Kathleen called the meeting to order with Carol leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag followed by Milt with the invocation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
November 9th Regular Club Meeting will be held at the newly re-opened Rocky Reach Discovery Center. This is a follow-up to their presentation this summer during renovation. Although this is prior to normal hours, they will have tour guides and open the café early for us. Since it is before normal hours, we do need to submit a visitor access request ahead of time; please let Chris know if you will be able to attend. If you'd like breakfast, you can order when you get there or if you want it ready at 7am, give Chris your order and he'll put it in ahead of time and they'll have it ready at 7am.
Breakfast Options at the RR Café:
Breakfast Sandwich - Sliced ham, fried eggs and cheese on toasted white, wheat, or sourdough
Breakfast Burrito - Ham, bacon, potatoes, eggs and cheese
Scramble - Grilled peppers & onion, fried potatoes, diced ham, bacon, and eggs scrambled together
Biscuits & Gravy - 2 buttermilk biscuits smothered in sausage gravy, 2 fried eggs and a side of bacon
Breakfast Burger - Sausage Patty, 2 fried eggs, with cheese and crispy bacon on a pub roll
Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon - 2 pancakes, 2 fried eggs, and 2 strips of crispy bacon
Fundraising Committee will meet next Tuesday (10/12) at 6pm in the Pybus open area at a table to discuss amongst other things how to do Road Apple Roulette without electronics.
We received a thank you from a ride sponsor - Trek.
They gave us money, supplies, people, and their time.
And then they gave a very thoughtful thank you for letting them be involved. We love those guys!
Outbound thank you's were also circulated.
Rebecca reminded us of upcoming events:
- October 15 - Oktoberfest at Kathleen's 5:30pm - probably $5 to cover expenses. Please let Rebecca or Kathleen know if you will be attending so that they have the right amount of things on hand for the social event of the year (in October)!.
- November - Tap and Putt
- December 9th - Holiday Party at the Museum; mark your calendar!
Need set up help next week! Please let us know if you can help.
BRAGS & CONFESSIONS
from Trek and was very nice; one of four they loaned us. Then it was on to Earl being quoted in the paper. Some people in the crowd wanted to know whose brag this was, Alan or Earl's? But once we heard all of the "quotes" attributed to Earl, some wondered whether Alan was angling to get a blog of his own. After that, but staying with the bike ride theme, Alan bragged about missing a four foot triangle sign warning of bikes on the road. Maybe someone just needed the reminder so bad they took it home with them. Or if you've got the tire pump and sign at your place, let us know and we'd be happy to come pick them up. With the bike ride brags out of the way, it was on to birthdays, 10/3 grandson turned one and on 10/4 his son turned 24, but he's not the dad of the grandson! Happy birthdays!
Milt heard from an exchange student from New Zealand that she is going to be a grandmother. That makes Milt the great grandfather exchange... well you get the idea. Congratulations Stephanie and Milt both!
ClubRunner Tip of the Day
If you access the ClubRunner directory from the app on your smart phone, you can use that to call, text, or email the person the same as if they were in your own contacts! This app just keeps getting better!
PROGRAM - What it's like to get a heart transplant
Jim A introduced our program, John and Diana Gill. John came to Wenatchee in 1978 as a young internal medicine doctor. His wife Diana came to Wenatchee in 1972 and was a school counselor. They were married in 1981. John had a heart transplant in 2017 and when asked how old he is, he likes to say he's about 65 because he's 75, but his heart is only 53 years old.
In 2012, he was doing fine and skiing in British Columbia when friends noticed he was short of breath. In March, he noticed he was struggling to walk up hills. Peter Rutherford took him to get evaluated immediately after hearing his symptoms. His echocardiogram was fine but when he got on the treadmill his blood pressure dropped from 70 to 30. They did a lot of tests on his blood and gave him a lot of drugs. They learned that although your heart should empty 55-60% of its blood when it pumps, it was only pumping about 15%.
