A Sincere Thank You

I just wanted to take a moment and thank the Mondesi's House readers for all of the emails I've received this week in regard to my mailbag column on Wednesday.

While at the hospital to be examined for a fall, doctors discovered a 2 cm tumor on my future mother-in-law's brain. Within just a few days, it was apparent that she would need brain surgery to remove the mass. Luckily, being from Pittsburgh, there is never a shortage of incredible doctors. She was operated on by Dr. Amin Kassam, who is basically the Michael Jordan of brain surgery. Kassam pioneered a minimally-invasive surgery to remove tumors through the nose as opposed to an incision. We were very fortunate to be paired with Dr. Kassam for this procedure.

While this is a difficult time, I am a positive person and cite all the things that I consider "lucky" in her situation, such as the minor accident that took us to the hospital, the fact that the tumor was benign and completely removed, and the excellent and timely work done by Dr. Kassam, who squeezed her in as his 6th surgery on Monday before a trip out of town.

It has certainly been a trying time for all of us, and as I mentioned the other day, that is why my postings have been few and far between of late. I know this is personal information, but at this point, this site has the feelings of a family anyway. The volume of emails I received from readers who I've never met before were staggering, especially considering they didn't know who was ill, or what their illness was. It's obvious that we have made a personal connection. I am a part of your day, and you are a part of mine.

I owe a huge thank you to Mr. John Fedko, the WPXI (Pittsburgh NBC affiliate) sports director and host of the nightly Fedko Fone Zone talk show. I have never met John, I've only mentioned him a few times on the site. But on Wednesday night, he gave his thoughts and prayers to my family during his show. I know we certainly have no shortage of media personalities that we're all critical of, but it's worth mentioning when we find one of the good guys. And John Fedko is a class act.

Once again, I thank all of you for your support, as does my family. Don't fret, there's plenty of coverage on the way as I try to get caught up, including some neat surprises this afternoon.