Jamie is the owner of Sunrise Cyclery and the biggest supporter of Grease Rag Ride & Wrench.  (Understatement of the century:  Jamie donates everything from space to photocopies, staff, tools, time, expertise... the list is endless.  No Jamie= No Grease Rag.)

Jamie has had some recent health trouble that landed him in the hospital.  Luckily he did not sustain permanent damage and he's going to pull through.  Details about the situation are below.

Jennifer, Jamie's wife (also one of the nicest, altruistic people I know), has been sending me updates via email, and I've been given permission to share some of the details with you.  Please pass this along to anyone that might want to reach out to Jamie.

This is an email Jennifer sent to me on Tuesday, September 31, 2010.

As some of you may know, Jamie, my husband, took the bus to the Emergency Room on Sunday eve due to a very high (150 to 177) heart rate. I was out of town. He was admitted to Abbott's cardiac unit and is still there. I was able to get my return home changed from this Fri to yesterday, so am now with him (actually in CT waiting room as I write).

He has congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, fluid in his lungs, high blood pressure & high blood sugar. He also has a blood clot in his heart and parts of his heart are enflamed. He has extensive family history of heart disease.

He's had an MRI, ECG, TEE & is currently getting a Coronary CT Angiogram scan to determine if he has any other clots in his arteries.

If the scans show no other clots or blockage, he will likely go home today w/ cumadin (blood thinner) to address the clot in his heart, then he will come back in 4-6 weeks for a cardioversion (a restart of the heart) which is to address the atrial fibrillation (i.e., high heart rate).

He is also on something that is draining the fluid from his lungs.

If one of you could please post the pertinent info on his wall on his facebook page, i'd appreciate it. He'd like ppl to know what's up.

He loves hearing from friends - text is best at 612-310-6698 or his hospital room # for calls is 612-775-4408.

Just wanted to update & inform you as I thought you'd appreciate knowing. Please share w/ others who you'd think would appreciate the info. Feel free to ask me if someone is already included or not.

Jennifer

An update, sent Wednesday, September 1, 2010.

Jamie is done with tests, and they are now working to convert him from the IV's to pills so he can go home. He'll be here at Abbott at least til Sunday. Jamie has "Tachycardia-Induced Cardiomyopathy" (heart), high blood pressure, and Diabetes. His heart is functioning at 50% and is operating like the heart of an 80 year old (basically it has been running twice as fast as necessary for a few years).

He has a bicuspate aortic valve (apparently this valve is supposed to be tricuspate).The good news is that they are working to repair the heart (i.e., damage is not permanent). They basically are addressing four issues to get him healthy again:

1. Type 2 Diabetes - they diagnosed Jamie with Type 2 Diabetes. His Hemagloben A1C was elevated. A result of 6 higher indicates diabetes - Jamie was an 8.9. His blood sugar has been over 200 for at least three months which is not too bad as far as diabetes goes. Time to count carbs!

2. Fluid in lungs - using diarhetics which is making his body naturally empty itself of fluids - he dropped 9 lbs of fluids yesterday (yes, he lost 9lbs yesterday and is still dumping fluids today). He is taking potassium to counteract the loss of all the stuff your body needs when it is losing fluids. Jamie says the potasium pill is the epitome of a true "horse pill." It is huge and hard to swallow - yuck! The good news is that he is dumping enough water with the diarhetics that they now do not expect to need to tap the lung. The other good news is that the weight he is dropping is not the kind of weight that he risks gaining back, so a good start on his weight loss :-)

3. Reduce/maintain blood pressure - medication & diet.

4. Get heart to work efficiently - three things toward this one:

a. Get rid of blood clot - body will eat up clot, so using coumadin to keep it from growing and to keep others from forming

b. slow heart rate - using beta blocker (meds) to bring it down and keep it down

c. correct the heart's rhythm - will shock the heart (reboot it) to get the rhythm back to where it should be - once the clot is gone and no new ones have formed (Jamie will have to return to the hospital in mid-october for another 3.5 days for this process).

He LOVES the text messages (pls be sure to "sign your name" in your texts as he doesn't have many of your cell #'s in his phone) and the facebook posts - keep it coming! He truly feels loved and cared about! A friend of mine is creating a page for us to be able to keep you all updated. I'll send out a link as soon as it is done.

Remember - laughter is the best medicine, so please send/share humor! :-)

Thank you for all your support and good wishes - I cannot begin to tell you how loved and valued Jamie and I feel right now!

Pls share w/ others.

Jennifer :-)

Pretty heavy stuff, I know. It looks like he's going to be okay, but I was pretty upset at this news. Please text and facebook Jamie, but I have something else in mind as well.  Please stay tuned for my next post.

In solidarity,

Lowrah