[Coco] OT: pacemaker

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 11 January 2019 17:48:12 James C. Hrubik wrote:

> Got one of those, too, Gene.  Its a remote monitor.  Every night at 3
> AM ET calls home and reports on my status.  Mine doesn’t have a phone
> line; it has its own built-in cell phone.  At first they sent me 2
> units that had phone jacks & cords, but then they sent the cellular
> unit.  I asked what to do with the corded ones, they said I should
> just ignore them - Medicare paid for it.  So I have 2 doohickeys that
> look sort of like hockey pucks sitting here doing nothing.  I wonder
> if I could hack them to make some kind of modem?    If you have decent
> cellular service, maybe you should ask for one of the cell types.
>
This doesn't resemble a hockey puck, so much as a timex 1000 without a 
keyboard but with a stand and carry handle.  And the BT gismo is a 
separate plugin on about a foot of cord. Someone  did put a brother 
label maker name slip on the handle with a 1-877 phone number on it. I 
haven't felt really good enough to put me in the mood to tolerate the 
machinery I might find on the other end of the line. I'd probably need 
to triple my daily dose of st johns wort to tolerate that.

If thats what it is, what happens if it can't call home?

One thing I object to is the feeling I'm being spied on. Particularly 
since theres a 20 page booklet in the box and not a single dotted i to 
explain what its capable of doing for, or to me. Even the legal BS is so 
sanitized you couldn't smell it in a room with a gross of these things 
in it.

> Strange that they didn’t tell you about that in the lab.  Or didn’t
> they bother to calibrate the pacemaker before you went home?

The sales rep was on-site to deliver the unit, but I never saw him. It 
all stinks to high heaven with all the secrecy. The surgeon showed me 
how it works to pair with the pacemaker but no more questions were 
entertained. Subject was changed to future appointments/schedules with 
my GP and the surgeon next week. And that means call a taxi I guess, no 
driving till I've finished the antibiotic plus at least a week to let it 
wear off as it slows my reflexes. If I live thru it, the warnings 
include extensive and well described fatal side effects.

At this point it seems to be holding up a decent pulse rate. So I think 
some paranoia might be expected given the lack of info on it a 
reasonably smart bear like me might expect.

Thanks Jim, this does lessen the urgency of my paranoia.  At least till 
patch Tuesday. :-)

Cheers, Gene Heskett
--