By accident I discovered the Pacemaker website and since they offerd a free download of their software I decided to give it a go. It’s a simple yet effective program that enables you to mix your favourite tunes into a massive club-banger.

The French Electro Mix

Album Artist: Channelflicker
Release: 2009
Genre: French/Electro House

Tracklist:

1. The Funk Phenomena – Armand van Helden
2. Spinal Scratch – Thomas Bangalter
3. Twist [Original Mix] – Leonardus
4. Chrystal City – Alan Braxe & Fred Falke
5. Happy Hour – Felix Da Housecat
6. Take it to the Street! – The Buffalo Bunch
7. Moondancer – The Phantom’s Revenge
8. High Fidelity – Daft Punk
9. Golden Slinghots – The Exo
10. Roulé Boulé – Thomas Bangalter
11. Patrick 122 – Mr. Oizo
12. Kirk – Mr. Oizo
13. Space Out – Play Paul
14. Now that the Love has Gone [Extended Edit] – We in Music
15. Hysteria – Le Knight Club
16. Coral Twist – Le Knight Club
17. Gator – Le Knight Club
18. Mad Joe – Archigram
19. Unplugged – Dj Falcon

Give it a listen on mix.pacemaker.net !

I’m old… oh-wald. So old the word deserves two syllables. Ya want some examples?
PRE-HISTORY OLD…
* I’m so old I watched when God created the earth… only kibitzed though…‘cause I was too old to work.
* …sometimes I still get a hankering for brontosaurace steak and Pterodactyl soup.
* Dirt? I invented dirt by pounding two rocks together. God liked it and said He would use it to grow stuff in.
* … About those “crude cave drawings” they talk about…hey, I never claimed to be an artist.
* “Native Americans” and Eskimos came across from Siberia as one group. Some didn’t like the cold and came south to become Native Americans; others didn’t want to walk that far and settled down to become Eskimos. I didn’t like ether option, so I want back to Europe for a while.

BIBLE HISTORY OLD…
* Way back, I WAS in the war! Got up there pretty high in rank too. I was a Centurion!
* I was there when David brought down Goliath. I was working in the food service line. (Too old for combat.)
* Remember Methuselah who lived 969 years? ‘Course not! You just remember about him. I remember HIM— Scalawag was a smartass kid… until he turned 250 and got a wife and kids.
* I started my biography a while back but it was too much work and I lost a couple of the stone tablets somewhere.

“RECENT” HISTORY OLD…
* See that genuine antique? When I built it, it was avant garde.
* The Civil War? They wouldn’t take me…I was too old. (I tried both sides…)
* I remember when the AARP stood for Assoc. of Adolescent Riotous Prepubescents!!
* I drive a 1927 Behemoth-100…takes up two parking spaces. It has an in-line 16 cylinder engine… still gets better mileage than a Bummer(?) Dumber(?) err Hummer(?). Goes a mile-a-minute…if I dared to drive that fast.

GENERALIZED OLDNESS…
* I’m so old even my wrinkles have wrinkles. Got so many wrinkles I hold the world record… If you could iron out my skin, it would cover three fat ladies.
* Ya get older, ya get slower. I barely have time to get dressed before naptime.
* I’m old, but I can still touch my toes—if I want to, but… lately I haven’t wanted to.
* My circulation is so bed I assume room temperature. Never set off those infra-red sensors. Don’t set off the motions detectors either; too slow. Can’t become a thief though—the store’s morning crew would show up before I had time to get away…
* I’m so old, my pacemaker is the wind-up model!
* Geezers have slow reflexes. Takes me 2.5 seconds to drop a hot frying pan!
* I use’ta run a mile after breakfast. Can’t do that any more…never get back in time for lunch.
* If you get old enough, you start growin’ a third set of teeth. I know from experience. Then a forth, and a fifth, and a … Anyway, this set here is NOT my best work.
* So old my pants won’t stay up. Need suspenders. Have to cross them in front as well as back, so they don’t slide off my shoulders.
* When you get old, you shrink. Under 5 foot and 100 pounds qualify you to be a Geezer…if you never drive over 35. As Geezer President, I sign and present the certificates of Geezerosity.

Here is an announcement we made earlier today on the linux-ha and linux-ha-dev mailing lists.

This is to announce that LINBIT, with the kind permission from the Linux-HA project board, will act as the “steward” of the Heartbeat cluster messaging layer code base, from this point forward. This is a summary of our motivation and plans related to that role.

What does this entail?

• LINBIT will assume responsibility for bug fixes for the Heartbeat code base, currently hosted at http://hg.linux-ha.org/dev/.
• LINBIT will bundle up the 3.0 beta codebase, make a 3.0 final release (currently this is planned for the month of January 2010), and subsequently make bugfix releases as deemed necessary.
• LINBIT will further collaborate with the Pacemaker project to keep the existing dual-stack capability in Pacemaker.
• LINBIT will continue making the public Mercurial repository available at the present location (any eventual relocation, if desired by the Board, would be publicly announced with ample advance notice).
• LINBIT will administer the public mailing lists (linux-ha and linux-ha-dev) on the servers currently hosting them (again, any eventual relocation, would be publicly announced with ample advance notice).
• LINBIT intends to offer improved documentation for the Heartbeat messaging layer. This is meant to consolidate the content currently found on the linux-ha.org wiki site.
• LINBIT intends to offer support services for the Heartbeat/Pacemaker cluster stack (i.e. the Pacemaker cluster resource manager running on top of the Heartbeat cluster communication layer).
• LINBIT will continue to respect he Board as the final authority on matters affecting the project as a whole.

