From anita.donkers at gec-group.com Mon Jun 2 11:05:30 2008 From: anita.donkers at gec-group.com (Anita Donkers) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 10:05:30 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] Phil Fitzpatrick Message-ID: <"H00000e800ffcf6a.1212419130.sc.gec-group.com*"@MHS> Phil is scheduled to have an angiogram later this morning. On Saturday he was taken to Northwestern Hospital with nausea, vomiting and a racing heartbeat. I just talked to Cor and he had a good night. The cardiologist did not think he had a heart attack, but his heart is not circuiting correctly. I?ll send updates as I get information. Anita Donkers Globetrotters Engineering Corporation 300 South Wacker Drive, Suite 400 Chicago, Illinois 60606 312/697-3605 (direct) 312/922-5169 (fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080602/1ce971b2/attachment-0001.html From Corfitz1 at comcast.net Wed Jun 4 01:25:44 2008 From: Corfitz1 at comcast.net (Corrinef) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:25:44 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] Phil Fitzpatrick References: <"H00000e800ffcf6a.1212419130.sc.gec-group.com*"@MHS> Message-ID: <000201c8c603$78a12f50$5502a8c0@visitor> Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Phil, we truly appreciate all of them and there is something to be said for the power of thoughts and prayers. Phil is doing well. He still has another test to undergo tomorrow. Saturday we got to Soldier Field for the Avon Walk. He pulled out the ramp for the truck, set it and climbed up in the back, started to feel dizzy and nauseas. He tried to sit down a minute but that didn't help. His next thought was to get out of the truck and out of the way so that the gear could be loaded (and not on top of him). He does not remember getting from the truck to the ground. He banged up his right hand, and must also have bumped his head and left side slightly. Basically what has happened is his heart is out of rhythm. He was in what is called an "A Flutter". When they brought him to the emergency room on Saturday, his heart rhythm was extremely high and the kind that people can die from. Saturday they spent the day trying different medications to get his heart back into the correct rhythm. Saturday night it seemed they had found something that would work, it brought it down from about 134 to about 107 but overnight it kept jumping up and down. He didn't get much rest. Sunday morning when I got there, he was miserable. Nauseous and just uncomfortable, they tried a couple of anti nausea medications but they didn't seem to be working. His blood pressure was dropping and they tried to push more fluids and that's when I got "shoed" out of the room. The next thing I know there are alarms going off and people are running in from everywhere, I heard charging and clear and that's when I started to panic. Of course I was not in the room so I didn't know what happened. They performed a Cardiovert. I have no idea about the spelling. It is usually a planned procedure. They shocked him with 200 "jewels" (yes, while he was awake, so he felt it) to get his heart back into the proper rhythm. It is a procedure they were hoping not to have to do but because his heart is stubborn (kind of like the rest of him) and the medications were not working, they had no choice. It was kind of like do or die. Once he calmed down after that he said he felt worlds better. He had an Angiogram yesterday and it turned up nothing substantial, no bypass surgery or stents were needed, so it is definitely and "electrical" problem. He had an MRI today, we haven't got the results back but it's basically a pre test to the EP test he will have tomorrow. Not only is there something wrong electrically, his heart is not pumping the way it should, so they are trying some different drugs to help it work more efficiently. These are things he will have to take from now on. The EP test should help the Dr's determine where the electrical circuit problem is. The procedure they will use will be to give him a twilight, force his heart back into the bad rhythm and hopefully find and cauterize the spot that is the problem. We are told that if they can do that, there is a 95% chance that this will not ever happen again. If they can't find it, then we will have to talk about other options. All in all he is feeling much, much better then when he went in on Saturday. He has a great sense of humor (as you all know, although I think this time alot of it is nerves). He has been in ICU since. After Sunday morning I did spend that night at the hospital. Other than that one night I have been driving back and forth into the city and most of you know how I feel about that. I have done lot of growing in the past few days... I'm sure you are wondering and no, he had no strange feelings or symptoms before this happened. Although some of this note may sound light and be a little tongue in cheek, it is a very serious problem. This has been a very stressful and scary time for both of us. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, it would be very much appreciated. I'm sure "stich" will be happy to share all his stories of the past few days with you, you all know how he is :) So, I have left out a few "good" parts. So humor him a little when you get to see him and hear all that he has been through. Thank you again for thinking about us, Cor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080604/3dd84e29/attachment.html From donkers at aps.anl.gov Wed Jun 4 13:33:23 2008 From: donkers at aps.anl.gov (Dave Donkers) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:33:23 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] [Fwd: Phil Fitzpatrick] Message-ID: <4846D1E3.1050307@aps.anl.gov> Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Phil, we truly appreciate all of them and there is something to be said for the power of thoughts and prayers. Phil is doing well. He still has another test to undergo tomorrow. Saturday we got to Soldier Field for the Avon Walk. He pulled out the ramp for the truck, set it and climbed up in the back, started to feel dizzy and nauseas. He tried to sit down a minute but that didn't help. His next thought was to get out of the truck and out of the way so that the gear could be loaded (and not on top of him). He does not remember getting from the truck to the ground. He banged up his right hand, and must also have bumped his head and left side slightly. Basically what has happened is his heart is out of rhythm. He was in what is called an "A Flutter". When they brought him to the emergency room on Saturday, his heart rhythm was extremely high and the kind that people can die from. Saturday they spent the day trying different medications to get his heart back into the correct rhythm. Saturday night it seemed they had found something that would work, it brought it down from about 134 to about 107 but overnight it kept jumping up and down. He didn't get much rest. Sunday morning when I got there, he was miserable. Nauseous