[geeks] Health Update

[Ross Alexander]

* Michael Schiller:
> Just in case any of you noticed I wasn't around lately, I thought I'd 
> give y'all an update. As you might know last month I had a heart 
> attack, and they had to put another stent in my heart. 

Glad you came through that one OK.

> Apparently I have a slow/random heartbeat, a condition called 
> Bradycardia. The pacemaker was placed on Monday.

Glad you made it through again, and you're feeling good.

> Now onto the geeky side of things. The pacemaker they put in me (a 
> Medtronic Kappa KDR901 pacemaker that apparently has memory storage 
> capabilities, and using an (I assume) inductive coupling they can 
> download info on how my heart is doing, how often the unit had to 
> regulate my heartbeat, etc. The doc has signed me up with a company to 
> do monthly remote monitoring of the pacemaker, and they're sending me a 
> pickup unit that will download the data to them via a built-in acoustic 
> coupler (so I'm assuming it's a low speed link ala Bell-103).

I don't know much about it, but the cardiology department where I work
has one of these set ups.

> Sorry for the long post.

Don't be, it's good to still have you here.


-- 
Ross Alexander
ross at two-cats.net