What does this not entail?

• LINBIT has no intention to add significant features to the Heartbeat code base, or extend its functionality significantly.
• LINBIT has no intention to apply changes to the licensing, development model, or collaboration model for the Linux-HA code base.
• LINBIT has no intention to establish the Heartbeat code base as a long-term alternative or competition to the OpenAIS/Corosync cluster messaging layer. However, we do believe that it is a valid alternative for the short to mid term, and for some configurations where OpenAIS/Corosync is currently suffering from some growing pains.
• LINBIT has no intention to support or advocate continued use of Heartbeat in v1 (haresources) configurations. We will continue to recommend to switch to the Pacemaker cluster stack, now that two (technically and commercially) supported cluster messaging layers are available.

At this time, the primary contact in charge of Heartbeat development matters at LINBIT is Lars Ellenberg, the person in charge of documentation is myself. The best means of relaying comments and asking questions continues to be the public mailing list.

We hope that this is a useful service to the Heartbeat user community. I want to reiterate that we have no intention whatsoever to change the current, proven, community centric approach to how the Heartbeat code base is managed. We continue to welcome, and depend on, community suggestions, feedback, and collaboration. Heartbeat is a community project and will remain so.

If you have any questions about our intentions and plans, please post them on the mailing list, or peruse the comment fields below.

One item which should always be discussed when writing about heart disease is an ICD (Implanted Cardioverter Device).  It’s an amazing invention initially developed with the help of Vivien Thomas of Something the Lord Made fame.  (highly recommend the movie)  About the size of a Ipod Nano, this device records months of heartbeats, regular or irregular, and if there’s an arrythmia it senses is threatening, it delivers a shock to bring the heart back to normal rhythm. 

The shock the ICD delivers looks and feels just like what you see on TV when a doctor puts those paddles and yells, ”CLEAR!”  Actually, the feel is worse.  A friend’s brother and I discussed the matter and he accurately stated that to say it felt like being hit in the chest by a baseball bat doesn’t do it justice.  I’ve come to think it’s more like a mulekick when you’re not looking.  Because that’s what happens.  You hear a noise and for a split second you look down because it’s coming from inside your chest and BAM.  Your head gets thrown back, you’re knocked off your feet, and your chest and head tingle while you figure out you’ve been shocked yet again.

Of course, the device saves lives.  It’s saved mine several times.  Without it, I wouldn’t be writing this now.  Then again, it’s gone off outside the courthouse, in the shower, in bed getting ready to watch a movie, and worse, at the golf course lining up a makeable ten foot putt.  None of these were stressful situations, indeed, there was no chest pain or shortness of breath or anything else associated with arrhythmia.  Funny aside, on the green, after the IDC went off, everyone made sure I was ok, expressed their concern, asked if I needed to go to the hospital, then made me putt.  My birdie turned into par and I had the best golf story I’d ever heard.  That story continues to be recounted with laughter by every witness.

The doctor implants the device into the left side of the chest and runs leads into the heart which detects rhythm and records several months of heartbeats into a small hard drive.  It can also act as a pacemaker.  The pacemaker stimulates a heart beating too slow and the defibrillator shocks a speeding heart back into normal rhythm.  Little known until it occurs, the device can misread the heartbeat, delivering a shock at the most inopportune time.

I received mine on my birthday four years ago.  First false alarm happened a month later.  The rest just became part of the story of my life.  I received a St. Jude’s model and it functions well so far meaning no power supply problems or failure to shock.  The one time I was thankful for it came when I went into ventricular fibrillation twenty minutes before the NFL draft.  As I was dying falling off the couch, I was shocked and went from all gray to complete focus in time to watch the second day’s draft choices.

It’s going to come out when I receive a new heart or, at least, it is supposed to be removed.  It will be nice not to be able to bump it but I’ll miss having women feel my chest to see how the device feels.  Since I’m now 47, it’s a good idea to keep my shirt buttoned anyway.  Don’t want to gross anyone out with a big zipper on my chest too.

O assunto é enorme e hora dessas volta aqui para o blog, mas emulação é uma palavra essencial para entender nosso momento global. E isso só tem a se intensificar. Pouco usada, mesmo diante do fim da percepção entre o que é “virtual” e “real” na cabeça da molecada de hoje, a emulação é o “sentimento que incita a imitar ou a exceder outrem”. E emular, “empenhar-se na mesma pretensão”.

