(12-30-2014 10:04 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  Any new updates on mick? Starting to wonder whether maybe when he had his angiogram last week that maybe they coiled the aneurysm while they were in there. Just surprised that if they've elected not to do surgery (open or endovaacular coiling) that he's not back by now or at least there's a clear eta. Barring controlling bad hypertension there's no other "treatment" medically aside from the aforementioned surgeries. Maybe they told him to take a few weeks to get his BP and stress under control, but figured if they'd elected not to operate we'd have a clearer eta on his return. Anyway, I'm sure the game today was a nice post Xmas present for him.

Dan hoard said on the broadcast today that Cronin has been in the office at UC but doctors don't want him in game coaching situations as they want his blood pressure low as possible while going through treatment. Sounds like he is progressing well

My guess is you won't see coach for the rest of the season. I have to imagine the docs don't want him traveling with a complicated aneurysm situation.

(12-30-2014 10:43 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  My guess is you won't see coach for the rest of the season. I have to imagine the docs don't want him traveling with a complicated aneurysm situation.

I was listening to the local show on 1530 Saturday around noon. The guest said no one had told him this but the feeling he got was Mick would not be coaching this year.

(12-22-2014 11:24 AM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 09:35 AM)Murph29 Wrote:  I know way too much about this topic unfortunately but the treatment is all highly dependent on several factors. They're doing the angiogram to get a better look at the arteries and blood vessels in his brain. Depending on the size, type, location of the aneurysm they'll decide whether to clip, coil or simply watch it over time. If it is larger than 7mm they usually opt to repair it. It also depends whether they think it is causing the headaches. Often these things are incidentally discovered during tests for other things. If it is small (less than 7mm they may watch it over time. Most of these never grow or cause a problem. In fact they've disocevered a decent percentage of people walk around their whole lives with them and die of something else. They see them on post mortems as incidental findings. Treatment also depends on location. If it's posterior those are more likely to rupture so they may opt to treat versus anterior ones which have a lesser likelihood of rupture. If they opt to treat surgically the angiogram will help them figure out if it one they can treat endovaascularly with coils (a much simpler op and one where he'd be back coaching much sooner) or the traditional clipping which is open brain surgery, higher risk, and a longer recovery time. No way of knowing what his situation is from these limited reports. But the fact that they are quickly doing an angiogram suggests it may not be a tiny one and that they may be considering repair versus watch and monitor and the angiogram will help determine which op would work. Of course they may also just be being extremely cautious with the angiogram given his stress levels and job and I hope it turns out that it's small and incidental to his headaches and they're able to simply monitor over a few years to make sure it isn't growing. They never take the surgical option lightly. Lastly, the good news is he's likely got a mayfield clinic neurosurgeon on the case and we are lucky to have this group in Cincinnati.

Thank you for sharing your info

Ditto. Great post Murph

(12-31-2014 07:22 AM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(12-30-2014 10:43 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  My guess is you won't see coach for the rest of the season. I have to imagine the docs don't want him traveling with a complicated aneurysm situation.

I was listening to the local show on 1530 Saturday around noon. The guest said no one had told him this but the feeling he got was Mick would not be coaching this year.

Probably some hack with no clue what he was talking about...

(12-31-2014 10:55 AM)GameTime_21 Wrote:  

(12-31-2014 07:22 AM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(12-30-2014 10:43 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  My guess is you won't see coach for the rest of the season. I have to imagine the docs don't want him traveling with a complicated aneurysm situation.

I was listening to the local show on 1530 Saturday around noon. The guest said no one had told him this but the feeling he got was Mick would not be coaching this year.

Probably some hack with no clue what he was talking about...

I'm sure there's some more descriptive terms available.

I am hoping he can make it back this season, but I am expecting him to stay behind the scenes. I feel good about the team in Larry Davis' hands if that is the case.

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Mick will address the media at 10am friday morning at UC

(01-01-2015 09:14 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  Mick will address the media at 10am friday morning at UC

Interesting. Funny feeling he was treated endovascularly with coils that Monday when he was getting his angiogram. May be wrong and hope so. Hope instead it's a small one, no surgery needed and he's on BP meds and they're just gonna watch it over time.

(01-01-2015 10:54 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  

(01-01-2015 09:14 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  Mick will address the media at 10am friday morning at UC

Interesting. Funny feeling he was treated endovascularly with coils that Monday when he was getting his angiogram. May be wrong and hope so. Hope instead it's a small one, no surgery needed and he's on BP meds and they're just gonna watch it over time.

