Costa Rica, Here We Come

Hey everyone,

First, in case I have raised undue worry, Gayle is only in danger of losing her hearing in the affected side. This would be Gayle's left side.

Yesterday we met with surgeon #2 and since Gayle still has just about normal hearing this guy suggested a different procedure in case he can save Gayle's hearing. Its complicated stuff but the bottom line is we would be in good hands with either surgeon. We have decided to go with surgeon #2 because he seemed highly qualified and suggested that there is a small chance of Gayle retaining some hearing in the affected ear.

Right now surgery is scheduled for February 16 which is the absolute soonest this guy can work on Gayle.

Tomorrow we head for Costa Rica. Pretty darn excited. If I get anything good to post and a wireless signal I will post again in the next few days. Our first day of fishing is Sunday so hopefully I will have something to show or tell Sunday night.

fish are in my future

Tonight, my wife, my dear friend Ralph, and I met with a potential brain surgeon for my wife's Acoustic Nueroma. The doctor raised no red flags with any of us and was pateint and took the time to educate us all, so even if the surgeon tomorrow is lame we feel good about moving forward. No word yet on when surgery might be, hearing loss is basically a given, but Gayle has a real good chance of avoiding other side effects from surgery.

Also, tonight my girl's basketball team lost a close game to Georges Valley, a rival school, located a couple peninsula's down east of us. My heart goes out to my players and their coaches. I know they are bummed but I hear from good sources that there was no lack of effort. We will play this team again at Georges Valley on January 25th. We will have to beat them on their court and I think we will.

A piece of fishing news related to Gayle's. We are going fishing on Sunday. Today, the doctor encouraged us to go on our vacation to celebrate my 40th birthday. We leave for San Jose, Costa Rica on Friday, after Christmas with Gayle's family. On Saturday we head to Manuel Antonio or right outside of the national park. Finally, on Sunday my wife and I will go inshore fishing with a guy named Jeffrey Zapata in his panga. Hopefully we will have some luck down there and I can post a picture or two. In any case, it will be wonderful just to have the opportunity to travel.

A Super High Tide, I Become the Girl's Varsity Basketball Coach, and MY Wife Develops an Acoustic Neuroma

Well, right now Southport Island is getting pummeled with a Northeaster. No school today. Winds are going to be over 30 knots, its snowing and word is there are two cars off the road on Southport alone. I am home alone and have been since last Thursday. Obviously I should use this time to clean the house but I feel the need to get some information out so here we go. By the way, I am going to save the most important stuff until the end.

Starting with the most benign piece of this post, the coast of Maine experienced some super high tides during the full moon last week. Those of you familiar with this view will note that the water is up over the seawall and washing across the lawn. In the clip below my friend Jonne Trees of BRCTV took some video out at Ocean Point. The audio is terrible because of the wind but midway through, those of you familiar with Ocean Point, will be amazed at the water level. Cool stuff.

December 3 Full Moon High Tide, Ocean Point from Jonne Trees on Vimeo.

Well, since I last posted I was also given the honor of becoming the head coach of the Boothbay Region High School Girl's Varsity Basketball Team. I have always dreamed of being a head coach of a varsity team so it's more or less a dream come true. One gratifying thing about it was I was given the job based on my reputation as a teacher. I had always hoped my prowess as a teacher would be how I would ascend to this position instead of working my way up through the coaching ranks. I really did not want to coach AAU or volunteer my time. Unless I was going to be able to run the show, I would just rather be with my family.

I love my team. They are terrific girls and I am so proud to be their coach. We have about 19-21 kids and we field a Varsity and JV team. We are 1 - 1 and the JV's are 2-0. You can see our first game against Monmouth below. We were pretty nervous to begin the game but if you hang in there we start playing better and better. We lost to Lisbon last night, a talented team, from a larger school. They were also well coached. I can not wait till we play them again to see our progress.

One cool thing about this situation is my buddy Ralph Posner is going to report on our games for the Boothbay Register. I will try to post those articles here in case anyone is interested.

BRHS Girls Basketball from December 5th, Lady Seahawks vs. Monmouth Mustangs from Jonne Trees on Vimeo.

Finally, my wife has been diagnosed with an Acoustic Neuroma, a benign tumor located in the ear/head. I have been in contact with a dear friend of mine from high school, Al Lozier, and he has been tremendous for us. We spoke at length last night and I can not tell you how much I appreciate his advice and counsel. Al is a brain surgeon out in Wisconsin and simply one of the most competent people I have ever known. He says my wife's tumor is challenging but treatable. She is going to live through this but it's no cakewalk either. Her tumor is in the large range. It is 3cm and snow cone shaped. She will most likely lose hearing in the affected ear. The worst case scenarios are ones arising from complications from the necessary surgery. Al did an Acoustic Neuroma surgery on Monday and it took him 10 hours. If the our surgeon is too aggressive trying to remove the tumor or he slips up or whatever Gayle could have permanent damage to her face like paralysis. So, we are now trying to work on getting the right doctor.

Well, that's probably more information then anyone wanted. I will try to get some fish stuff in here soon but I have a lot of non-fish stuff going on so bare with me.