These pictures below and the one above are from the last day of Carnival. On the Monday after all the festivities and partying it is a holiday and everyone gets off of work. That morning we were awoken by a text from Fotis saying, "We'll go to fly our kite and eat fishfood. We want a lot to join us!" Well that about says it all. On this day they fly kites and eat fish. Brian was feeling sick but he was also anxious to get out of the house and get some fresh air. We didn't know what was wrong with him but we thought maybe he was getting the flu since he had been having night sweats and a fever for the past two days. Fotis and Mary came by and we followed them to a really cute town about 20min. away. Here we met Lambros, Jozef and a couple other people. Lambros was determined to get his kite into the air, so we watched his attempts for a little while until he gave up. We then walked to a cafe on the water and pointed out all of the successful kites in the air along the way to give Lambros a hard time. He insisted that his whole life he had been an accomplished kite flier and he did not appreciate our jeers. Lunch was long and we all got pretty antsy. Fish consisted of shellfish. I have not seen very many fish filets here and I miss them dearly. We ate octopus, shrimp, calamari and potatoes. Brian was still not feeling great and after waiting forever for our food we tried to quickly eat and leave.
Turns out Brian's "sickness" was much more serious then we thought. After a couple of trips to the hospital we discovered that he got an perianal abscess. It was EXTREMELY painful for him and he was in pain whenever he sat. After prescribed some antibiotics we hoped it would go away. The timing couldn't have been worse b/c two days later I was supposed to leave for my 2+ week long trip to Italy and Dublin. We assumed some bed rest and his antibiotics would clear up the situation within days so I left for Italy hoping the team could handle anything that Brian would need. Italy was fantastic. You see a picture below of Kirsten and I in front of the Trevi fountain. Kirsten (Jeff Power's wife) and I started off in Naples (which was not as dangerous/dirty as I heard it would be!) and traveled to Pompeii, Capri & Sorrento before going to Rome to see Jeff play water polo against another Italian team that has two other young American players that we know. We had a really fun night in Rome and spent the next day seeing all the sights before heading via train to their town of Bogliasco, a beautiful, small beachside town near Genova. During all this traveling I would talk to Brian and realized that his pain/discomfort was only getting worse. He had to go to the hospital again and they told him he would need to have the abscess drained and/or possibly cut out. It was really hard and painful for him to do anything. He had to have Elsie take Marco to relieve that responsibility and just getting food from anywhere was a challenge b/c it was too painful for him to drive. They told him after his surgery he would have to stay in the hospital for a few days and now knowing the conditions in the Greek hospitals we decided it would be best if I came home. I had two days left in Bogliasco and then I was supposed to head to Dublin to meet Kelli (Tim Hutten's gf) and her mom and spend 5 days there with them. I luckily had a day in Bogliasco and Kirsten and I took advantage of the time so I felt like I saw everything and I bought a ticket home for the next day. Unfortunately I would miss my trip to Dublin but it was more important for me to go home to help Brian. His surgery happened while I was en route but he had a couple of teammates there and his coach and manager there for support. His surgery took place with two other patients in his room and a small curtain that barely covered him. The door to the room kept opening so basically everyone saw and heard firsthand how difficult and painful it was. Brian survived though and luckily they sent him straight home, without having to stay in the hospital. Since then he has felt much much better but is not just uncomfortable, having a large hole where the abscess once was. He has to go to the hospital every few days to have them replace the gauze that is inside the hole and I have been helping him with keeping it clean so as not to get an infection. Unfortunately it is a slow healing process and it will be another few weeks before he can get back into the pool and back to his job! They lost their last game that he had to miss to a team they had beat before and they play Vouliagmeni tonight and Brian and I will watch from the stands. It is now more unlikely then ever they will make it to the playoffs but I think they are safe to not get kicked back down to second division, so that's good. We all just hope that Brian will make a safe and quick recovery!
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