After almost three years of having an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) installed in my chest, I’ve come to the point where I don’t think very much about this thing. But that has not always been the case.
During the first few months after installation, I had some horrible problems. My defibrillator (a Medtronic unit) misfired seven or eight times. In my case, the situation was the result of problems with the leads that connect to the inside wall of my heart’s right ventricle. Apparently, the leads were misreading my heart rate. Indeed, the complete system thought that my heart was beating at twice the rate that it actually was.
Now that’s not nomrally a big deal. The unit was set to deliver a shock when my heart rate exceeded two hundred beats per minute (BPM). Since the normal heart beats between seventy and one hundred BPM, you wouldn’t expect big problems. But I exercise regularly. And I love to get my heart rate up. It is very usual for me to dirve my heart rate to 140-150 BPM.
Well, when I went on my first bicycle ride after my surgery, I did fine – until I hit the first major hill. My heart raced to provide blood needed by my body. And my ICD misread my heart rate. I received seven “therapies” (euphamism for 300V shock). And these things hurt like heck.
Well, I had to have my ICD replaced. And it is one thing to replace a faulty car battery. It is quite another thing to replace a defibrillator. While the surgery is routine for a cardiologist, it is anything but routine for the patient. You must be put to sleep so the doctor can open a small incision in your chest. This incision allows the doctor to build a “pocket” for your new “friend.” And then leads are threaded into arteries that lead into your heart. BTW, your heart must be stopped when this is done. The leads are then attached to the inner walls of your heart.
While the surgery went quite well, the recovery was quite a different story. Having been a QA analyst for a major telecommunications firm, I know what nagging flaws are. And I have seen problems that you thought were resolved reoccur unexpectedly. So I lost confidence in my device, my doctor and myself. I didn’t want to let my heart rate increase over 100 BPM. I just wanted to make sure that this thing never misfired again.
So a routine surgery to fix a minor technical problem resulted in some major mistrust. I didn’t exert myself at all. And let me tell you, when you are afraid of something like this, your fear makes you question EVERY activity you do. So my life went from normal to very strange in a very short period of time. If you ask my kids what it was like to walk with me, they’ll tell you that I shuffled along like an eighty year-old man with palsy.
It took me almost eight months before I started to trust the machine in my chest. Once I regained that trust, I got back to a more normal life. I ride fifteen miles every day. I do anything and everything that I did before the original ICD implant. And as I noted before, I have gotten to the point that I almost forget this thing.
So when I read the ABC News headline that 50,000 Guidant ICD’s have been recalled, I had three reactions. First, I sighed with releif because I don’t have a Guidant device. Second, I began to wonder if other manufacturers (like Medtronic) had unreported problems of their own. Finally, my spirit is aching for those who have to go through a re-implanatation.
In my case, device malfunctions follwwed by a re-implantation resulted in severe mistrust (i.e., fear) for a very long time. I pray that this does not happen to other patients. If you are reading this and you have a Guidant ICD, trust your cardiologist to determine whether or not you need the replacement. Then trust your cardiologist to perform a successful surgery. And trust the new device to perform as it should. While problems can occur, you have to remember that the device is in your chest for a reason. Without the device, you could be in real danger.
And don’t let my story scare you. If you have an ICD, know that these devices are rigorously tested. And with any health-related device, the tests are conducted by many different groups. Indeed, I would expect the manufacturer to be taking a “better safe than sorry” approach. Of course, I would make sure that _all_ surgery costs are covered by Guidant – not you!
And if you are really stressed over this, drop me an email @ cyclingroo@gmail.com. I would be glad to correspond with you. For many of us, we were given a second chance. So let’s not squander that chance with fear, uncertainty and doubt. In God’s holy Word, we are told that God is not the author of fear. Rather, fear is the realm of the adversary. II Tim 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Hosea 4:6 says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Therefore, rest in knowledge, not fear.
So learn about the recall and get to work with your care professionals. If you are interested in more information about the recall, check out the following:
– Guidant’s site and comments
-CyclingRoo-
Month: June 2005
SMS Wins SMS
Wow. What a crazy couple of days. I’m back at the office after three days of basketball. The girls played eleven games in 2 1/2 days. And their record? It was an amazing 11-0.