Há menos de dez anos, por exemplo, a música eletrônica ainda era vista como uma “emulação da música real” – um conceito totalmente sem sentido hoje. Dependendo do ponto de vista, portanto, temos em novidades como o DJ Hero, a inevitável extensão do Guitar Hero ou do Rock Band, a emulação da ex-emulação:

Nenhuma crítica gratuita, bem pelo contrário. A questão é, digamos, filosófica: tratam-se apenas de novas formas de representar as coisas que deram origem à série: Kindle para livros, Google para biblioteca, iPod para walkmen, AutoTunes, ProTools ou compressores para gravações musicais, data visualization para informação e por aí vai.

O conceito e o fato são muito anteriores à virada digital. Eles se espandem por produtos, tecnologias e sobretudo comportamentos sociais: basta pensar no lado cafona dos novos ricos, na torcida “alma castelhana” do Grêmio ou mesmo no mimetismo do reino animal para ver diferentes caminhos que tangenciam a emulação, a tentativa de se apropriar, copiar, ultrapassar o original. Algo totalmente irreversível e até mesmo “evolucionista” – e que justamente por isso não exige nosso questionamento, e sim nossa reflexão.

O Pacemaker também serve como uma interessante emulação dentro do universo da criação eletrônica. O produto já tem mais de ano, mas vale ser destacado pelo modo incrível em que simplifica e potencializa o papel do DJ e nossa relação com o remix e o mash up:

Lembre-se do conceito de emulação na próxima vez que você for se descrever em um fórum de discussão, chat ou perfil em redes sociais…

Alisson Avila

Alright …just a few things to mention.

I currently have a headache.  I hate headaches, but I do know why I have one, so that much is good.

The ‘Man part 2′ (being not the Man but the other Man …yes there are two of them!) is on holidays and I  am picking up the slack of sorts.  I’ve had to repair things lately including a tuba that made me grouchy for a while and not just because I got flux on a cut I had.

There is a problem with my front-end, and I took it to my mechanic (who’s not really mine, but I’ll go with it sometimes) and he gave me four new tires …but the problem is still there.  Five hundred dollars later he is no longer my mechanic.

I swam 1K the other day and my back felt great.  It was also my first 1K in what has to be over 20 years …it wasn’t hard or really tiring either, and I alternated 50M front crawls with breast strokes plus my cheapo goggles didn’t once leak.  Yea for that.

Dad got his pacemaker and goes home tomorrow.  I’ll do the two birds/one stone thing and pay him a visit while borrowing his garage to change my rear brakes and peek at the problem that apparently isn’t a problem up front.

One of the sis’s comes in Thursday for her quint-annual-shop-till-you-drop-capade.  She’ll be nephew/nieceless, but if I get motivated I might be able to get all my Christmas shopping done while rooking her into taking the parcels back for me.

November 11th here in Canada is Remembrance Day.  I suppose if there’s one thing I remember it’s that war is the failure of communication.  Lest I forget.

I think I stupidly took on some stuff that I shouldn’t have …two gigs that require me to learn 5 or 6 sets of more top 40 crap.  They may pay off by leading to other ‘repeat’ gigs, but I shouldn’t hold my breath.  They still should be fun though …and they do pay.

I’ve been cat sitting the beast this past week for my neighbor – the one whose mother died over a year ago (click).  The thing I’ve realized after being in her house, is that once you’re gone life still goes on.  Of course we all know that …but in the same breath, do we really know that?

I noticed I haven’t updated any of the ‘links’ on my sidebar since I first put them there a loooong time ago.  I haven’t been to any of those sites in that amount of time as well, which leads me to wonder why they’re still there?  I shall fix that soon.

My Aunty Min called the other day which was nice.  I’ve been meaning to call her for a while and kinda felt bad …but it’s all good.  I’m gonna send her some pictures from a few family trips and such.

Our river (the North Saskatchewan) is not only low but has been low since Spring.  I have a strange feeling, seeing as it’s mid November and still warm/dry, that we’re going to be pummeled with a LOT of snow this Winter.  And I think that’ll be nice.

Edmonton ...and the North Saskatchewan River.

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Thankful – the word is an adjective defined as feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative.  Today has been a day of bad news about church members who have passed.  One friend in particular buried her father three weeks ago, only to lose her mother this morning.  It is heartbreaking and my condolence goes out to her and her family.

At times like these, I have to give thanks for my mother and the good health she is enjoying despite having gone through a procedure to insert a pacemaker, which records and controls her fluctuating heart beats. To see her today, one won’t believe two years ago, she was in poor health. As I watch her today, one month shy of her 87^th birthday, I marvel that she still takes the bus to get around, wears high-heeled shoes, and can out-dance many young people. I am thankful – glad to be able to enjoy her for as long as she has on this side of heaven.

Sans Pollo is my odd way of mentioning that AR’s piano mainstay Fito (Pollo Loco) was absent from the gig this weekend.  That wasn’t so bad though.  Frankie filled in on piano for Friday while Saturday only had the guitar holding down all the comping/changes/tumbao stuff …and the odd thing about it was that it wasn’t as busy as it normally is when Frankie or Fito were around.  I think, personally, this was good.  It was more open sounding of course, but then it gave the ear a break from the regular mashed-up-crunchy chords that both piano players are notorious for, in my opinion.

