A meme that's going around

[bunrab]

How many times has someone on your friends list posted about something and you were really confused, but you didn't want to ask because you knew you should know? How many times have you felt guilty asking an LJ friend a question that should be obvious?

Well, here's your chance.

If you've missed a few things, missed an entry and are confused, ask me anything. Even something extremely basic, like where I live! I'm not allowed to get even slightly irritated at any of the questions - we've all missed things before.

(Some of my answers may be emailed to you rather than posted here - I'm willing to share with my friends, but not necessarily with the world at large and its brother.)

Comments

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

It took quite a lot of reading before I realised that you're older than I am (I think). You also mention being retired. What position are you retired from, and when did you retire? :)

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

I'm 52. I'm retired from several things; the one that pays me a pension is the Texas Department of Insurance. What I did for them (prepare to fall asleep before you finish reading this sentence) was financial analysis and solvency monitoring of property-casualty insurance companies.

I also taught beginning computer courses at St. Edwards University part time, as adjunct faculty, for 6 years - teaching HTML and logic to Theatre Arts and Kinesiology majors, teaching Microsoft Excel including advanced functions most of the world doesn't know it has, to the business/accounting/marketing majors. I loved teaching, but I never quite managed to finish getting a Ph.D. so I could teach full time, and once I got diagnosed with heart failure, I wasn't going to be able to work full time anyway - that's when I retired from TDI. (For four years, I was working for both TDI and St. Ed's, and loving it, but getting more and more exhausted. Then for the next two years, I just taught 9 hours at St. Ed's, little enough that I still qualified for disability.)

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should mention that the main qualifications for the financial analyst job were a CPA license and an MBA degree. It was a job that required a lot of math and accounting knowledge; use of statistical techniques, ability to spot trends in columns of numbers, and also the ability to write reports about what I saw in financial statements, that could be understood by people who did NOT know as much about accounting, statistics, or insurance law as I did. I was very, very good at it. I served as an expert witness in court in several cases involving shutting down crooked and/or flat-broke insurance companies. I happen to also have the personality to deal calmly with aggressive defense counsel. And court reporters love me; I've got a strange but VERY clear speaking voice, and no one ever has to ask me to repeat what I said. Aren't I modest? My most technical specialty was medical malpractice insurance companies; monitoring their long-term reserves for claims that might occur 20 years after a doctor did something, which happens in medicine, is an arcane art.

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

What exactly is your situation with your pacemaker?

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

I was not dependent on the pacemaker. The reasons for having it were two-fold:
the ICD, defibrillator, is important for anyone with an enlarged heart (more detail below), and
if they had been able to do the extra bit with the pacemaker, with leads in both ventricles, that kind of pacing has been shown to improve pumping ability, and extend lifespan, in heart failure patients. But not being able to get the extra lead into the other ventricle was the big problem from the beginning.

As of this morning's visit with the electrophysiologist (hereinafter, EP), the status is that I will probably get a defibrillator again toward the end of this year - once it turns cold and rainy again; I want to enjoy the nice weather without being in the hospital. All defibrillators automatically come with a regular pacemaker, so I'd have that, also, even though I wouldn't really need it.

If I did not get another ICD, I would have a 1 in 17 chance each year of having an episode of fibrillation/arrhythmia that would kill me. That's pretty horrible odds, so I guess I have to do it.

But first I want a couple of months of riding the motorcycle around in nice weather. So, probably in November, when it starts getting cooler, and the rain is less pleasant, and a halfway sane person will not use a bike for anything more than picking up groceries, I will get the new "pacemaker" which I use that term as short for "ICD/pacemaker" because most people have never heard of ICD, even though that's why I'm really getting it.

Did that all make sense?

[elfbiter.livejournal.com]

Perfect sense. So, the ICD is in effect backup system of your heart.

[stylizedboredom.livejournal.com]

What's up with your dad? Is he okay?

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you for asking! He and my stepmother are all moved into their new house in Delaware. The town they're in is near Dover and Middletown; he had an appointment today with a doctor there so that he can sign up for a cardiac rehab patient gym program, as he had had in Maine and then while he was staying with my brother. He doesn't get enough exercise if he's not involved in some kind of organized program. He's still an 82-year-old guy who's had a heart attack and bypass surgery, but as such people go, he's doing fine. His sense of humor is as warped as ever. He is very appreciative of the reclining chair we bought him for Xmas, which he didn't actually get until they moved into their new home. It's set up in a corner of the living room with a large window, a big end table, and a nice ornate swag lamp, everything he needs for reading science fiction and doing crossword puzzles till the cows come home. The one thing I worry about is that he totally ignores the low-sodium part of his diet.

[bunrab.livejournal.com]

And also, how are the assorted members of your family? Everyone hanging in there? I feel a little guilty that we're retired and your parents aren't.

[stylizedboredom.livejournal.com]

They are fine. As well as usual, anyway.

Guilty? My parents are not even vaguely near retirement age. Why would they even come to mind?