Friday, January 20, 2012

Who Am I?

Well, I'm not going to tell you exactly who I am but I'll tell you a bit about me. 

  • I have sleep apnea which damn near killed me, or so my sleep doctor/neurologist and I surmise
  • I am somewhat sleep impaired and maybe slightly cognitively impaired from this condition. Bear with me, I'm doing this in part to get better. I'm groggy a lot these days. I may have more than just sleep apnea or maybe I've had some brain damage from it.  It is frustrating for me, one who used to think so clearly and quickly.
  • I run a data analysis software and services company with small, medium and big name customers all over the world.  I have an impressive arsenal of tools, technologies and experience at my fingertips.
  • I used to work at a Fortune 50 manufacturing company, from the factory floor to management up to the point I had access to the executive dining room and corporate jets. I quit that career to start my software and services company.
  • I'm a professional data sleuth, hired by companies to figure out what causes problem (and successes!).  As an example, DuPont hired me to figure out why they could not make nylon.  They invented the stuff!  I analyzed their data, used some engineering sense and told them why.
  • I am a Chemical Engineer, so I have an "engineering brain"
  • I'm in my 50's and male.
  • I am a software guy, not hardware.  Give me a soldering gun and I'll burn myself.  Give me some data and I'll do miracles.
  • I don't know a lot about sleep, sleep apnea, brain waves, power spectra, signal processing, but I'm learning what I need to learn
  • I've been from Malaysia to Moscow, the later courtesy of a minister of finance, who took me to the Bolshoi for opera and gave me a personal tour of the Kremlin, have used oxygen masks on a plane plummeting from the sky, had my hotel catch fire once, emergency landed in a DC-10 in an Inuit Eskimo village, enjoyed our 20th wedding anniversary in the jungles of Borneo chest deep in bat guano (see Mulu Resort), detained as a currency smuggler at an airport once, but got off by bribing the Russian with cognac and chocolates. Those are a few of my stories... I have many more.
PS: I am new to this, so forgive me if I make mistakes as I learn...

6 comments:

  1. Awesome blog! I'm also an engineer (electrical/software), and new to the CPAP world. I also have a Zeo, and the S9 AutoSet. My apnea is mild, and my heart's doing fine, but like you I have the engineering mind and the more I understand, the more interested and motivated I'll be to keep using this contraption. Looking forward to following your adventures. Good health to you!

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  2. Birds of a feather! Thanks! Keep using your contraption. :) Good health to you as well!

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  3. I too am male, mid-fifties, a "software guy", and wish to understand more. I do not yet have the Zeo (Bedside not Mobile as the latter seems half-baked and doesn't stream brainwave data) but it seems clear that I should have it.

    Looking forward to reading the rest of the blog (started at the beginning).

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  4. Hi J ! Thanks for coming. You will find info on how to make a cable for the Zeo Bedside and there's freeware for viewing the brainwaves (both the raw signal and the Delta-theta-alpha-betas-gamma). I like the brainwaves the best of all the data I gather. I think they characterize or represent my sleep the best.

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  5. This is a great blog. Thank You. I am trying to track arousals to see if side sleeping is reducing my apnea. Do you know of any decent ways of doing this with ZEO Mobile or other products?

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  6. Thank you Edmilio. I judge side sleeping's effect on apnea by determining my sleep position using an accelerometer and looking at the position versus the events recorded by my ResMed S9 AutoSet APAP machine. That makes it clear.

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