the Outfit

Monday, May 20 2013

Jackson’s-house-cleaning-project-May-18th 2013

Sheesh, what a weekend. We had a great and large crew working to clean Jack’s house over the weekend. Special thanks to Jason, Adrian, Brittany, Austin, Nell, Sara, Ana, Kevin, and I’m so tired I am forgetting who all was here helping.

Some good, mostly just plain stressful and hard. The good parts mainly revolve around the time I spent with my wonderful wife Nell and loving daughter Brittany. My whole damn family is pretty flippin’ amazing. A few of y’all aren’t on Facebook, so you aren’t getting constant updates about my brother Jack’s condition. I better start there. I don’t know what is worse his mental health or his general health, but I’m certain the two are intertwined. These last few days Jack’s physical health is declining rapidly beginning with a perforated  appendicitis. That operation performed on Friday morning went well, now the doctors are trying to stabilize him and get him out of ICU.

The appendectomy went well. He’s got a heart arrhythmia I don’t know how severe it is. Yesterday the cardiologists did a procedure to stabilize the heart, that worked for a couple hours,  and later while we were still there they employed blood thinners to stabilize the heart more. He is in good spirits. He is still in intensive care at Alta Vista Hospital: Room two. Please visit.

Penderais-Job-Late-Friday-May17th2013fiber-optic-cable  Eric of Desertgate is creating a 1.5 mile long  fiber optic link between offices at Penderais country club. I dropped by after a small job I did in the vicinity 

Penderais-Job-Late-Friday-May17th2013Deer-followers2  Besides myself the guys from Desertgate are being closely followed around the lush green golf course by a troupe of curious deer

Penderais-Job-Late-Friday-May17th2013Deer-followers  The camera on my phone is worn out, sorry about the poor quality images. As soon as our ship comes in, Nell and I are buying new smart phones; the best phone money can buy actually. Our reality lies in similar waters  as most folks with terrible credit, we we’re able to send a ship out back in the day, nor were we bright enough to make any investments wise or otherwise; We’ll just have to save up and get the best we can afford.

Penderais-Job-Late-Friday-May17th 2013

BMN_morning-May-20th2013-Sangre-de-Christo-Mtns  Clouds again this morning. These clouds almost look like the kind of clouds that make moisture, but what the hell do I know? It has been so long since we’ve seen rain clouds I probably wouldn’t know one until it hit me on the head.

BMN_morning-May-20th2013-Sangre-de-Christo-Mtns

Just heard from Nell at the hospital Jack had another cardiac arrhythmia last night. He is still in great spirits, delirious though. He was thrilled to see Nell this morning, explaining that Mom and Dad were expected soon. I called Austin and Brittany so they could go into town to visit with their uncle. I’ll check on him this morning as well.

Another damn roller-coaster ride of emotions. We’re weary.

Sincerely,

Brian Rodgers

Cardiac dysrhythmia (also known as arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat) is any of a large and heterogeneous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The heartbeat may be too fast or too slow, and may be regular or irregular. A heart beat that is too fast is called tachycardia and a heart beat that is too slow is calledbradycardia. Although many arrhythmias are not life-threatening, some can cause cardiac arrest. ^{[B: 1]}

Arrhythmias can occur in the upper chambers of the heart, (atria), or in the lower chambers of the heart, (ventricles). Arrhythmias may occur at any age. Some are barely perceptible, whereas others can be more dramatic and can even lead to sudden cardiac death. ^[1]

Some arrhythmias are life-threatening medical emergencies and can result in cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrythmias are one of the most common causes of death when travelling to a hospital. Others cause symptoms such as an abnormal awareness of heart beat (palpitations) and may be merely uncomfortable. These palpitations have also been known to be caused by atrial/ventricular fibrillation, wire faults, and other technical or mechanical issues in cardiac pacemakers/defibrillators. Still others may not be associated with any symptoms at all, but may predispose the patient to potentially life threatening stroke orembolism.

The term sinus arrhythmia refers to a normal phenomenon of mild acceleration and slowing of the heart rate that occurs with breathing in and out. It is usually quite pronounced in children and steadily decreases with age. This can also be present during meditation breathing exercises that involve deep inhaling and breath holding patterns. Proarrhythmia is a new or more frequent occurrence of pre-existing arrhythmias, paradoxically precipitated by antiarrhythmic therapy, which means it is a side effect associated with the administration of some existing antiarrhythmic drugs, as well as drugs for other indications. In other words, it is a tendency of antiarrhythmic drugs to facilitate emergence of new arrhythmias. Some arrhythmias are minor and can be regarded as normal variants. In fact, most people will on occasion feel their heart skip a beat or give an occasional extra strong beat; neither of these is usually a cause for alarm.^[2]