Days 4-7: Belated update

I apologize for not updating over the past few days. There’s really no good reason for it, since I’m mostly just sitting here. Internet occasionally goes out, but otherwise days are uneventful.

I’ve decided on a traditional open-heart bypass surgery. The minimally invasive operation had several things to recommend it, but in the end, the doctors believe I’ll have the best long-term prognosis if I have a traditional bypass. They’ll be grafting in 5 or more bypasses in a 3-5 hour surgery. We’re currently scheduled for mid-week, but I’m not sure exactly when.

I’d like to thank everyone for all of the warm wishes, e-mail, and calls. I’m sorry I’m not being more communicative, but it’s pretty draining going over all of this multiple times. I’ll update the blog as I have time (at least till they take the computer away), and hopefully either Missi or I will post something after the surgery.

Day 3 summary

I started the day with the cath procedure. The results were unexpected. I have significant blockage throughout the blood vessels that feed the heart. Based on the results the decision was made not to proceed with installing stents (since 8 or more would have been necessary).

The next step is bypass surgery. I’ll need multiple bypasses, and there’s two approaches to consider. Here at UMMS, one of the best minimally invasive heart surgeons in the world is now in residence — Johannes Bonatti, M.D. While his process is limited to 1 or 2 bypasses, there’s an opportunity for a hybrid approach involving minimally invasive bypass and stents installed via another cath procedure. If this approach is viable, the recovery time would be minimized. The other approach is a traditional open-heart bypass. Considering my age the Chief of Cardiac Surgery has a plan that involves maximal use of arterial grafts from around by body to provide the necessary bypass material. The results would be superior to the use of large amounts of material harvested from veins.

Both options are scary. Both options are risky. Neither option would be available until next week, and I’ll be in the hospital until then (just in case my condition deteriorates). I’m talking to the minimally invasive surgeon tomorrow, and I’ll make a decision after I get more details on the hybrid approach. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you updated.

End of day 2 in the Hospital

Thus ends another day in the hospital. Missi showed up again today with my iPhone charger (yea!), the laptop (yea!), and chocolate covered peanuts (I knew I loved her). Things here are now passable enough for me to spend a day or two more.

I have a cardiac catheter procedure scheduled for tomorrow. They’ll run a tube from by groin to my heart, inject a dye and do some imaging of my heart. If necessary/possible, they’ll install a stent (small spring-like tube) to open up any blockages.

More updates when available….

Out of service

While on vacation in Jamaica (sorry I meant to blog about that before this) I started having a hard time with rapid heart rate, shortness of breath and mild chest pain.

At the moment, I’m in the University hospital in Baltimore for observation. Everything looks normal at this point, but I’m being admitted overnight for diagnostics and a stress test.

Dealing with Spam

I get too much spam. Specifically, my home account gets close to 500 spam messages a day. Normally, I rely on SpamSieve on my Macbook Pro to filter all that noise, and it does a pretty good job (on average 1 spam a day makes it through). But now that I’m also getting my e-mail on my iPhone, SpamSieve is no longer meeting my needs. Since SpamSieve depends on my Mac to be running, and often the Mac is: off, alseep, or just not on the Internet; all that e-mail has been showing up unfiltered on the iPhone.

So this weekend I’ve moved my spam handling back to the server-side. The first step was to starting removing as many bogus connections as possible. To do that I implemented fake MX records, and SMTP transaction delays. Next I started greylisting (using milter-greylist) all incoming e-mail. You can read more about these spam fighting techniques here

The results over the last 24 hours: approx. 10 spam messages were logged in SpamSieve

I plan to start using SpamAssassin again to handle those few messages that still make it through the new server-side spam tools, but life is now much better on the iPhone.

Bought an iPhone 3G

So I finally got an iPhone. After waiting a full year (and desperately trying to get a 16GB black), I ended up buying an 8GB iPhone. Which pretty much means I’m only a GPS chip and a bit of speed ahead of the previous owners.

Some quick notes on the iPhone. It kicks my Motorola Razr to the curb in terms of call quality. Whereas I could barely make a call from the top floor of my house, before, the iPhone is handling it with aplomb.

Calling this thing a smartphone is seriously undervaluing it as a computing/information platform. It’s really an ultra-portable computing device. Many of the apps I’ve loaded serve to extend my full desktop environment into my pocket. The always accessible nature of the apps and associated data is pretty powerful. Where some people think it’s great to be able to use Word or Excel from a handheld device, give me the whole Internet any day of the week.