Neil Clarke's Blog, page 10

Beeping Medtronic Defibrillator

NOTE: I am not a doctor and have no medical training.

I’m writing this post mostly because I couldn’t find any information on the internet when I needed it. Seven years ago (next month), I had a defibrillator implanted in my chest. It was recommended after a heart attack left me with a low EF, meaning my heart was damaged and not functioning as well as it should. It puts me at risk and the defibrillator is there to help in those situations.

In seven years, it has never triggered the full shock it can deliver, and next month it is due to be replaced due to a low battery condition. This isn’t about the low battery.

I have a defibrillator made by Medtronic. Every morning (the time can be changed by a tech) it does a check and if there’s a problem it will let you know with a series of tones. When the battery is low, it will generate a warning every morning at that time. Mine started generating that error last month and the technicians turned off that alert in the office during one of my visits so it wouldn’t keep bugging me.

A few weeks later, I was standing in line at the bank and this started:

http://neil-clarke.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/20191214_103932_1.mp4

 

It’s the same sound as the low-battery warning, so I thought that they may have just snoozed the alarm, but an hour later it sounded again, so I called the pacemaker/defibrillator clinic I go to and left a message. It was towards the end of the business day, so I guess I missed them. I didn’t get a call back. Four hours later, it beeped again. And four more. And four more. I figured the beeping during sleeping hours was probably a sign that this was more serious than I first thought, so I called the electrocardiology office.

Fortunately, my doctor was on call that weekend. He went to his office and had me upload the data from my device. After having a chance to review it, he told me the error was an indication of some irregular voltage readings, that could indicate a break in the leads. He sent me to the ER.

I spent the rest of the day in the ER getting X-rays and waiting for a Medtronic tech to run more thorough tests on the device. The technician told me that he had never encountered this condition in his twelve years of working for the company, but that he had been given a series of special steps to follow that would allow them to figure out if there was a break or related problem with the wiring.

The X-rays and tests didn’t reveal the source of the problem. Everything looked fine, so they decided to reset the error flag in the device and keep me overnight for observation. I went through the night without another alert and was tested again in the morning.

It was later explained to me that the fault was registering in what I think he called a coil. There are two of those and fortunately, the one that was indicated as the source of the problem could not generate a false condition that would trigger a full shock to my heart from the defibrillator. The other, however, could have. (Obviously, that’s quite dangerous and explains why they wanted me there overnight.)

If anything else happened while I had been there (or the beeping starts again while I’m home), they’ll want to move up my replacement surgery. I’m glad that there’s some time in-between. If this happens again, I’d much prefer it to be before the replacement than after, so they can deal with both the wiring and the device at the same time. (Replacing the wiring comes with risk, so I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.)

Anyhow, if your device is beeping every four hours, or even just once has that tone in the video, you should probably call your doctor and upload the data from your device. Don’t wait it out. If your problem happens to register in a different location of the wiring/device, you could be in serious danger. Good luck.

Not in China (again)

 

I was supposed to leave for the 5th International Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu early last week, but I canceled the trip at the last minute due to concerns about my father-in-law’s health.

Sadly, he passed away early last Wednesday morning. (It’s something I’m just not able to write about at the moment.)

Throughout the week and into the weekend, I kept hearing from friends and acquaintances who wanted to wish us well and send their condolences. Thank you.

I was also treated to notes and pictures from friends I would have seen while in China. It was nice to be a fly on the wall in my down hours. From what I could see the convention was a big success and enjoyed by many. Congratulations to the organizers and I wish everyone luck in their bid to bring Worldcon to Chengdu. I have fond memories of my trip there two years ago and hope to return someday. This time, however, I needed to be home. I was there in 2D spirit though.

Clarkesworld Year Eleven Anthologies

The two Clarkesworld Year Eleven anthologies are now available for purchase. Print copies will be available directly from us–via Wyrm Publishing–after they arrive. (Expected mid-month, but I’ll be traveling so it’s likely they won’t be available for sale in our store until after Thanksgiving.) Amazon has them now.

Clarkesworld Year Eleven: Volume One (contents)

Trade Paperback

List Price: $17.95

ISBN: 978-1-64236-024-0

Amazon

Ebook Editions

List Price: $6.99

ISBN: 978-1-64236-023-3

Amazon.com (Kindle/Mobi), Kobo (epub), Wyrm (epub/mobi/Kindle) – more to come

Clarkesworld Year Eleven: Volume Two (contents)

Trade Paperback

List Price: $17.95

ISBN: 978-1-64236-026-4

Amazon

Ebook Editions

List Price: $6.99

ISBN: 978-1-64236-025-7

Amazon.com (Kindle/Mobi), Kobo (epub), Wyrm (epub/mobi/Kindle) – more to come

Relevant stats:

Clarkesworld Year Eleven: Volume One – Stories from October 2016 – March 2017, 189,340 words, 417 pages, cover art by Matt Dixon.
Clarkesworld Year Eleven: Volume Two – Stories from April 2017 – September 2017, 219,300 words, 472 pages, cover art by Pascal Blanché

Not in China

Unfortunately, my flight to China was canceled after a full day of issues at Newark airport. United Airlines gets points for good communications, but it seemed like chaos in regards to how they dealt with the mechanical issues. Early on, they told us they were considering getting a new plane. They should have. A quick look online revealed that the same plane had been delayed coming to us because of mechanical issues as well. That should be a red flag. (I could also go into details about the hotel vouchers and flight rebooking process–staffed by one–that awaited many of my fellow passengers, but I’m tired of this. At least they weren’t as bad as Aer Lingus.)

