I am very sorry for you loss. I lost my grandfather due to similar circumstances so I am fully aware of the dangers. I promise that I will be extra careful and have somebody more experienced double-check my solution. Thank you for your concern.
Also thank you for the pointers about the timing issues. I think is it best that I go to the library and borrow a book about switching-mode power supply design and learn a bit more about it instead of being so lazy and asking the kind folks at sci.electronics.design to help me out. =)
//iman