What were the highlights? There were a lot. We took ten girls. Of those ten players, four girls were returning from last year’s varsity squad. But only two starters went on this trip. The other kids either played JV last year or were incoming freshmen. So we had a fairly young team. But the team played like a seasoned team that had played many games together.
Dana and Peyton played great inside. Whitney and Elizabeth were strong whenever they saw the ball (either inside or outside). Elizabeth will be someone to watch. This could be her breakout season! Kelsey and Hillary were amazing on the wing. We’ve watched Kelsey for five or six years. And now that her knee is strong, she is playing with fire in her eyes! Laura, Lauren and Abbey were great. They played strong when they were in. I especailly loved how hard they played on defense. But they were amazing teammates from the bench, as well. When they weren’t on the court, they were cheering or directing their teammates who were on the court. Finally, Jocelyn was fun to watch. She is an incoming freshmen with an attitude – a great attitude. She has an older sister at South. And her sister is the state champion pole vaulter. So Jocelyn has big shoes to fill. But she showed some good talent and some great promise. She has innate speed and a very good touch on her shot. She made some key jumpers when we needed them. She will be a welcome addition to the team.
While all of the wins were good wins, I was most impressed with the way the girls conducted themselves – both on and off the court. On the court, the girls played hard. They talked and called out what they saw. When they got loud on defense, nothing got past them. Even my daughter started to talk on the court. 🙂 In the first half of the semi-final game, the girls held their opponent to just three points. It was an amazing thing to behold. And after every game, the girls were genuine and generous in their praise for their opponents.
And Eddie was great at reinforcing this with the girls. He even made it a point to individually speak with a couple of the girls from the other teams. At one point, he even did some “one-on-one” shooting instruction for one girl from Parsons, Kansas. You’ve got to admit that you would smile when you got home and told your parents and friends that a former NBA player was doing shot instruction with you. It must have made that girl’s week. And Eddie had the same effect on most of our girls.
Off the court, the girls spoke to other players from other teams. Dana made it a point to hang out with Ashley Lord – an AAU teammate who plays for a 2A school in south-eastern Kansas. But all of the girls were warm and cheery to everyone they met. Even the opposing coaches were great. It was amazing to see coaches walk up and just chat with each other. It was quite a difference from the “take no prisoners” attitude that we often see in surburban Kansas City (or even in AAU ball).
Usually, there is a lot of time for other things – like movies or shopping with the girls. But this time was different. They were either playing ball or resting before they played ball again. Yet throughout the camp, the girls were motivated, energetic and supportive of one another. It was great to see. And this camp should really help the girls get unified and focus them for state-wide success next year. I can’t wait until the regular season begins again.
-CyclingRoo-
P.S. The coach asked me to sit on the bench as his assistant coach. It was quite an honor – and quite strange. I know enough about the game to be dangerous – but not enough to be truly instructive. And since my daughter was playing, I mostly kept my mouth shut. For those of you that know me, you know what a Herculean task that was. But I learned a lot from being on the bench. Eddie is a great coach. The girls responded to his enthusiasm and his knowledge of the game. I hope some of the girls will get a chance to work with him again.
SMS at SMS
Today was a day away from the office and homefront. Dana’s high school basketball team is now at camp at Southwest Missouri State University (former home of basketball star Jackie Stiles). The camp is a chance for a whole bunch of the Shawnee Mission South kids to play together during the off-season. And since the school’s coach can’t work with them in the off-season, we are working with a coach-for-the-week.
And what a coach. Eddie Robinson (formerly with the Charlotte Hornets) is coaching our girls this week. He is here by God’s grace. We met Eddie when we turned to a recruiting agency to help us with Dana’s college search. Eddie has been working with Dana for nine months. And when the opportunity arose to coach Dana and her team for a couple of days, Eddie agreed. The girls are working very hard and learning a great deal.
The girls will be working their tails off. They had two games tonight. They will have six games tomorrow. And, if things work out, they’ll have two more games on Thursday. Wow! What a lot of work. So my job will be to make sure that all the girls are hydrated and rested.
So how did the girls do tonight? Well, we got here at 4:00 and had our first game at 7:15. The girls played well, but not spectacularly. They were very solid on defense. And the offense was sufficient for the competition. But the competition in the first game was not very strong. So the girls didn’t work their hardest. They won by over thirty, but they looked sluggish. The second game was better – but they will need to step it up if they expect to win the tournament.