I liked it.  Sure, there could of been more guitar in volume and in right lines etc., but generally it worked well enough, and with some of the guitar parts tweaked I could easily handle being pianoless more often.  Of course it’s needed for certain things, but it’s only the front/solo stuff where you obviously miss it, and when the song gets going then the guitar functions fine.

I think they're happy cause there's no piano!?

On other matters, I’m kinda bagged lately.  I seized my back up the other day by simply jumping, and the muscles went into spasm and I’m just now feeling an improvement.  It’s been a while since I last put it out, but luckily this time I didn’t hear or feel anything ‘poppy’ when it happened …just a giant lower back spasm that took my breath away and made it close to impossible to move. Damn backs.

On to better medical news …my Dad had to have the defibrillator used on him a few days ago and is now in the critical care unit.  It is good news by the way …you see, he’s been having these ‘fainting’ spells for the last 6 months, once a month or so, where he’d go unconscious for no appearant reason.  They tweaked his meds, ran all sorts of tests on his heart and brain and came up empty, but late Thursday night he had another episode that the parametics were lucky enough to be present on, and they were able to put two and two together and decide that he needed a pacemaker.  I guess it’s a 40min. procedure and is typically done as a ‘day patient’, but he has to stay in the hospital until they can schedule him for the surgry because they don’t want him to have another episode and not have anyone around to respond.  He feels perfectly fine …but has to hang out in the hospital until Tuesday next week when he can get his pacemaker and go home.  So yeah, it’s a relief that we know what the problem is and that it can be corrected.  No more guessing.

Rehearsals also started for the musical thing I’m doing …so between that, my Dad, my late nights and my tweaky back – I haven’t been able to really sleep like I need to.  On the plus side it’s probably a good thing as I may have been hitting the gym, pool, trails etc. too much over the last 3 weeks …so maybe my body needs the 4 or 5 days off.  Or at least that’s what I think it’s trying to tell me.

Just returned from  my first ride with my pacemaker tuned up and the bike fitting correctly. All i can say is AWESOME!!.  Heaps more power and heaps more endurance. Thanks to Chris at Bike Coach in Sunbury, and to my doctors. I really cant describe the difference from the last ride till today. Even my fiance commented how much better i look at how quickly i returned.  Today on Chris recommendation i didn’t go to far, just the normal 20km route bu i returned 13 minutes earlier than normal!!  whoo hoo!!

The next big difference should come pretty soon with today being the Final Day of any cigarettes..  Green Tea-no smoking-exercise = NEW BEAR!!

It is not a pretty site what I have in my mind, but here it goes.  Those that know me know I have utter disdain for the former Vice President of the U.S.; knowing that and the desire to strip Mr. Evil himself, Cheney and his friends of any dignity that they buy.

Cheney, has “I don’t remember” syndrome when asked by the FBI about the Valerie Plane incident–utter disdain is what pacemaker Cheney has for anybody questioning his authority.

Getting back to sadistic pleasure;  Picture the Peter Sellers look-a-like, (BEING THERE & DR. STRANGELOVE) nude. (that in itself should be one horror show–sagging balls and small limp dick)  I could go on, but that thought has just corrupted my thought pattern–doesn’t take much.  I would really like to see the piss ants batteries wear out on his pacemaker…Struggle to have that wretched heart beat, like it is for him to breath.  (Don’t like that man, can you tell?)

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, Congresswoman Fox should go without health care and wait in line for hours for any kind of welfare aid.

The Pendulum, Elon University’s weekly student newspaper, received several Best in Show awards on the last day of the joint convention between ACP and College Media Advisers Oct. 28-Nov. 1 in Austin, Texas. Representatives from media publications who attend the conference may enter the Best in Show competition. All entries are submitted and judged on site.

The Pendulum placed first in the convention’s overall Best in Show competition for four-year weekly tabloids and also placed in the following categories:

• Fourth place for Special Edition Four-Year college for the Elon 2009 fall sports preview.
• Third place for Web Site Small School for The Pendulum Online.
• Fifth place for Multimedia Package for the coverage of 2009 Move-In Weekend.

The Pendulum also won a national Pacemaker award, which recognizes overall excellence in student newspapers.

Take a look at the picture below:

That’s my name badge for the ACP/CMA convention here in Austin. I point it out because you can probably see the flag stuck to the bottom of it. The one that reads: PACEMAKER FINALIST. That’s one of the big reasons we’re here. The students want to learn if they’re more than a Pacemaker finalist. They want to be a Pacemaker winner. And having that flag on their name badges, I think, gives them an extra little swagger. It’s not cockiness or arrogance. It’s just an extra spring in their step because they know they’ve been recognized for the hard work they’ve put in the last year (and more) at the newspaper. It’s a fantastic honor for them, and it’s great that they’re being identified all conference long as a Pacemaker finalist.

Congratulations to everyone at the Pendulum, but the real work has already begun. Being named a Pacemaker finalist once is great, but being in contention every year means the newspaper has gained sustained excellence. And that’s what we’d all like to see in the end.

