 48 hours or so to get the entire house prepared for a summer of vacancy, as well as get packed up for our trip. For me, this entails little more than shoving a bunch of shirts and pants into a hiking backpack. For Lauren, this could be a considerably larger project, as she still owns every article of clothing purchased since the seventh grade, and each piece plays a vital role in her wardrobe, regardless of season or climate.

To ease our 30-hour drive home, my brother-in-law Rob, seen here shortly before getting smoked by yours truly in the 2005 LBI 18-mile run, is flying out to share some of the driving burden. While this means the likely number of empty Monster bottles littering the floor of our car has just increased exponentially, I'm happy to have someone to listen to Howard Stern with, as Lauren still prefers that whole "talking" thing. That reminds me, when Lauren and I first drove cross-country, during August of 2006, I blogged about the keys to surviving such tight quarters with a spouse or loved one. Said advice can be found here, but is summarized below.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I think the answer is this. The problem with most marriages is communication. Too much communication. Lauren and I avoid it at all costs, and its proven to be quite effective in keeping us congenial.

Trust me, it works. So if all goes well, we should be pulling into the Garden State sometime on Tuesday, with a visit to the neurosurgeon planned for the end of the week. I think I heard somewhere that since we moved out west, New Jersey has managed to fix that nasty little "traffic" problem. That's true, right?