Dana did well. But as her Dad, I am not the most unbiassed observer. A couple of the younger girls had very noteworthy games. Elizabeth played well defensively and showed some real promise on the boards. Peyton showed why she will be making a big difference on the inside. The upperclassmen played solid. Kelcie had some really sweet coast-to-coast fast breaks. And Whitney was all over the court defensively. Even Laura Dopp got in on the action. She had a couple of really good shots from the baseline.
All in all, it was a great start. Let’s hope that tomorrow goes even better than tonight
-CyclingRoo-
EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers
“…bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published.” Isn’t that something we’ve all heard about, felt like doing or actually done? In a very real way, blogging can be the stuff of investigative journalism. It can also be the stuff of trash journalism and worthless screed. But if we want a free and open society, free speech must be protected – wherever it rears its adorable face.
So what is a blogger to do. There are several twelve-step programs that can be considered. But in the meantime, head on over to the EFF and read their legal guide for all bloggers. This is an excellent source for understanding applicable free speech laws in the United States.
One of the most valuable things that this guide stresses is that free speech is not the same as unbridled and/or completely unrestricted speech. All bloggers must remember a number of simple things that all journalists are taughtt in school (or on the job). Fundamentally, our free speech rights don’t give us the right to say (or blog) anything we want. We must guard against libel, defamation, and a host of other misuses of speech. We must also guard against illicit speech (e.g., soliciitations to violence or illegal activities, etc.).
And while these general rules are imperative, the EFF guide provides discrete information as well. For example, the guide includes information on how a blogger can take advatnage of anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws that exist within each state. These laws protect individuals against lawsuits designed exclusively to silence speech.
What are the issues that this guide can help with? They include:
* Defamation
* Intellectual Property (Copyright/Trademark)
* Trade Secret
* Right of Publicity
* Publication of Private Facts
* Intrusion into Seclusion
Please note that this guide is really a means fo connecting the interested and informed blogger with additional resources. The guide cannot be construed as legal advice. But it is a good starting point.
Finally, I urge every blogger to read these guidelines. But you should not stop there. In addition to the legal issues, every blogger must recognize that there are ethical and moral issues involved in blogging. While it may be completely legal to reveal certain information, such revelations might be unethical, immoral or both.
So here is my advice. Learn what is legal. And then consider what is ethical/moral before you post sensitive information.
-CyclingRoo-
Tags: blogging journalism
The Roo’s Clouds
When I was a young boy, I learned about all sorts of clouds. There are cirrus clouds and stratus clouds, cumulus clouds and nimbus clouds. Then there are the hybrids. There are cirrostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.
Well, in the world of neologisms, there are tag clouds as well. And as noted before, I have decided to take up tagging as a passtime. With the aid of TagCloud, I have created several clouds that I can use to see what my favorite feeds are yakking (and tagging) about. I have created a cloud for my technical feeds and a separate cloud for my political feeds. With these clouds, I can quickly check and see what the “buzz” is with my favorite bloggers (and their readers).
I can see some incredible value for these kinds of things – especially for web researchers. I can quickly check the trends in the blogosphere and then use this to launch into additional quereis. In many ways, the tagging community is creating a very interesting “snap poll” for the Internet’s “card catalog” system. Of course, the success of such facilities is entirely dependent upon the adherence of the tagging populace. Success is based upon ample tagging. So folks who tag like mad could easily skew these tools.
For example, in checking out my “wonk” blog, the most tagged item is “Howard Dean” and not the conflict in Iraq. OK. This means that Howard made the buzz. But the value is simply as a quantitative marker to the number of times his name was used as a tag. The Republicans want to keep this guy “in view” because he’s such a loon. So all the conservative wonks are blogging about him. Hence, his rise in stature (or font size). It’s like an instant poll on how many people are talking about a subject – not their subjective feelings on the matter.
Again, there are some very interesting implications – especially for marketing. But this will only become important as more and more people begin to tag. That will happen when it gets the “cool” factor. That has happened. But it will also require the software to become much more accessible. Who knows? Maybe Microsoft will help us there. Again, I can’t wait to hear what Bill is going to annoucne at Gnomedex.
