From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Mar 05 2003 - 21:24:06 MST
--- Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> wrote:
> --- "Dickey, Michael F"
> <michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com> wrote:
> > A cheap, simple implant anyone could get. Ideally,
> > it would be even better
> > if such a device could power external electronic
> > devices.
>
> It'd produce miniscule amounts of power - but then,
> many devices only need miniscule amounts of power.
I recall a bit from a Niven story (I think called "Veil of Anarchy")
about a fellow who had a digital watch implanted beneath his skin.
Given such devices currently run on batteries with lives of 3 years or
more, I'd want something that consumes a bit more power if it is going
to help me lose weight.
What I'd like is an implanted PDA in my brain with a HUD in one or both
eyes, a GPS unit, and a cell phone and FM/XM radio receiver built into
my jaw and skull. The antenna would be a meshed phased array between
skull and skin. Having such a broad antenna should minimize EM risk.
The whole setup is voice and blink/point of focus controlled.
Total consumption should be around 5 watts.
To detail how NOT to lose weight:
My mother went under the knife two months ago to get her stomach
stapled. The arthritis in her knees makes knee replacement a needed
thing, but the docs don't want to do it at her age while she weighs
over 250 lbs, so she opted for surgery (she swims and works out several
times a week, for those thinking she is being lazy. A thyroid removal a
decade ago is the primary reason for her slow metabolism.)
Being an individual who has never healed very well, her recovery from
this operation has been about as bad as it could be. Three days after
the operation, it was found that an old adhesion had kinked the small
intestine, causing fluid to back up and burst a suture at the stomach.
Her whole abdominal cavity was therefore infected. She eventually lost
2/3 of her colon and a yard of her small intestine due to loss of blood
flow. She spent over a month in the ICU, all of it sedated and with her
incision wide open due to swelling preventing it from being sewed shut.
She has been in the Vascular Surgery ward under 24 hour nursing care
for the last month and is concious, but with a tracheotomy, a tube
through the nose and four into her abdomen for draining fluid while she
continues to heal.
I am frankly quite shocked that surgeons today are still relying on
plain old sutures to close abdominal incisions.
I am also pissed that the docs demanded she lose this weight to get her
artificial knees, since men that weight get them all the time. The docs
claim they would wear out in 15 years. I said so freaking what! By then
they could clone her some new knees fer ghus sake.
Lastly, I am perturbed at what is considered acceptable nursing care
today. She is at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, which is
considered a top notch facility, and the neglect and bad attitude of
many of the nurses has annoyed us to no end. I pity those who have to
stay at lower quality institutions. As Doctor MacCoy would say, "This
is barbaric!"
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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