Please translate this for us non-medical types.

(01-01-2015 11:48 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  

(01-01-2015 10:54 PM)Murph29 Wrote:  

(01-01-2015 09:14 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  Mick will address the media at 10am friday morning at UC

Interesting. Funny feeling he was treated endovascularly with coils that Monday when he was getting his angiogram. May be wrong and hope so. Hope instead it's a small one, no surgery needed and he's on BP meds and they're just gonna watch it over time.

Please translate this for us non-medical types.

Sorry. Treatment wise basically there are three options:
1 monitor the aneurysm for growth over time. Often the option for small low risk ones.
2 open brain surgery to clip it.
3 insert a catheter Into the groin, guide a wire up to the brain artery effected and insert tiny coils into the aneurysm to basically fill up the bubble. Aka an endovascular coiling procedure.

If they had chosen to watch and wait, I'd think mick would've been back by now. The fact that he had an angiogram procedure which according to his brother's tweet lasted four hours long, suggests to me that while he was having the angiogram, they may have gone ahead and done the coiling procedure. This would explain why he is out and may be out a while longer. While it is far less invasive than open brain surgery, you have to recover and take it easy with coiling. Anyway, this is all speculation. Who knows. What's important is it sounds like he's doing well and gonna talk to the media tomorrow. Hopefully I'm wrong and theyve gone the watch and recheck approach and he's just taking some time off to reduce his BP and de-stress a bit.

UC's Cronin to meet with media Friday
Tom Groeschen, tgroeschen@enquirer.com 9:45 p.m. EST January 1, 2015

University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Mick Cronin will meet with reporters Friday at UC's Fifth Third Arena at 10 a.m., with Cronin expected to give an update on his health.

UC announced Dec. 20 that Cronin had a brain aneurysm, and the coach has missed three games since.

Associate head coach Larry Davis will follow Cronin to the podium Friday, UC basketball spokesman Andree Foushee said. Davis has filled in for Cronin and UC is 2-1 in that span, losing to Virginia Commonwealth and then beating Wagner and North Carolina State.

UC (9-3 overall) next plays Southern Methodist on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Fifth Third Arena in the American Athletic Conference season opener for UC. SMU (10-3 overall) is 1-0 in AAC play.

Cronin, 43, has been under physician's orders to refrain from coaching while being treated. Behind the scenes, Cronin has stayed involved with game planning but has not attended practices.

Cronin has been reviewing options for treatment. Indications are that Cronin will not be back for some time, but he is not expected to require surgery.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../21172077/

(01-02-2015 04:28 AM)ctipton Wrote:  UC's Cronin to meet with media Friday
Tom Groeschen, tgroeschen@enquirer.com 9:45 p.m. EST January 1, 2015

University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach Mick Cronin will meet with reporters Friday at UC's Fifth Third Arena at 10 a.m., with Cronin expected to give an update on his health.

UC announced Dec. 20 that Cronin had a brain aneurysm, and the coach has missed three games since.

Associate head coach Larry Davis will follow Cronin to the podium Friday, UC basketball spokesman Andree Foushee said. Davis has filled in for Cronin and UC is 2-1 in that span, losing to Virginia Commonwealth and then beating Wagner and North Carolina State.

UC (9-3 overall) next plays Southern Methodist on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Fifth Third Arena in the American Athletic Conference season opener for UC. SMU (10-3 overall) is 1-0 in AAC play.

Cronin, 43, has been under physician's orders to refrain from coaching while being treated. Behind the scenes, Cronin has stayed involved with game planning but has not attended practices.

Cronin has been reviewing options for treatment. Indications are that Cronin will not be back for some time, but he is not expected to require surgery.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../21172077/

Officially announced he will not be able to coach this season.

For those who understand this stuff, how can rest fix the situation? I would think without surgery this would be a chronic issue.

(12-22-2014 08:28 AM)Eastside_J Wrote:  

(12-21-2014 09:11 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  My daughter the biomedical engineer guesses if possible Mick will get a stent put into the vessel where the aneurysm is in an attempt to strengthen the vessel.

Stent grafts are more common with abdominal and thoracic aortic type aneurysms than the carotid or cerebral artery type.

I think it is more likely they will do a "clip" procedure on the neck of the aneurysm or the newer, more advanced endovascular "coil" procedure. Both just occlude the aneurysm sac, diverting blood flow into the normal vessel channel.

Playing armchair neurovascular specialist (AKA having stayed at a Holiday INN express) - and simply from the description of symptoms - I would take a guess that this is a middle or posterior cerebral aneurysm and they will either do nothing if it is a small aneurysm (hopefully!!!) or if large enough to warrant surgical repair, they will insert an embolic coil.