I ended up having to cancel my entire trip to the China SF conference. (A 19 hour flight with connections that had me arriving as the conference ended didn’t work for me, oddly enough.)

I am very disappointed not to be there and send my regrets to everyone I hoped to meet. It looked like it was going to be a great time and judging by the snippets and photos that have reached me so far, it look like it has been.

For their part in this mess, United offered me two travel vouchers. The first was laughable, but the second, while not great, was just good enough. I have another flight to China later this month and this might just get me a decent seat upgrade. Failing that, it could cover another flight I have planned in early 2020.

I was supposed to give a talk on International Science Fiction at the convention and had spent some time putting it all together. A few people there have asked about it, so I may record a voice-over for the slides and put it up on YouTube when I have some time.

Philcon 2019

 
I’ll be attending Philcon in Cherry Hill, NJ from November 8th-10th. Here’s my schedule:

Genre Publications in 2019

Fri 7:00 PM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)

[Panelists: Ty Drago (mod), Alex Shvartsman, Dina Leacock, Julie Ann Dawson, Neil Clarke]

Ask a Small Publisher

Sat 12:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Two (1 hour)

[Panelists: Marc Histand (mod), Brian Koscienski, Neil Clarke, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Alex Shvartsman, Michael Hanson]

Meet the Editors

Sat 10:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)

[Panelists: Danielle Ackley-McPhail (mod), Mike McPhail, Ty Drago, April Grey, Gordon Linzner, Neil Clarke]

Autographs: Sam Delany, Gordon Linzner, Neil Clarke

Sun 12:00 PM in Crystal Ballroom Promenade (Gaming) (1 hour)

China SF Con

I’ll be taking two trips to China over the next month. The first will take me to the China Science Fiction Conference 2019, held November 2-3 in the Garden Expo Park in Fengtai District, Beijing. It will be a short trip, but I expect to have a day of sightseeing before I return home. I’ll talk more about the second trip later.

Schedule (subject to change)

November 2nd

5:00-15:30 @ Storycom Table (number 07) Signing

Evening, Welcome Banquet held by CAST

November 3rd

Morning, Opening Ceremony

Afternoon, TED Talk (The Future of SF is International)

Clarkesworld Year Ten Anthologies

The two Clarkesworld Year Ten anthologies are now available for purchase. Print copies will be available directly from us after they arrive. (Expected mid-month.) Amazon has them now.

Clarkesworld Year Ten: Volume One (contents)

Trade Paperback

List Price: $17.95

ISBN: 978-1-64236-020-2

Amazon

Ebook Editions

List Price: $6.99

ISBN: 978-1-64236-019-6

Amazon.com (Kindle/Mobi), B&N (epub), Apple (epub), Kobo (epub), Wyrm (epub/mobi/Kindle)

Clarkesworld Year Ten: Volume Two (contents)

Trade Paperback

List Price: $17.99

ISBN: 978-1-64236-022-6

Amazon

Ebook Editions

List Price: $6.99

ISBN: 978-1-64236-021-9

Amazon.com (Kindle/Mobi), B&N (epub), Apple (epub), Kobo (epub), Wyrm (epub/mobi/Kindle)

Capclave 2019

I’m sad to announce that I will be unable to attend Capclave this year. It’s one of my favorite conventions and I haven’t missed one  in years, but we have a schedule conflict in the Clarke house and this is the only way to make things work. I look forward to returning in 2020.

Catching up: Clarkesworld Anthologies 10 & 11

Part of Clarkesworld business model includes producing an annual anthology that includes all the original fiction published during that year (October-September). With year nine, the books had grown so large that we needed to split them into two volumes. I’m a few years behind schedule on these now, but have recently been making an effort to catch up. Over the last few months, I’ve pulled together the loose ends on the four books that make up years ten and eleven. I can happily say that I have printed proofs of the books in hand and will have them finished within the week.

The next step is scheduling them for publication. I’ve been contemplating the possibility of releasing all four books at once, but maybe it would be better to do them in sets of two (complete year). They are POD (print-on-demand) titles, so I have a great deal of flexibility on when they can be released and how fast that happens. Will be giving it some thought over the next few days. If you’d like to chime in, please do.

As for year twelve, that’s in the preliminary stages of production and months away. The September issue of Clarkesworld marks the end of year thirteen, so that will have to start soon too. Expect that one in 2020.

Some stats for my fellow data nerds:

Year 10, Volume 1 – 408 pages (187,731 words)

Year 10, Volume 2 – 451 pages (217,944 words)

Year 11, Volume 1 – 417 pages (189,341 words)

Year 11, Volume 2 – 472 pages (219,307 words)

Yes, for some reason, the second half of the year seems consistently bigger than the first. Will be looking more closely at why that is happening.

Clarkesworld: September 2019

The September 2019 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine is now online.