Through it all, he kept working part-time. He would rest in a recliner and Diana noticed he would stop breathing which was very scary for her. They had to biopsy John's heart which is dangerous and eventually diagnosed him with cardiac sarcoidosis which results in granulomas in the heart that can disrupt heart rhythm, blood flow and normal heart function. They were able to stop the inflammation but it was too late and too much damage had been done so a heart replacement was needed.
They learned that it was not easy nor a foregone conclusion to get on a transplant list. It takes months to find out if you will even be placed on a transplant list. They were amazed at the support and prayers that they received from people in our community. Eventually they were put on the heart transplant list in Seattle.
Although he never had pain with this, he looked gray and many people were worried he wouldn't make it long enough to receive a transplant.
Around Christmas 2015 he went to visit a retired friend in Mazama that was a cardiologist and noticed their friend noticed that John was going in and out of V-tach (it turned out he'd been doing that for about two and half months). John was flown down to Wenatchee and then on to Seattle. He spent a lot of time in hospitals through this.
After two years on the waitlist in Seattle, they were encouraged to apply to Cedars-Sinai transplant list. Cedars-Sinai is a non-profit hospital in Los Angeles which performed the most heart transplants in the United States for ten years straight from 2010 through 2019, but that's still only about 120 of about 2,000 in the United States per year; not many opportunities for all of those that need a transplant, but twice as many as in Seattle.
He was put in the hospital to get a drip line at maximum dosage and he couldn't leave his hospital room because of all the tubes going to his body. In April 2017, he'd been in the hospital for four weeks when he learned they may have a heart for him. A trailer park had moved them to the top of the line for a spot but it still cost $900 per month which was a fraction of what a home rental would have cost. Friends brought their fifth wheel down on a Tuesday and they got a call about the heart on Thursday. It takes about five hours for the heart to be evaluated and the recipient to be prepped. When the heart landed on the helipad they saw it from their hospital room (Diane had been staying on a cot up to that point!) At 1am it was off to surgery.
Lots of time they go through the whole process and don't end up doing the transplant. John woke up 36 hours later. A new heart is stunned at first and it takes some time to get in rhythm. After the surgery he had three drip stands and more tubes than ever plus his blood pressure wasn't coming up, but Diana was finally allowed to go back to see that he was otherwise ok.
Residue from one drug he had been taking resulted in him needing to stay in the hospital for ten additional days. He lost 37 pounds over the first two weeks as he lost a lot of water he had been retaining. Diane did research and put him on a strict low-sodium diet. He needed a month to be able to walk at a normal pace and keep up with Diane. After three months of recovery at the hospital they were glad to leave 104 degrees in LA and get back to Wenatchee where it was only 102.
Hearts are typically transplanted five hours after they are removed from the donor, but they can keep the heart alive for up to 24 hours. Transplant centers typically keep the best hearts locally and ship out lesser quality ones. He can still receive CPR. The sleep apnea that had developed also disappeared after the transplant.
John had not been aware of how bad of shape he had been in, but others could tell. 70 is the cut off for getting a transplant, but since he had been on a transplant list at 69, he was allowed to continue to pursue one and he received his at 71. He still gets check-ups every six months. Remarkably, he has no plaque in his heart - blessed genetically. Best of all, he can do anything he could do before the onset of heart issues and transplant. He is back to skiing, kayaking, and more.
John's heart was from a 49-year-old woman. He and Diane sent a letter to the woman's family but have not heard back from them yet. They hold out hope that someday they will hear a reply.
RAFFLE
The raffle draw was up to $261 this week and Mansour's lucky ticket was drawn. Things took an unexpectedly exciting turn when Mansour quickly offered up shares in Mansour LTD for a chance to split the pot with him. Kathleen jumped at the partnership which ironically netted Mansour the full amount of his initial investment of $10.
Alas, in the confusion, the wrong marble was drawn. Much like the pot, there will be greater excitement next week!
CLOSING
In closing, Kathleen thanked Sam for getting the invoices out and delivered the bad joke of the week which some said wasn't that bad this week!
See you all next week!
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