For the Technically, Analytically Inclined

deltadave wrote:BTW, what medications were you taking during your "near-death" experience? It sounds more like a "plumbing" problem rather than an "electrical" problem (Cardiology Humour).

Same, Lisinopril and HCTZ as I have since, um, 2007 (?) My cholesterol has been stellar, well, up to the last test which was just a bit high. This whole high BP problem coincidentally materialized after STUPIDLY, after refusing over and over, but then drinking milk in Surat, India. I got very very ill (quarantined briefly a 747 full of people in Hawaii on my return home as paramedics rushed on-board patched into the CDC as they were checking me out), went to the Dr. and dosed up on Cipro (worked well) but from that Dr's visit onward my BP is quite bad w/o meds. I'm thinking the bacterial toxins damaged the linings of my blood vessels.

Not surprising, as Dr. Mohamad Sinno at Henry Ford Hospital notes a false positive rate of 77-82% in using EKG to diagnose LVH.

That's pretty high (poor) and why I'm not too concerned about it. With the high bp, my heart should be a bit enlarged anyway. BTW, I'm peer-reviewed published on the diagnosis of LVH using our technologies. We did very well. I'z got sum gud technologicals in me handz and me no how two use its.

Say, can one of our South Dakota members run over to Max's house with some smelling salts? I think he passed out again.

LOL. One of my neighbors said the other day, "Let me know if you ever need anything" and I replied "If I come over gasping, clutching my chest, zap me with a cut lamp cord, would ya?" It is very interesting what I'm seeing as I gather more information / data. There's definitely something odd about my heart, that's for sure. In other oddities, I had some very weird REM last night with pulsating Delta spikes. Check it out (more details at the blog):



Blog post: http://wiredapneic.blogspot.com/2012/02 ... e-rem.html

MaxDarkside wrote:One of my neighbors said the other day, "Let me know if you ever need anything" and I replied "If I come over gasping, clutching my chest, zap me with a cut lamp cord, would ya?"

In as much as the lamp cord would be carrying alternating current (AC), that would not help. You need direct current (DC) for defibrillation, so have him get the jumper cables out and find a car battery. Also he'll need a parts list of things to get from Radio Shack to jack up the volts and cut down on the amps. Details to follow...

LOL. "Redneck Defibrillator". Git 'er done! Cheaper than one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HeartStar ... B00064CED6

deltadave wrote:

MaxDarkside wrote:One of my neighbors said the other day, "Let me know if you ever need anything" and I replied "If I come over gasping, clutching my chest, zap me with a cut lamp cord, would ya?"

In as much as the lamp cord would be carrying alternating current (AC), that would not help. You need direct current (DC) for defibrillation, so have him get the jumper cables out and find a car battery. Also he'll need a parts list of things to get from Radio Shack to jack up the volts and cut down on the amps. Details to follow...

OK, I was not able to drive over to RS because my car would not start (details of which need not be covered right now). However, I was able to collect a number of mongo capacitors for our project:

MaxDarkside wrote:LOL. "Redneck Defibrillator". Git 'er done! Cheaper than one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HeartStar ... B00064CED6

For 2G's?

Forget it!

Living ain't all that important!

Anyway, for our project, we need a little diagnostic help to insure that we ZAP! only when appropriate ("defibrillation" only works on "fibrillation")(OK, we'll ZAP "pulseless VT", too, cause ACLS says it's cool)(but the "take-home point" here is that if you

"...come over gasping, clutching my chest..."

you do not have a "shockable" rhythm).

In addition, we're going to use 2 capacitors (or the dual) per Frankenzapper to create a "biphasic" effect.

Unfortunately at this point, here is where we divert from an AED to simply having ED (an AED requires "AI", and right now the "AI Supply" is a little low)(for that matter, the "I" supply is a little short as well, but why should that stop us?)

Anyway, since we're on a limited budget, can you put the Zeo over your heart and see if it generates a usable waveform? I doubt if they put an ECG filter in there.

I was curious, and so I tried it. According to my Zeo, my heart is in light sleep. It also does output a waveform that resembles an ECG.

tetragon wrote:I was curious, and so I tried it. According to my Zeo, my heart is in light sleep. It also does output a waveform that resembles an ECG.

OK, that's great! So according to our algorithm, do not defibrillate at this time.

Next, we need to create new channels on the Zeo spreadsheet, editing "Light Sleep" to "Alive" and "REM" to "Not" (I am guessing that the gamma channel is used to help determine REM, and that should be pretty quiet during "Dead")(this would obviously be "Tonic" REM, with a single eye movement up into the top of one's head as they sink into oblivion).

So at this point, it is extremely important to remember that when one sees "Dead" on the spreadsheet, that is not the time to start a post on the forum and P&M about how miserable life is because PayPal charges money for it's service (Charging for a service? Who woulda thunk?) because there is about to be an exponential increase in the Life Misery Quotient (LMQ) coming up very shortly.

I'm still alive, but my wife is in the hospital after collapsing at work, whisked to the ER by ambulance and she is having weird seizures that are not seemingly epileptic nor brain damage (MRI and MRA are normal), but seem adrenal-chemical in nature, maybe related to her HCM/POTS and a steroid she was taking for it, so I probably won't posting much here or on the blog. I've had 2 nights of 4 hrs sleep, one in a chair in her room at the hospital after driving 550 miles and 8 hrs sleep impaired to get to her side. I'm home to feed the cat, and get a night's APAP bed rest before returning to her side in the morning.

Until later / soonest.

Take care, Max. Best wishes to your wife. Keep us posted when you can.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family...

((huggs))

MaxDarkside wrote:...MRI and MRA are normal...

That certainly sounds like very good news at this point.

See you when you get back.

Keeping the thread warm until Max returns, in reviewing the last example:

MaxDarkside wrote:In other oddities, I had some very weird REM last night with pulsating Delta spikes.

it is important to remember that in disturbed sleep, Zeo is probably wrong (flipping a coin will give you the same or better results)(although the choices would be in a related pair, such as REM-Wake, etc.).

Further, grouping NREM1 and NREM2 into Light Sleep (a fatal error in analyzing fragmented sleep) makes analysis...

Forget it!

You can't use the word "analysis" with inaccurate data tossed into a "Miscellaneous Bucket"!

Consequently, the CAS (or more appropriately, simply CS) should be discarded and raw EEG power read.

TS, in the above "weird" example, I would go with Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) subtype A1 (delta bursts).

My wife is back from the hospital after a week. It was one hellofa ride for her. She even had a bout of V-Tach. Exciting! The cardiac doctors are baffled, but her problem was endocrine related to blood pressure autonomics, which they are familiar with, but not experts. In retrospect, post-event, I can see what happened to her in her data (blood pressures, HRs). It was due to too high levels of a particular medicine. This is goodness as we now know what likely happened and journey on to improving her quality of life, although she'll have a rough POTS ride until we can get into her POTS / Cardio to confer and agree on what happened and what I think the next steps are.

After catching up on some work, I can get back to my work here. Thanks.