Living GRM-style with a defibrillator

Due to genetics, my heart isn't in as good of shape as it should be. My heart muscle doesn't have a normal grain structure, so the fibers don't neatly align. Rather, they're jumbled and mixed up, and because of that, I have a septum that measures 21mm, more than the normal 7mm to 11mm. The thickening isn't into my aorta, though. This issue took my brother's life when he was 40. I'm now 43, and my doc just installed a defibrillator.

I'm not allowed by law to get a CDL (no big issue there,) and I'm supposed to stay two feet away from spinning alternators and other things that create a magnetic field. I can use my mig welder, as long as I stay a few feet away from the box, which is no problem. Power drills and magnets need to stay off my left chest by a foot or two. My father and surviving brother both have defibs, and other than using a jackhammer (they're land surveyors, so they used to do that,) their lifestyles haven't changed much. We're not supposed to get our heart rates above about 150, so we don't do cardio exercise, but we're not into that stuff anyway.

I haven't been given approval to do track days, but I haven't been told not to, either. Of course, after recovering, but I have a baby on the way in about six weeks, and I sold my Miata to do the IVF to have that kid, so this would be a future thing, anyway.

Does anyone here have, or know of someone who lives a GRM lifestyle with a defibrillator? What do they do and not do? Could I pass a physical and some day go road racing again?

Hi Kramer,

I work for a medical device company that makes pacemakers & defibrillators and one of my best friends, who races motorcycles, had a defibrillator implanted last year and is doing fine. I’m not a doctor so I’ll refrain from giving you a definitive answer but I do expect that you’ll be cleared for road racing.

Keep in mind that the Taliban can hack into your defib and take you out if they want. (this was a plot line in the TV Show Homeland...I doubt this can really happen but you may want to avoid pissing them off just in case)

I'd say you're fine as long as you stay below the dictated 150 heart rate. Can you wear a heart rate monitor? If so, you'd just have to pay close attention to it.

I'm not a doctor, though...

Oh, and I toured a facility that makes those suckers, and pacemakers. There is a LOT going on inside those things, very impressive technology.

Oh and don't get carried away with the implants.

I realize none of this is helping, but maintaining a sense of humor will also help.

Well a family friend is in his mid seventies. His heart has been beat upon numerous times and opened up more than the motor in my race car. He is a die hard motocrosser and still races. The only issue he has had is when he was at a stadium race a few years ago and he got high enough off the triple jump that the electrical system for the stadium lighting shorted out his defibrilator and nearly killed him. He crashed hard and was actually off his bike for several weeks.

So go easy on the air time

Build a suit.

Fight crime.

You're now Ironman.

Between Kramer and Curmudgeon and his new Hulk powers, we're working towards our own set of GRM Avengers.......

In reply to mndsm:

Does that mean I have to draw an eye patch on Tim's picture in my magazines?

If he wants to be Nick Fury- then yes.

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

If I'm in my 70s and die because I jump too high and the lights shorted out my ticker I'd be on with that.

In reply to mndsm:

Who wouldn't want to be Nick Fury?

pinchvalve wrote: Keep in mind that the Taliban can hack into your defib and take you out if they want. (this was a plot line in the TV Show Homeland...I doubt this can really happen but you may want to avoid pissing them off just in case)

On some models it is possible, but it'll take someone with better computer skills than anyone the Taliban has on staff.

I would think that with a soldering iron and a few parts salvaged from an old microwave oven, you could build your own defibrillator for a small fraction of what the doctors will charge you.

I wouldn't trust my life with that, even if my name was Angus MacGyver.

thewheelman: My defib is a monitor, too, but my doc has to retrieve the information wirelessly. I haven't been told to do this, but I may buy a monitor from the local drugstore just for curiosity' sake.

One of my concerns are alternators. I never thought twice about reaching over a running engine to work on it. Now I'm supposed to stay two feet away? What will happen if I lean within that 24" area?

I've offered to compare implant scars with one of my female friends who has a pair of implants, if you know what I mean. She hasn't taken me up on the offer.

In reply to RX Reven':

Thanks for that info. My doc hasn't ruled it out, but he hasn't yet said it's okay. I wondered if having a defib automatically ruled me ineligible, the way it does for a CDL. Sounds like it doesn't.

In reply to Kramer:

The monitor may be a good idea, set it to trigger a red light on the dash at about 140 bpm just to be safe.

GameboyRMH wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: Keep in mind that the Taliban can hack into your defib and take you out if they want. (this was a plot line in the TV Show Homeland...I doubt this can really happen but you may want to avoid pissing them off just in case)

On some models it is possible, but it'll take someone with better computer skills than anyone the Taliban has on staff.

A couple of years ago, a famous hacker claimed that he had figured out how to alter an ICD’s programming and scheduled a public demonstration but mysteriously died a few days before the event so we’ll never know what he was capable of doing.

However, to hack in, you’d need information that is carefully guarded as per FDA regulations and you’d need to be in very close proximity as a two-way RF connection must be established and the device’s signal strength is very low. Way, way easier to just shoot somebody.

Having said that, if you ever notice somebody following you around with an antenna the size of an ironing board, I recommend you kick them in the throat.