-CyclingRoo-
The Roo's Clouds
When I was a young boy, I learned about all sorts of clouds. There are cirrus clouds and stratus clouds, cumulus clouds and nimbus clouds. Then there are the hybrids. There are cirrostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.
Well, in the world of neologisms, there are tag clouds as well. And as noted before, I have decided to take up tagging as a passtime. With the aid of TagCloud, I have created several clouds that I can use to see what my favorite feeds are yakking (and tagging) about. I have created a cloud for my technical feeds and a separate cloud for my political feeds. With these clouds, I can quickly check and see what the “buzz” is with my favorite bloggers (and their readers).
I can see some incredible value for these kinds of things – especially for web researchers. I can quickly check the trends in the blogosphere and then use this to launch into additional quereis. In many ways, the tagging community is creating a very interesting “snap poll” for the Internet’s “card catalog” system. Of course, the success of such facilities is entirely dependent upon the adherence of the tagging populace. Success is based upon ample tagging. So folks who tag like mad could easily skew these tools.
For example, in checking out my “wonk” blog, the most tagged item is “Howard Dean” and not the conflict in Iraq. OK. This means that Howard made the buzz. But the value is simply as a quantitative marker to the number of times his name was used as a tag. The Republicans want to keep this guy “in view” because he’s such a loon. So all the conservative wonks are blogging about him. Hence, his rise in stature (or font size). It’s like an instant poll on how many people are talking about a subject – not their subjective feelings on the matter.
Again, there are some very interesting implications – especially for marketing. But this will only become important as more and more people begin to tag. That will happen when it gets the “cool” factor. That has happened. But it will also require the software to become much more accessible. Who knows? Maybe Microsoft will help us there. Again, I can’t wait to hear what Bill is going to annoucne at Gnomedex.
-CyclingRoo-
Word for the Day: Neologism
What is a neologism? I’ll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, it’s time to play a little catch-up.
Earlier this week, I got Greasemonkey working on Deer Park Alpha 1. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve blogged about that already. But it has given me a chance to catch up on some interesting scripts.
One of the jewels I found is the Blogger Technorati Tags script. The script is simple. It adds tagging functionality to the Edit/Compose dialogs in Blogger. This script adds a data entry field and a submit button. Once clicked, the button invokes a script that creates the necessary Technorati tags which are embedded in the posting.
And as everyone knows, one thing necessarily leads to another. So I started to add Technorati tags to all of my posts. This was easy. Then I started to see if I was tagging things effectively. So I spent a couple of hours on Technorati. I got to see how folks are tagging their posts. And I then ran across the new Technorati. Earlier this week, the folks at Technorati released the beta site to the public. The new site can be found at http://beta.technorati.com. BTW, I really like the new site. It has a good look and feel. And some of the tag aggregation features are really cool.
So Deer Park Alpha led to Greasemonkey, which led to tagging scripts, which led to the beta Technorati site, whic led to… tag clouding. So off I went to TagCloud. Tag clouds are very interesting. They utilize the tags collected at social bookmarking sites (like Flikr, Technoratir, Furl, etc). And this data is displayed in a visual form. Specifically, top words are collected and listed on the page. And the tags that are most active are displayed in an increasingly larger font. Jeffrey Zeldman went so far as to say that tag clouds are the new mullets. Specifically, Zeldman asserts that tag clouds have crossed a social threshold and become a meme for silliness.
I don’t know if I concur with Jeffrey – not just yet. But it is interesting to see an idea like this take on a cult-like social following. It’s almost like the crazy Macarena dance! Sure it was fun. But it was really annoying after a while. For me, I am thinking of using tag clouds as social barometers. They can measure the relative “link pressure” of any given topic. For example, during this week’s Apple/Intel discussions, you could really see how the blogosphere was reacting by watching how “big” these words got in various tag clouds and tagging communities. In a way, tag clouds are the mood rings of techno-zeitgest.
BTW, all of this leads me to the title of the post. A neologism is a newly coined word. And the word that spawned this peculiar dictionary query is: folksonomy. A folksonomy is a taxonomy created by a social-networking mechanism (i.e., a taxonomy created by folks). And in this context, that taxonomy is expressed via tags and implicit categories.