- Colin Donohue

“I tend not to believe people; they lie. The evidence never lies.”  - Gil Grissom

According to the old saying, Crime does not pay. Here’s a good example: Two bodies were dumped in a Forest Preserve in Indiana. No witnesses, and very little evidence. Yet police were able to identify one victim through information provided by his pacemaker.

That pacemaker, you see, has a serial number encoded into its memory. The pacer was scanned by a monitoring device (the same one your pacemaker lab has in their office!) and everything the police needed to know was on the printout. The serial number was matched to the master list of pacemakers maintained by the manufacturer, and that was matched with the owner’s name and address. It’s the system they use to contact you if those pacemakers are suddenly recalled. Also on the pacemaker was information related to its job of keeping the heart in rhythm. Analyzing the data gave them the exact moment the victim’s heart stopped beating, down to the second.

And hopefully that pacemaker information can be used to send a killer to jail.

I try to stay off my soapbox in my blog, but every once in awhile, something happens that I just can’t ignore.  Last week, I had my follow-up and pacemaker check with my cardiologist.  Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Bradycardia, and had a pacemaker implanted.  This was a huge shock as I had been focusing the previous 3 years on eating healthier and exercising to outrun the family history of my father dying of heart disease at 46. 

As I walked into my doctor’s office around lunch time, I immediately smelled a familiar smell.  Hmmmmm french fries….  French fries????  WTF?  Am I in the right office?  I check the door, and sure enough it clearly says Cardiology, and then I see it - two women having a picnic of super size Whataburgers, french fries and sodas in the waiting room.  I signed in and sat down as far away as possible, which was only across the coffee table, from where their picnic was spread.  I sat there and watched as the giant greasy hamburgers dripped down their hands, and as they discussed which fast food hamburgers were better.  Then I watched as one lady frantically tried to clean mustard off of her oxygen canula.  I was astonished.  I had just finished my lunch of grilled chicken, wild rice and veggies.  I was dismayed.  I even tattled to my doctor, who told me they weren’t his patients.  I know!  My doc would have had my butt in a sling if I had done that.  And with all of the debate going on in the world today about obesity and the general health of Americans, I couldn’t help but think   – Personal Responsibility People!!!! 

When you strip away all of the other blame about why Americans are unhealthy and overweight – there is always one underlying issue – Personal Responsibility.  YOU are what YOU eat, what YOU put in your mouth.  Now I have my own weight issues.  I am hardly the poster child for health or healthy Americans, but I recognize that despite the family history, despite the health issues that sometimes make exercising difficult or impossible, despite all of the challenges of time, commuting, etc. that I am responsible for my obesity.  I am the one that can wipe out a bowl of chips and salsa so fast that the waiter questions whether they remembered to bring them.  I am the one that can make being a Couch Potato an Olympic Sport.  And again, I am far from perfect.  Not only can I wipe out a bowl of chips and salsa while being a Couch Potato, I can throw a pity party that makes a Martha Stewart function look amateurish.  But the bottom line – I do it to myself.

So if you think your diet is influenced by unhealthy fast food, don’t buy it.  If you believe that you are being led down the rathole by a diet of High Fructose Corn Syrup, don’t eat it.  Make a different choice; read the labels; buy something different.  Even some of the fast food joints are offering healthier alternatives, so use your right to choose.  It’s not easy, but in the long run it’s worth it.  And when you splurge, don’t make it permanent.  It’s a lifestlye, not a temporary commitment.   And let me underscore that it’s a choice, and I don’t want my choices taken away.  I want to be able to walk into a Whataburger and order that hamburger occaisionally.  Or if that won’t work, I can go to Wendy’s and get a salad. 

The last thing we need is a warning label: Warning – Eating that Whataburger could clog your arteries.  Really????  That must be why I’m sitting in a Cardiologists office. 

And in closing, my checkup went very well.  Doc was happy that I chose my grilled chicken, wild rice and veggies, and so was I.

An excellent article appeared recently in Dallas News that talked about the health care systems in other Western countries and what America can learn from them to resolve its health care woes. Here is the article for a good read…

Tackling the high cost of health care is politically bruising and difficult work around the world. Among developed countries, only the Norwegians rival our level of spending. The French wrestle with rising costs every year. The Canadians are searching for a better model, and have had their eyes on France. But for all their troubles, the French and the Canadians – two bogeymen in the American reform debate – spend much less and live longer than we Americans.

In the last five years, I’ve spent time reporting on health care in 10 other countries to see what they might offer in the way of suggestions to improve the American way of medicine. No one has a perfect system. No one has a permanent solution. But medical spending can be slowed without sacrificing quality. Some do it with government price controls and government doctors, while some do it with government acting as a referee. Neither approach is fatal to medical quality.

The Swiss, the French and the Canadians all use very different approaches to get at the problem, but they get there. And when all else fails, there’s still medical tourism. You can get heart bypass surgery, with a tour of the Taj Mahal, in India for less than 10 percent of the U.S. cost – plus a year’s supply of pharmaceuticals.

I met Carlo Gislimberti, a New Mexico restaurateur, in New Delhi in 2005 while he was waiting for a coronary bypass at the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre. He’d had three heart attacks. He had no health insurance. His Albuquerque hospital wanted $120,000 for the operation.