and just uncomfortable, they tried a couple of anti nausea medications but they didn't seem to be working. His blood pressure was dropping and they tried to push more fluids and that's when I got "shoed" out of the room. The next thing I know there are alarms going off and people are running in from everywhere, I heard charging and clear and that's when I started to panic. Of course I was not in the room so I didn't know what happened. They performed a Cardiovert. I have no idea about the spelling. It is usually a planned procedure. They shocked him with 200 "jewels" (yes, while he was awake, so he felt it) to get his heart back into the proper rhythm. It is a procedure they were hoping not to have to do but because his heart is stubborn (kind of like the rest of him) and the medications were not working, they had no choice. It was kind of like do or die. Once he calmed down after that he said he felt worlds better. He had an Angiogram yesterday and it turned up nothing substantial, no bypass surgery or stents were needed, so it is definitely and "electrical" problem. He had an MRI today, we haven't got the results back but it's basically a pre test to the EP test he will have tomorrow. Not only is there something wrong electrically, his heart is not pumping the way it should, so they are trying some different drugs to help it work more efficiently. These are things he will have to take from now on. The EP test should help the Dr's determine where the electrical circuit problem is. The procedure they will use will be to give him a twilight, force his heart back into the bad rhythm and hopefully find and cauterize the spot that is the problem. We are told that if they can do that, there is a 95% chance that this will not ever happen again. If they can't find it, then we will have to talk about other options. All in all he is feeling much, much better then when he went in on Saturday. He has a great sense of humor (as you all know, although I think this time alot of it is nerves). He has been in ICU since. After Sunday morning I did spend that night at the hospital. Other than that one night I have been driving back and forth into the city and most of you know how I feel about that. I have done lot of growing in the past few days... I'm sure you are wondering and no, he had no strange feelings or symptoms before this happened. Although some of this note may sound light and be a little tongue in cheek, it is a very serious problem. This has been a very stressful and scary time for both of us. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, it would be very much appreciated. I'm sure "stich" will be happy to share all his stories of the past few days with you, you all know how he is :) So, I have left out a few "good" parts. So humor him a little when you get to see him and hear all that he has been through. Thank you again for thinking about us, Cor -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: file:///C|/DOCUME%7E1/DONKERS/LOCALS%7E1/TEMP/nsmail.txt Url: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080604/b9871e65/attachment.txt From Corfitz1 at comcast.net Fri Jun 6 19:16:32 2008 From: Corfitz1 at comcast.net (Corrinef) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 18:16:32 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] Phil Fitzpatrick -- Update References: <"H00000e800ffcf6a.1212419130.sc.gec-group.com*"@MHS> <000201c8c603$78a12f50$5502a8c0@visitor> Message-ID: <008801c8c82b$5be4cf50$5502a8c0@visitor> Thank you all for your kind words of support and prayers we truly, truly appreciate them. Phil underwent an Electrophysiology test and they were able to ablate the circuitry that was causing the "A flutter" in his heart, so hopefully that should not be a problem in the future. They also did a test at the same time to see how quickly his heart would go into V Tac, unfortunately in his case (1%), it happens much to easily, so he is now the proud owner of an ICD (defibrillator which will also double as a pacemaker if necessary), which is a good thing. It was a shock to both of us so at first he was a little hesitant to have the procedure, but after some discussion (I pretty much told him he didn't have a choice) we have a plan. So together with medication, his own personal internal paramedic team and an adjustment in diet and lifestyle he will have many more years of good life and boating ahead of him. We are home now and for him it's just rest for a while. Of course he will have a few doctors appointments in the next few weeks to adjust his meds and double check the ICD and then every 3 months or so after that to check the ICD. It's far better than the alternative. Other than giving up Football, Hockey, Lacrosse, Soccer and Roller Coasters his life will be pretty much back to normal after the healing process. Again, we cannot say thank you enough. You are all such good friends and mean very much to both of us. Like I said before, I have not given quite all the details, believe it or not and as strange as it may seem looking back, we do have a couple funny anecdotes but I'll leave those for "Stitch" to share with you. He'll be home resting and recouping for at least 6 weeks if not a little longer, so if you feel like giving him a call please do. Cor and Phil -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080606/b29e2158/attachment-0001.html From jrielinger at stans.net Wed Jun 11 17:47:40 2008 From: jrielinger at stans.net (James Rielinger) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:47:40 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] Phil Fitzpatrick -- Update In-Reply-To: <008801c8c82b$5be4cf50$5502a8c0@visitor> References: <"H00000e800ffcf6a.1212419130.sc.gec-group.com*"@MHS> <000201c8c603$78a12f50$5502a8c0@visitor> <008801c8c82b$5be4cf50$5502a8c0@visitor> Message-ID: <485047FC.9010902@stans.net> Cor, I had not checked my email for a while. So we were shocked to read the message from you. We are so glad Phil is doing better. You both will continue to be in our prayers. We wish in the best. Please keep us informed. We really care. Phil is a great guy! Jim and Bonnie Rielinger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080611/0518aaca/attachment.html From anita.donkers at gec-group.com Fri Jun 20 15:49:16 2008 From: anita.donkers at gec-group.com (Anita Donkers) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:49:16 -0500 Subject: [Dupage] Boating Class Reminder Message-ID: <"H00000e801051584.1213991355.sc.gec-group.com*"@MHS> Reminder that the College of DuPage Boating class tests on Monday, the 23rd. Class begins at 7 p.m. We?re in the OCC Building, Room 128. This is one of the buildings on the west side of Lambert. If you?re available to help us grade tests, we would love to see you. Anita Donkers Globetrotters Engineering Corporation 300 South Wacker Drive, Suite 400 Chicago, Illinois 60606 312/697-3605 (direct) 312/922-5169 (fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.usps.org/pipermail/dupage/attachments/20080620/6ec5a3d5/attachment.html