And on a completely unrelated note, it is extremely important to mention that we started with Greasemonkey and ended at a Wikipedia entry for social-networking. In no way did any of these degres of separation lead to Kevin Bacon. I’ll leave that task to the readers! 😉
-CyclingRoo-
Microsoft & RSS: Details at Gnomedex 5.0
I have been anxiously awaiting Microsoft’s product announcements regarding RSS and feed aggregators. Three months ago, I talked with Robert Scoble. He gave me some obscure hints about efforts underway – but nothing specific. Now I’m starting to see the wink-wink, nod-nod hints starting to increase. While en route to Copenhagen (for this weeks Reboot conference), Robert held one of his Geek dinners in Texas. At that meeting, he resumed his hints about a new RSS aggregator from Microsoft. Chris Prakoso added even more fuel to this fire in his post today. Chris reports that Microsoft will be announcing something as early as Gnomedex 5.0 (June 23-25).
BTW, the timing makes perfect sense. Microsoft (and Yahoo!) are the chief sponsors for Gnomedex 5.0. Gnomedex will be held In the Seattle area. And both Dave Winer and Adam Curry will be featured guests/presenters. You’ve got to believe that Microsoft will want to make a big splash with such notable techno-celebrities in attendance. Who knows? We may see RSS everywhere as well as discrete podcasting/podcatching client programs.
I can’t wait to see the announcements. 🙂
-CyclingRoo-
[6/12 Note: I just heard from Chris Prakoso. I misattributed his blog post to Hugh MacLeod. Oops. Sorry for the mistake.]
Microsoft & RSS: Details at Gnomedex 5.0
I have been anxiously awaiting Microsoft’s product announcements regarding RSS and feed aggregators. Three months ago, I talked with Robert Scoble. He gave me some obscure hints about efforts underway – but nothing specific. Now I’m starting to see the wink-wink, nod-nod hints starting to increase. While en route to Copenhagen (for this weeks Reboot conference), Robert held one of his Geek dinners in Texas. At that meeting, he resumed his hints about a new RSS aggregator from Microsoft. Chris Prakoso added even more fuel to this fire in his post today. Chris reports that Microsoft will be announcing something as early as Gnomedex 5.0 (June 23-25).
BTW, the timing makes perfect sense. Microsoft (and Yahoo!) are the chief sponsors for Gnomedex 5.0. Gnomedex will be held In the Seattle area. And both Dave Winer and Adam Curry will be featured guests/presenters. You’ve got to believe that Microsoft will want to make a big splash with such notable techno-celebrities in attendance. Who knows? We may see RSS everywhere as well as discrete podcasting/podcatching client programs.
I can’t wait to see the announcements. 🙂
-CyclingRoo-
[6/12 Note: I just heard from Chris Prakoso. I misattributed his blog post to Hugh MacLeod. Oops. Sorry for the mistake.]
Cringely Calls It – Kinda
Several days ago, I posted about the Apple/Intel deal. I really feel that this is a signal from Apple to Microsoft. After all, why would Apple pre-announnce something so far in advance if it didn’t signal their intent to re-invigorate the desktop battle.
Well, it seems that Robert Cringely agrees – sort of. He has a much more extensive treatise on the subject in his most recent scribblings. His basic rationale is simple: “For Intel to keep growing, people have to replace their PCs more often and Microsoft’s bloatware strategy just isn’t making that happen, especially if they keep delaying Longhorn.” Robert sees the battle as one to dethrone Microsoft. I agree. But Robert thinks that Intel is trying to dethrone Microsoft – by buying Apple. I don’t buy this prediction. But I do believe that the target is the same: Microsoft.
So what does this all mean? AMD is challenging Intel. Apple is challenging Microosft. We have seen how Intel is responding to its challengers. How will Microsoft respond? Well, we are starting to see Microsoft get into the content biz with their new subscription music foray. And we are starting to see them re-engage in the browser wars. Apprently IE7 will ship before Longhorn (old news). And they are even talking about tabs for IE6 (via an MSN toolbar plugin)!
What will come next? RSS support in the browser and the office suite? I sure hope so. But the “really good news” is stunningly simple: Microsoft excels when it is challenged. If Cringely is right, Microsoft must respond to the Apple challenges (as well as the Mozilla/Firefox challenges). And the big winners in a competitive market are the consumers.
-CyclingRoo-