Escorts did the job for less than $12,000.

“It was an absolutely wonderful experience with wonderful results,” Gislimberti said last week when I called him in Santa Fe.

“There was only one thing – the luxury is not there. But the knowledge, the quality of nursing, it was absolutely beyond belief. … I would still today recommend to all the people in my predicament to go abroad.”

Medical tourism is no longer a quirky answer for the desperate and uninsured. The health-consulting arm of Deloitte estimates 1.6 million Americans will seek medical treatment in another country this year. U.S. health insurers, looking for ways to lower costs, are exploring policies that cover such travel.

Gislimberti, now 64, sold his restaurant and paints for a living. His heart ailments qualified him for disability under Social Security, and last year he was accepted under Medicare. He had a pacemaker installed by his Albuquerque hospital in an operation last May.

One thing he learned: “If you have insurance, this country is the greatest. But it you don’t have insurance, this is a Third World country.”

Another lesson: Price competition is coming. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute consulting group last fall found that Americans pay 50 percent to 60 percent higher charges for pharmaceuticals, health insurance overhead and physician services than anyone else in the world. That could make medical tourism irresistible, and a competitive risk to the U.S. medical establishment.

Switzerland is intriguing because employers have gotten out of the insurance business. The Swiss government mandates personal health insurance. Everyone shops among scores of insurance companies to buy a policy. The insurers must offer everyone a basic policy and can’t exclude anyone. The government offers subsidies to people who can’t afford a policy, and fines people who don’t get one.

Swiss medical fees are set in annual negotiations between health care providers and insurers that must win the approval of the canton parliament. (Insurers and hospital chains do the same thing here, but those negotiations are seldom among equals and don’t have a referee like the canton parliament.)

One result of the Swiss approach is that consumers gravitate toward high-deductible policies – insurance that costs less per month, but takes more out of your wallet when you see a doctor. And because they’re paying for it, the Swiss are more cost-conscious health consumers. The Swiss spend about a third less than Americans for medical care.

France and Canada both have national health insurance. In France, this is like Medicare for all. There’s a gap of 30 percent to 40 percent between what the government insurance covers and what health care costs, so a lively market exists for private, supplemental insurance policies.

Doctors can choose compensation under a government schedule revised every year, or they can charge what they like – and forgo a government pension.

Canadians may, famously, wait for nonurgent treatments and surgeries. But they’re quicker to rally around a public health issue like obesity, because the insurance mechanism is part of the provincial government.

“Our wait lists are coming down, but they’re still substantially more than yours,” said Canadian health economist Steven Lewis. “But your system is twice as expensive. It doesn’t insure 45 million people, it underinsures another 45 million, and overall you have a less healthy population. Is that worth sustaining?”

In the current health care debate in Washington, no one argues that we should throw out the U.S. health care model for an import. There are models closer to home – like Temple’s Scott & White – worth emulating.

But there are plenty of places that spend less for equal or better care. It can be done.

By Jim Landers

Further reading:
Medical tourism
Domestic medical tourism
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Six student leaders of The Pendulum, Elon University’s weekly student newspaper, will attend the Associate Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers conference Oct. 28-Nov. 1 in Austin, Texas, where they will attend professional workshops and learn if they’ve been recognized as a Pacemaker winner.

Students in attendance will be:

• Andie Diemer, editor in chief
• Alexa Milan, managing editor
• Ashley Barnas, online editor
• Pam Richter, sports editor
• Sam Calvert, asst. sports editor
• Alex Trice, multimedia editor

Pendulum adviser Colin Donohue will also be in attendance.

In addition to attending workshops and sessions led by professionals from the media world and faculty members from communications schools nationwide, students will also network, take tours of media organizations around the city and have The Pendulum professionally critiqued.

The awards ceremony, which students will also attend, takes place Saturday afternoon. ACP awards the prestigious Pacemaker award, which recognizes overall excellence in student newspapers. The Pendulum was named a finalist for a Pacemaker in the non-daily newspaper competition for the issues they released on . They will find out Saturday if they’ve won a Pacemaker.

Check this blog regularly from Oct. 28-Nov. 1 for updates from the students on the trip Oct. 8, 2008, Nov. 6, 2008, Feb. 18, 2009, March 4, 2009, and May 13, 2009. They will be posting quick summaries/reflections after every session they attend.

So where do you get your medication?

Heart Parents and Heart Warriors know our pharmacy like we know the backs of our hands – it seems that we almost live there! It seems no matter how hard we try, there’s just no way to get everything coordinated. Everything runs out at different times, and with eleven different drugs, it seems that I am at the drugstore two or three times a month. So you may be surprised to learn that I travel 68 miles (one way) to fill my prescriptions.

That’s a pretty nice trip, and yes, there are drug stores that are closer. As you may guess, there’s a reason I travel that far.

In the summer of 2002 I was a patient at Emory University Hospital after having a pacemaker implanted. I had been in heart failure at my community hospital, they had admitted me and placed me in the ICU until I stabilized. Four days later, things were getting worse and I was moved to Emory. So now I was in Emory’s ICU recovering from the pacemaker implant when I had a small stroke.

