Don Foreman wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:40:05 -0600, Don Foreman
wrote:

I was bummed last night, sorry about the ohpoorme rant. Maybe I should
write a country western song? "The TIG I love so dear done
mule-kicked me in the hawrt..." May need a bit of work...

Someone asked how often I use my welding kit. I'd say a couple of
times a week some weeks, but often for only a minute or two each time.
I do little stuff. I don't care if I never build another trailer. I
very probably wouldn't anyway.

Lots of new data today. Tons. I actually did get some real EMI
specifications, thanks to the good folks at Boston Scientific. The
key spec is probably 60Hz B field at 1 gauss (0.1 millitesla).
Finally, something I can get some traction with. I need to make some
measurements, but I think 1 gauss might not be a problem if I dress
the cables well and keep the current below 200 amps which would not be
an issue at all. I could probably keep it below 125 amps without
giving up much. Gotta build a little gauss sensor. I'll do that
tomorrow. I have linear Hall sensors and instrumentation opamps in the
goodie box, no prob. I can TIG a shielded box together for it since I
can still TIG. Fitch is loaning me his scope meter (battery powered,
digital, with memory) for logging data while I weld mask-down. That'll
arrive tomorrow by UPS blue label. I can **** and moan with sleeves
rolled up.

I'm learning that part of the problem here is an attitude problem, and
I don't mean mine. I either need to get the electrofizz doc's
attitude shifted or find a different one pronto.

I'd forgotten that one of my gentleman shooting buds used to work at
Guidant, now Boston Scientific. Sent him an email last night. He
shook his old-colleague bush a bit and lordy did the fruit fall! One
particularly encouraging note was from a Senior Engineering Fellow who
happened to be skiing in Taos but answered other Senior Engineering
Fellow's call anyway. For those unfamiliar with engineering orgs or
academia, few engineers attain the status/rank/title of Fellow. It's a
bit like General in the military, except that I think most Fellows are
paid better than Generals.

His first comment was particularly encouraging:
---
1) Don't worry about this affecting your hobby lifestyle. There are
many things that can be done to limit the risk of unintended shocks.
If you get one, you can work with your physician (and the
manufacturers sales rep) to tweak various parameters that control
sensitivity to noise. There are controls on the detection parameters
that can be turned up to make the device less sensitive.
---
From the former colleague whose wife works at Medtronic, I learned
that there is at least one professional weldor who has an ICD, pretty
strong evidence that it can be done. The key here (and probably with
all of the suppliers) is that the prescribing physician MUST WORK WITH
THE SUPPLIER. My doc seemed personable enough but also rather full of
"busy" and might actually be an arrogant young twit. I need to do
something about that. I don't fault him (much) for not knowing but I
sure as hell will fault him for being too busy or arrogant to learn.
I may be Joe Sixpack to him, don't care, but if Joe Sixpack cares
about quality of his life than the doc should too.

Someplace I saw something that said that Boston Scientific didn't just
want to extend life but wanted to extend quality life. Bingo! I
don't think it's bull**** because all of these companies have
excellent reputations as very good places to work.

If things don't turn out as I'd like, still a definite possibility,
then as others have said there's always O/A and what the hell. That's
how I started decades ago. I just hate to give up without a best
effort. The suppliers are definitely responsive. There's a number,
1-800-CARDIAC at Boston Sci for folks with questions. I was quite
impressed with the candidness and scope of knowledge of the person I
spoke with there.

At one point the person seemed unsure of how to proceed, asked some
sort of tactful question meant to discern if I might have any hope of
understanding the answer to my question. Mary was on the phone as
relay because of my hearing problem with telephones. She said, "he's
a retired electrical engineer and research scientist." The immediate
response was, "Oh Gawd! So is my father-in-law. If he got one he'd
cut it out so he could take it apart and redesign it." Back and
forth, yeh yeh yeh.

I need the doc to get with the program. I need a doc that'll work
with me and the device supplier on this. Three major suppliers
(Medtronic, St. Jude and Boston Scientific) are here in the cities so
I don't think I'm asking anything unreasonable.

TBD how I'm gonna get that done. I'll have some help from my
pardner. She can be quite effective in her quiet way. I like that
about her.

Encouraging.

The important thing to remember is - Do not ever hesitate to fire a
doctor you have issues with - They are service providers, not gods, if
you have a problem with them tell them why you are taking your business
elsewhere as you walk out the door taking your file with you. If enough
people do this they will learn. Personally I fired an allergist a year
or so ago that I clashed with and the next one I found was vastly better
and no more clashing. You are the customer, you are always right, and if
you aren't happy with the service take your business to a competitor.