A Pacemaker, Spring baseball and good byes

Well the second half of March sure turned out to be exciting.  While  in Arizona, we thought it would be good if we found primary doctors here incase we needed to see one.  Guess it was a good thing we did.  Deane started out seeing her for his asthma which did not seem to get better no matter what he did.  One thing led to another and he used the 'magic words'  of 'shortness of breath and tightness in the chest', and that was enough for her to send him off to a cardiologist who started him on a battery of tests.

Among the tests was a nuclear stress test (they no longer have you run on a treadmill) which showed some abnormalities like the fact his heart was beating at around 30-40 beats per minute instead of the normal 60+.   That led to him having an angioplasty to look at his heart.  Expecting to find clogged arteries, and depending upon the severity, we had been prepared for the doc to either put in a stint if he found one thing, and possibly by-pass surgery if he found another.  Well, he found neither, but did find that Deane's heart was only operating at about 30% and instead, put a pacemaker in.

Heading into the
operating room

I'm okay, let the party
begin!

We are still amazed at the quickness of it all.... in on Friday for the angioplasty, had pacemaker put in on Saturday (St. Patricks Day) and was home on Sunday.  It has been all of two weeks now and after a couple of tweeks to the thing, he is feeling better than he has in years.  His only restriction is not to raise his left arm above his head or over use the pectorial muscle for about a month to let the wires in his heart get secured.

His short stay in the hospital was not without some humor.  The seditive they gave him when they installed the pacemaker, made him higher than a kite when he woke up.  Without embarrassing him here in print, (I will tell stories to anyone who wants to know) suffice it to say, he felt the need to apologize to most of the nurses on duty that day.

Mike and Jonathan

Jayden, Steph, Joshua & Jonathan

Stephanie, Mike and the boys arrived here in Arizona for a spring break vacation to watch a little spring baseball.  They rented a beautiful house on the west side close to the Mariners home field.  We attended the game with them on Sunday and then Mike bar-b-qued steaks for us all that evening.  Jonathan and Jayden participated in the fast pitch contest at the game and each won their respective age divisions.  Jonthan threw 81 mph, and Jayden 79.   Monday they all came over to our 'home' to see how we manage to survive living in a resort.  Kids swam in the pool, we had drinks from the Tiki Bar, the boys and Deane played a little Pickle Ball and we ended the day at the #1 Eastern Super Buffet!!!  We really did have a great time seeing them, and are looking forward to being near them again this coming summer.

Jayden & Jonathan with their
Fast Pitch champion shirts

The end of our season is quickly appoaching and many of our new friends have already left and the park is looking very empty.  People are either heading home,  heading to summer hosting positions or just continuing their traveling.  The resort threw an end of the year party for all of the workampers..... good time, a lot of good-byes and tears.  It reminds me a bit of the old song "See you in September"... everyone hugs and says, see you next fall.

Workamper friends at our party

We have just a week left here, then we attend an Alfa Rally for a week before we head to Cancun Mexico for a break from RV living.  We will start our trek towards the Northwest when we get back.