They had gotten me up and sat me in a chair, and since I was less than 24 hours post surgery, I wasn’t sat the top of my game. My foot fell asleep; but I figured it was just twisted under me at a bad angle. I certainly didn’t feel like moving it around. A nurse walked by and stopped, looking in my little cubicle. “Smile at me,” she said.

The next thing I know this five foot tall nurse was throwing me back in the bed. “I think you need to lie back down,” she said, and a moment later someone was checking my eyes with one of those little flashlights.

My right side “turned off” for three days – and that is the best way to describe it. I couldn’t feel or move anything on the right side of my body. I didn’t “fight back” – I really couldn’t get my head around it. Stroke? Couldn’t be… all that I knew was that my foot had fallen asleep. I hadn’t felt anything else, no problems breathing, didn’t feel any heart pain or funny beats. Nothing.

Then as suddenly as it turned off, my body turned back on. My doc asked me to squeeze her hand on the fourth morning, and without thinking my brain sent the proper signals to my right hand. And this time it worked!

“Whoa! Do that again!” I could move, I felt pain… it was working but it was like my system had rebooted. Everything worked, but my right side wasn’t following orders. I was assured that this was pretty normal and that good Physical Rehabilitation could get everything back in working order. I did a week of rehab at Emory- their plan was to get me started on the path to getting better, once that was established I could be transferred to a facility closer to home to continue my rehabilitation.

That day quickly came. I was able to stand and walk just a couple of steps (with help) but they helped me out of the wheelchair and into our van. Emory’s Rehabilitation Unit and one of their “Ambassadors” (Social Workers) had been in contact with The Big Rehabilitation Hospital close to home, and they had my records, knew that I was “medically fragile”, and were prepared to evaluate me and make a rehab plan. I’m only going to identify them The Big Rehabilitation Hospital (TBRH) and that’s all – you’ll see why in a moment.

We got to TBRH and dad dropped me and mom off – he was going home and make sure all was ok, and check on our house and the pets before returning to pick us up. The nurse who met us was friendly and things were going well until she said “Let’s get you to your room.”

Whoa! Timeout… on our end in Atlanta, we were under the impression that there was going to be an evaluation and then the plan would be decided. No one had said anything about being admitted as soon as we arrived.

“Oh, we received your records and looked them over, it’s all planned out!” At the same moment she’s pushing my wheelchair towards my room. Hold  on, wait just a moment… you guys understand that my docs want -

“We’re TBRH, we cure everybody! You’ll be in good hands!”

We wanted her to slow down, take a breath, listen to us – we had been told about this evaluation (which we assumed that we would be a part of and have some input into) and told to take it nice and slow until the pacer incisions were healed, and this nurse was talking about hitting the ground running. And her response to everything seemed to be “We’re TBRH, we can cure anybody!”

“Wait just a damn minute!” – that had come out of my momma’s mouth! “We want to talk to a supervisor.”

The nurse looked a bit miffed but did as we asked, and it wasn’t very long before the supervisor appeared. He listened, but I had already been evaluated – sight unseen. As soon as my medical records had come in, they had put me on a rehab track -

That’s it, I said. My voice wasn’t working very well because of the stroke, and it took me a long time to say even a simple sentence. It sounds like I’ve been placed on a preplanned course of treatment. That worries me.

Well, you don’t have to stay here if you don’t agree with our policies, he said.

That’s what we’ll do. When my dad gets back we’ll go home, and I’ll call my Cardiology team. If my doctors say this is OK with them, we’ll come back here.

Well, you can’t come back tomorrow, he said, no one will be in the front office. You can lose track of time in a hospital pretty quickly; it took me a moment to realize that the next day would be July 4th.

We figured a little over an hour for dad to get home, about 30 minutes to check everything and feed the animals if they needed it, and an hour back. During the time he was gone, the nurse brought dinner in for my almost-roommate.

“Since you aren’t a patient here, we don’t have anything for you,” she said. That very well could have been the rules or a TBRH policy, but the way she said it sounded a lot like two can play this game, bub. Or I could have just been overly sensitive after the “evaluation” confusion.

Dad got back and we told him the entire story. “Do you know if he has had his evening medications?” Dad asked the nurse.

She shook her head. “TBRH does not provide drugs to non-patients.”

The next thing I know, I’m back in the van and we are burning rubber for a big box retailer about a mile away. I didn’t even get out of the van – how could I, I was barely moving – but my parents rushed in and got to the Pharmacy counter about 3 minutes before closing time.

“I need to get fourteen different medications for my son, who was released from the hospital today. Can you help me?” (I wrote eleven at the top of the page; thankfully I’ve been able to drop a few since this happened).

“They didn’t prescribe the drugs?” the Pharmacist asked, incredulously.

“Not their policy,” Daddy said, skipping the long explanation.

“No problem,” the druggist answered, even though she was just moments from the end of her day. And that is why we travel almost 70 miles to fill my prescriptions… because they were willing to help when I needed them.