Either way he probably gets some pressure regulating medication and hopefully develops new less emotion straining strategies for coaching that keep him in the game for many, many years to come.

Ah a dissection! Didn't see that coming.

Although I will take the 20 bonus points for guessing it being middle or posterior cerebral.

Anterior is the most common location but given the pain location that didn't seem to fit.

I am very glad they found it quickly and are on top of things and that it isn't a more concerning situation- it could have been much, much worse.

Doc: Mick Cronin finding calm easier said than done
Paul Daugherty, pdaugherty@enquirer.com 4:36 p.m. EST January 2, 2015


Mick Cronin talks to reporters during a press conference Friday. (Photo: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)

Coaching big-time college basketball is a license to go insane for a couple hours a few times a week. If the rest of us behaved like basketball coaches, we'd either be locked up, fired or studied in psychology class. Maybe all three.

Mick Cronin is stepping away from his insanity for the next three months, at least. He has something called an "arterial dissection'' in his brain. It isn't exactly the unruptured aneurysm we'd all thought, but it's nothing to be messed with. Cronin is being advised by doctors to relax and keep his blood pressure as normal as possible. Coaching is not quite part of his treatment.

He spoke openly and at length with the heathen media Friday, so all of us could move on. Because he is a coach, Cronin worries first about his team. "In my mind, I already cost us one game,'' he lamented. That would be the home loss to VCU Dec. 20, when he told his players an hour before the game he wouldn't be coaching them that day.

"Thank god I had symptoms,'' Cronin said.

In the back of the cramped media room, Mick's father Hep sat and listened. He knows Mick the way only a father can know his son. Even by that standard, their bond is extraordinary. Hep coached more than 400 winning basketball games at Roger Bacon, Oak Hills and La Salle. He was Mick's high school coach. He travels with him, when the Bearcats are on the road.

He understands his son. He understands coaching, and the bad things the stress of it can do to a person. issues. Mick says to Hep, "I have an unruptured aneurysm in my brain.'' Hep answers, "I had three of 'em. Five-way (heart) bypass, in '96.''

Hep went on coaching after the doctors fixed him. But he was never the same, and that was good.

"I wasn't as volatile,'' he said. "It became more of a life thing than an immediate gain. I even think you become a better coach. You realize that one play isn't the end of the world. One play might affect 10 plays, if you're able to handle it differently. He'll calm down.''

Hep even suggested an emergency similar to Mick's "would probably be good for all young coaches. Maybe they'd all calm down.'' He said it jokingly. Somewhat.

This isn't to suggest that the frequent bouts of temporary nuttiness had anything to do with Mick Cronin's condition. No one knows. "It's not because I was yelling at a referee,'' he said. As it was explained by doctors to Hep, "It could be a golf swing, snapping your neck. Bumping your head on the end table. They don't know.''

Cronin had severe, relentless headaches for several days. UC's medical people suggested he get a CAT scan. He did. Now, all he has to do is listen to his doctors' advice.

The wonder isn't that this happened to Mick Cronin. The wonder is it hasn't happened to more coaches. Watching Bob Huggins now, more than 12 years after his heart attack, can be a nerve-jangling proposition. He's no less animated on the sidelines. He has put on weight. Every time I see him in full throat, face sweaty and crimson, I cringe.

Coaching is not a job for the faint of heart. I wonder how Huggins' heart still manages.

Mick Cronin says he will do what the doctors tell him. On Friday, he sounded as content as possible not to be the Bearcats' hands-on basketball coach. He won't attend practice. He'll watch games at home on TV. He will act as overseer the rest of the time. "Pat Riley,'' he said, "with no rings, no hair and no tan.''

It won't be as easy as he made it sound Friday. No coach is OK with spectating, even if his health and life depend on it. Huggins nearly died. He still rages. The trick for Mick is to temper the rage.

He's as up for it as any coach. Cronin works out diligently, doesn't drink and is picky about what he eats. His biggest vice is smoking the occasional $12 cigar. Cronin probably doesn't weigh 10 pounds more than he did in high school.

But he is a college basketball coach, with all that implies. It's a crazy way to make a living, and not always good for your health. Cronin's daughter Sammi might have offered advice every bit as sound as what Hep provided.

"If you have a headache,'' the 8-year-old suggested, "just don't coach. That way, you don't have to scream and yell.''

Easier said than done.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../21193675/

Crap.