extremely experimental just now, so we'll have to wait. But I noticed that recipients of artificial hearts (and those who get artificial heart "parts") do not have to have these components serviced or replaced at two-or-three day intervals, so expect longer "submersion" times for internal/subcutaneous reader implants in the near future. It's just natural that they (the medical community at large) want to take "baby steps", being the reactionary sort that they are, before actually releasing "the" solution: I can appreciate the need to understand all of the details before endangering our lives with this wonderful stuff. I'm put in mind of NorPlant which was really a good idea, it just appears that more testing was needed. (...at that time, anyway...)
I'm fairly fortunate: my Diabetes is more of an 'insulin resistance' problem, kind of like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" - my system was apparently awash in sugars and insulin, making my cells "deaf" to the insulin, sweeping the sugars to mass storage (fat). The result - Type II Diabetes, controllable by Metformin, diet, and exercise. If there's a version with which to be afflicted, this one is it, I think. I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to study your case (well, as much as you've noted here in your Journal) to see if there is anything we (as a group) could possibly do to help.
*** Just got the h4 scared out of me by a surprise fire drill - apparently it's supposed to be loud enough that the deaf can hear it, and if you're not deaf just yet...
...but yeah, I'm trying to figure out what might help. I'm just not as up to date on Diabetes as I guess I could be. And that makes me feel somewhat helpless.
Mind you, I want to help strictly for selfish reasons: I find your tirades and outbursts quite refreshing: your ability to describe things is absolutely off the scale - and I miss that. Long, long ago, that was my forte, but school and my employment in the corporate world have toned it down (nay, one might say fully smothered it) to the point where I have to seriously think (concentrate!) about it before I can lay out a line such as you often describe. Quite frankly I miss it, and would hate to see it stilled in you, or worse, for something bad to happen to you. "You see, Mitch, I used to be you. I've been missing me, so I asked if I could room with me again." (- Real Genius, 1985) So far, so good. So, now that we've gotten ulterior motives out of the way, and basic histories, back to the device at hand - or in mind.
You want a small-ish device, strappable to an appendage (I would wear the thing on the back of my left calf, personally) that contains a chronometer, glucometer, and an insulin injector. (Have I revealed too much here? I sincerely hope not...)
I'm a cinch at fail-safe power systems, so we can go ahead and say that's covered. Chronometrics and platform-independent interface is pretty simple, too: we can create the comms protocol as we go along, using USB as our standard interface, so that's pretty simple to accomplish as well. That leaves automating the glucometer and the injector; I currently work in Mechatronics, so it should be simple to design once we figure out exactly what we want to use - I'm assuming (probably incorrectly) that we have a test unit in mind - perhaps the one you use, right? Injector automation is simultaneously simple and scary as h4. (Insulin) Metering is the buggaboo, as the sensor and control mechanisms have to be fail-safe or no-fail. If the system encounters a situation where there is *any* doubt, it needs to immediately cease operations and ring an alarm (figuratively: I figure you'd want it to trigger a sound file of a WarCraft "We're under attack!" or something like that). I think I've got the gist of what we're trying to accomplish here.
Note: It scares me to think that we might hand over a process that is so important to an autosystem - in my line of work I see an endless stream of devices that malfunction for this or that reason; sometimes the results are far from pretty, and the idea both excites me and scares me. I just thought I'd make that point up front, loud and clear. However, if we do this right...
Time to brood about this, and think. And think. If you need to hit me directly, I can be found at gMail, name 'LongFist', right? Right. I mean, if you (or Reti, or anyone else for that matter) decides you'd like to take a more direct approach - that's better for contacting me than even calling me directly - my schedule is just so spread out all over the place, anymore.
...and back I go, into the lush greys and beiges of the concrete jungle, heavily choked in places by cyan aggregations of data transfer cables shot through with a dull grey power cable at irregular intervals. The phosphor greens and blues wink seductively next to the flat-panel monitors, all dark for the moment, beckoning me to return to the labs, and their gentle warming (informative) glow... |