I debated if I should write this post or not – it’s human nature to present yourself in the best light possible, especially if you are the one telling the story.  We don’t look very good, and neither does TBRH. I could have been confused , tired, still not thinking right because of the stroke, or just plain wrong. Maybe a little of each. It’s been seven years and I still don’t know.

But the Pharmacy did go Above and Beyond the call of duty, and it is really appreciated. Thank you for helping a customer!

project 365 entry for Feb 23, 2009

The girls did great raising money for camp & the missions trip by working at the church dinner.
Today is my cousin Donna’s birthday. We met online doing family research & have never met face to face. Came close a few times but it never worked out.
Well the silly lady sent out an e-mail saying she would be home if anyone stopped by for some warm coffee & birthday cake. Hee hee… I decided it was the perfect time to meet face to face. So, I decided I would surprise her.
Sarah & drove down to Vincennes to wish her a happy birthday. I knocked on the door & asked for Donna. Her husband (not knowing who I was) let us in. I walked in to her living room. She was stretched out on the couch (she had recently had another surgery – to get a pacemaker). I said “Are you Donna?” She glanced up at me kind of funny. I said, “Well, I drove all this way to have a piece of birthday cake & some warm coffee.” All of a sudden it clicked with her as to who I was. She jumped up.. SCREAMING.. “Cathy!!” Her husband was standing there confused. Her granddaughter came running from another rooms thinking something was wrong with her because of the way she was screaming. She was hugging me, jumping, & just kept saying, “This is my cousin Cathy!” My poor little Sarah looked terrified with the way Donna had jumped & screamed. LOL
Yeah… I think it was a cool birthday surprise… & I think it was a good thing she had her pacemaker. eekk!
We had a wonderful visit. Then, Sarah & I had to head home. We had a long drive & it was late. The drive was okay, except for the huge raccoon that I hit & the double trailer semi that just about ran me off the road.
Hope I made you smile. Until next time…

Copyright Photo: Ivan K. Nishimura. Please click on photo for other photos.

Hawaiian Airlines (Honoulu) yesterday (October brought its original Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker NC251M (msn 154) back to the islands to help celebrate its 80th Anniversary on November 11. NC251M is the last flying CH-300 in the world. The company had the aircraft restored into flying condition and the original 1929 Inter Island Airways markings for the upcoming ceremonies. The Bellanca started sightseeing flights on October 6, 1929 over Oahu to and from Koko Head. Two Sikorsky S-38 amphibians were also acquired in order for the new airline to start scheduled passenger service on November 11, 1929 from Honolulu to Hilo via Maui. On October 1, 1941 the company adopted the current name.

Press release:

finance.yahoo.com/news/Hawaiian-Welcomes-Home-First-prnews-1535559381.html?x=0&.v=1

Taxes on medical devices… Fortunately, they took tampons off the list of medical devices to be taxed..

Click here for story

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old school party mix by the fools gold chief bubba, a-trak

(tracklist in the comments, some gems in there – psk anyone?)

stream via the  pacemaker site.  (anything we can do here for pacemaker, we will)

I’ve mainly been at work, or at least that’s what it feels like! Not only has it been the beginning of the new academic year, but we have also moved into the Shiny New Learning Centre. The SNLC (or SNeLC  (sorry)), is lovely, but comes with its own problems, like an over-sensitive self-returns machine that goes into a sulk and stops working if anyone should dare to return books through it at anything other than exactly the right frequency. I don’t even know what the right frequency is, and I work in the library, so I don’t how the students will get the hang of it. Practice, I suppose. We’re currently posting people to take turns at standing beside the machine to help people put their books through correctly, although, as I said, I don’t even know what the machine’s idea of ‘correctly’ is.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m not supposed to be thinking about work when I’m not there.

I’ve been home to visit my family on a couple of occasions – once for my uncle and aunt’s 40th wedding anniversary party and once to sing Handel’s Messiah. I enjoyed both of these occasions, but I’m afraid I probably enjoyed the singing more than the party, much as I love my aunt and uncle! We performed the Messiah in the church I grew up and got married in, with people I’ve known all my life, a historically accurate orchestra (if that makes sense) and a church full of an enthusiastic audience. Plus, of course, the music is great. I like Handel’s music, because it makes sense – you can sort of tell where he’s going with it and he repeats ideas quite a lot. This is quite helpful when you’re sight-reading a part you’ve never sung before! We had a practice on the day, but that was it for me, so I had to muddle through as best I could and listen carefully to the people around me. I don’t think I made any mistakes anyone could hear, so that was OK. When I was singing, I felt the happiest I have felt for a long time.

What else has happened? I passed my CILIP chartership, which was a nice surprise. I can now put letters after my name – MCLIP, which stand for Member: Chartered Library and Information Professional. I don’t know why it’s not MCILIP – Member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. This has long been a mystery to me, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

The pacemaker seems to be working. I was still experiencing some strange rhythms, but I went to the pacing clinic in September and had the pacemaker’s settings adjusted and I’ve felt better since then. I’m feeling quite tired at the moment (hence having the day off today) but I think this is due to too much work, rather than anything directly heart-related. I’ve got another appointment at the pacing clinic in November.