On April 25, 2017 I had brain aneurysm surgery at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. A brain scan during my two-week stay in the J.W. Goethe University Hospital (Frankfurt, Germany) showed that I had a significant aneurysm. When my internist reviewed the 7 pages of narrative coming from Frankfurt, all in German, she told me that I had better find a neurosurgeon. That was a bit of a shock, but I did meet with a neurosurgeon at Virginia Hospital Center who said that he could insert a coil without invasive surgery or open my head and clip it.

I put something out on Facebook about this (another reason to love FB for me), and Carol DANDY Beckley, a friend from Camp Atahi days, immediately wrote that I should go to Rafael Tamargo at Johns Hopkins, who holds the Walter E. Dandy chair. Walter E. Dandy just happened to be her grandfather, and was known for doing the first direct surgery on brain aneurysms starting in 1939. The next thing I knew I was up at Hopkins seeing Dr. Tamargo, who happens to be a big fan of the Dandy family.

I am still so grateful to Carol because a young surgeon at Hopkins inserted a Pipeline™ Embolization Device after inserting a coil into the aneurysm and I was home the next day. Amazing and painless! Two procedures to check on it over the next year confirmed that the aneurysm had disappeared. It was a miserable two weeks in the Frankfurt hospital, but it probably saved me!

So, why are you telling us all this?

You probably are wondering how that is related to my heart surgery, which previously crossed my mind. My cardiologist told me that I couldn’t do the heart surgery until I had the aneurysm surgery, but not the other way around. So, at my appointment last week I casually mentioned the aneurysm surgery to Dr. Smith, and he asked me to get clearance from Hopkins, which surprised me, but I thought that would be simple since they were doing no further testing. Thus, I was surprised when I contacted Dr. Tamargo’s department today to find that they want me to have an MRA (MR Angiography). My anxiety level went sky high since I leave for NYC in one week.

Luckily, I was able to schedule an appointment for tomorrow morning at 8 at the Johns Hopkins Radiology Department in Bethesda. Another crisis hopefully averted.

I am so lucky to have so many people around the world hoping and praying for a smooth surgery on June 5th. My friend Sally Maisel sent this photo from Bucharest, Romania where she is on a wonderful river cruise. I am always looking for “signs”, and this is a good one! A lot of my friends from college on through life call me “Conk”. Thanks Sally!

I found out about 15 years ago that I have Rheumatic Heart Disease stemming from an illness when I was young that was unknown to me or my parents. It mainly affects the heart valves, but as the disease progresses other things can happen, such as atrial fibrillation, which I now have. This means taking a blood thinner daily and frequently checking the INR to ensure that the blood is neither too thick nor too thin.

The symptoms were not too bad for a long time, but lately I have become more fatigued and more easily out of breath. Time for surgery to replace the bad valves, which are the aortic, mitral and tricuspid.

My cardiologist gave me a list of some heart surgeons capable of doing triple valve surgery. I began doing research on the surgeons and the hospitals, making spreadsheets to keep things straight.

I met with Dr. Eric Sarin at Inova Fairfax, which is only a few miles from where I live, and was impressed with him and what he said about the surgery that would be required.

However, I felt the need to talk to at least one other surgeon, and settled on Dr. Craig R. Smith at Columbia New York Presbyterian. I am driving to NYC tomorrow with my trusty companions, Jane Began and Peg McCarty, so that I have good support and more ears to take in what Dr. Smith says. The meeting will be at 9:30 AM on Thursday the 23rd.

We had our 50th year reunion from Roland Park Country School in Baltimore a few weeks ago. Saturday night I was regaling Rebecca Koch with a story about an amazing breakfast that I had at the Sylvia Beach Hotel at Newport Beach, OR. It is a beautiful old hotel set on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and is owned and operated by the amazing Goody Cable, who I became friends with immediately.

The dining tables each hold 8 people to inspire conversation, and we were joined that morning by Goody, and 4 sisters who travel there from various parts of the country every year. I immediately recognized the one sister, who I had seen running the Portland Marathon the previous day! The 2nd sister asked Goody if she had told her triplets about their great grandfather. Of course, I was immediately wondering who that might be! When I could no longer contain my curiosity, I asked who the great grandfather was. F. Scott Fitzgerald! I then asked the sister if she knew anyone with the last name of Lanahan. She looked shocked and said, “That is my last name!” I had known that Fitzgerald’s daughter Scottie had married a Lanahan in Baltimore. This Lanahan lives in Portland, OR.

The next sister said that she lives in Easthampton, LI, and works as a librarian there. I asked her if she knew any Conklins. Why yes! There were many Conklins in that area. It turned out that she knew of my father, who had contacted the library several times looking for information on the Conklins.

After I had told Rebecca this story, I noticed that Kate, who was sitting next to me on the couch, started making woo-woo noises and began calling me the Roland Park Medium. Thus I am honoring her by naming this blog just that. In the photo above sit Kate and me on a canoe trip for Camp Atahi ca 1967. I believe that we were on a beach on Lake Umbagog in Maine.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton