Docusate Sodium

I am always amazed when I meet people who take certain prescription meds and find they get constipated and don't know why. This is especially true for any medication containing codeine.

Codeine will cause constipation, usually severe. I occasionally take codeine based medicines, like Tylenol 3 or Percocet when I have severe lower back pain. The problem is they cause constipation, which prevents you from voiding the bowels, which (in my opinion) causes even more lower back pain, as the unvoided waste builds up inside you, and puts more pressure on the back muscles. Then of course, when the urge to void comes a few days later, the stool is hard as a rock, and passing it is often painful, not to mention you are exerting a considerable force to pass it - which can put strain on the back muscles and aggravate the lower back pain again.

Fortunately, there is a solution. It is called Docusate Sodium, and comes in a soluable powder formulation or (easier to use) small read capsules. Docusate Sodium comes in both generic and brand names, a few being:

Aqualax®, Colace®, Colace® Micro-Enema, Conate®, Correctol® Extra Gentle, D-S Caps®, D.O.S., Dialose®, Diocto®, Dioctosoftez®, Dioctyl®, Dioctyl® S.S., Dioctyn®, Doc-Q-Lace®, Docu Soft®, Docu®, Doculax®, Docusoft® S, DOK®, DOS®, Doss-Relief®, DSS®, Dulcolax® Stool Softener, Enemeez®, Fam-Colsof®, Genasoft®, Gentle®, Kao-Tin, Kaopectate®, Laxa® Basic, Modane® Soft, Phillips® Liqui-Gels®, Regulax® SS, Silace®, Stool Softener, Sulfolax™, Sur-Q-Lax, Surfak®, Therevac® SB, Uni-Ease®

One that my local Shoppers DrugMart carries is Softlax (they also carry the generic Docusate Sodiun, which is slightly cheaper); the capsules are pretty much all the same: 100 mg of Docusate Sodium (read the label before buying).

I should point out that Docusate Sodium is NOT a laxative, so you won't find yourself having cramps and rushing off to the toilet with the 'zoomies'. No, Docusate Sodium is a stool softener. It just makes the stool soft and easy to pass.

I usually take 3 or 4 capsules when I take any drugs (legal or otherwise) that tend to promote constipation. Usually, the next day, I will have a normal bowel movement. In severe cases, it make take a more than a day to have a bowel movement, but when it does eventually happen, it passes easily and painlessly. If you don't have a movement one day, take 3 or 4 more capsules each day until it happens. Prunes (and prune juice) also help, but I find this medication works better.

A busy time of the year

Yes, there has been a lot going on, and I have not had too much time to write.

Lo and I recently came back from a diving trip in the Bahamas. We had a great time, and unfortunately, I had a few close calls - close enough that I have decided to give up diving.

Lo, however, continues to dive and just returned from a short trip in Florida. She attended a line dance workshop in Tampa a week ago, which she combined with a short dive holiday across the state near West Palm. She met up with some of her dive buddy girlfriends there, but unfortunately, the water was pretty rough and they only managed to get in two drift dives.

I have been working pretty hard getting ready for winter, and of course, now I am suffering for it with lower back pain again. Had to pass on a few commitments this week, hoping that all will be fine by this weekend, which is my grand daughter's 2nd birthday.

My daughter here in Toronto, just bought a new house and is naturally very excited about it. She is also very pregnant, so the timing for the move is not the best. Although they take possession on Dec 7th, they don't actually mover until January, giving them a few weeks to prepare the new house. The new baby is due mid-February.

My other daughter in Florida is going through some difficult times with her marriage, and it looks like it may be over soon. She is already seeking legal advice and looking for a new place to live. I feel sad that she has to handle all this alone, as most of her family is still living up here in Canada. But she is a strong person, and I am sure she will get through it ok.

We finally completed some house renovations (that we had started a few years ago, but hadn't finished). Painted the main bedroom and the en suite washroom, as well as the downstairs powder room. I also took the opportunity to replace the bathroom fixtures with more modern ones, and changed the electrical outlets and switches to more modern ones. Makes a big difference. Only thing left is to replace the bedroom carpeting.

I am seeing a new doctor for my back - a sports specialist called Dr. Kachooie, who works on Kennedy, just south of the 401. He sent me for a complete MRI on my back, and the bad news is that my whole spine is essentially shot: all discs are degenerated, and there is not much to do about it. The MRI also showed that the passage down the vertebrae where the spinal nerve bundle passes, is closing in with osteo arthritis, which is putting pressure on the nerve bundle, and giving me constant leg pain. He said he has been quite successful treating this with other patients, with a spinal epidural steroid injection. I had my first one last month, and it hurt! However, it seems to be alleviating the leg pain to some degree. I have to go back in January for another shot, and possibly a few more later.. most probably for the rest of my life. But, hey, if it works...

The weather is turning cold here.. most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, and most of them in our yard have been raked up and bagged. All the summer yard stuff has been packed away as we prepare for winter. The mornings are frosty, and the car windows need scraping before we drive away. Lois has already decked out the house for Christmas, and pretty much all our shopping has been done, although we don't do that much any more. Christmas cards have been replaced with an email containing a Christmas letter, and that still has to be done. The winter flannel sheets have been put on the bed, and so has the electric blanket. The snow tires have been installed on the car - I think we are ready for winter.

Urban legends and hoax emails

Ever notice that your 'friends' often send you what they consider important information, only you find out later that it is not true? Especially after you too have forwarded the misinformation along to 'your' friends? Annoying isn't it?

For example:

• After a one-night stand, a guy passed out in a New Orleans hotel and woke up in a bathtub full of ice - missing one of his kidneys.
  
• During a 1996 interview, singer Mariah Carey was quoted as saying, "When I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean, I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
  
• A guy ran off with his secretary and his abandoned wife sold his Porsche for $50.
  

For a list of 99 top urban legends, look here. At least scan through them, so that the next time your 'friends' send you one, you will recognize it for what it is - a hoax.

And if it is not one of those 99, then take a minute to research it before forwarding it on. All it takes is to take a few key words or phrases from the story and add the words hoax, snopes or "urban legend" in a Google search. (Note: when using Google for a search, and you want to keep a phrase or group of words together, enclose the phrase in double quotes - otherwise each word will be searched independently)



All it takes is a few minutes to verify the email contents

Super-23 Sudoku

I have had for some time now, a fascination with Sudoku, and have written about it before in this blog (see the entry on Sudoku Madness and also this entry on Have fun - Sudoku with a friend

Not content with the simple Sudoku games, I quickly graduated to the Sudoku High-Fives games, where there were 5 overlapping games on one page.

Yesterday, in our local newspaper, I saw the mother of all Sudoku games: a giant full page spread containing 23 overlapping games!

You will need to click on the image to appreciate the full size of this game. (pardon the poor quality - it is actually of photograph of the newspaper page)

The game is actually an ad for MasterCard's PayPass. The idea is that if your use PayPass, it is faster than any other method of payment, and it will leave you lots of extra time for other things like playing this super Sudoku.

They ran a similar ad a while back for a ginormous full page crossword puzzle - with all the clues on the opposite page. I don't do crosswords, but saved it for a friend of mine that does. hehe!

And yes, I am going to attempt this super Sudoku game, however, given that it takes me on average about 1 hour to complete a Sudoku High-Five game, I figure this one will take me about 4 to 5 hours.

Don't forget - you can download full page PDF formatted games from my Pulblic Skydrive site. I find the full page games are easier to work with, since there is more room to insert possible candidates in each square. The Skydrive is updated almost daily, time permitting - if not, then weekly.

Computer Weirdness

Last fall, I started having problems with my Toshiba notebook computer. It was hanging for no apparent reason. Took it in for repairs and was told that the wireless card was shot and so was the motherboard.. was going to cost me over $800 to have it repaired. I chose not to have it fixed, as a new notebook could be had for less than the repair cost.

However, on a long shot, I disabled the internal wireless adaptor card and found the computer worked just fine. So, I figured the motherboard was not defective, as I had been told. That prompted me to scan the net for a wireless card, and found one on eBay for about $40. I ordered it and installed it myself, and to my surprise, the computer worked again.

However, it was running extremely hot, which I figured was a contributing factor in the failure of the wireless card, so I decided it was finally time to get a new notebook as I was quite certain the Toshiba would fail again anytime soon.

I shopped around and got a good deal on an ASUS M50VM model, but changing computers is always a chore, made worse when changing OS - for me, that is going from XP to Vista. One of the biggest is that Microsoft's Files and Settings Transfer Utility would not work cross systems - there were too many differences. Besides moving my data, I would need to reinstall all my programs and adjust their settings the same as I had on the XP system.

So, for the past 9 months, the ASUS has been sitting pretty much idle, as I continued to use the Toshiba, which still has not failed. In some ways, I really like the old Toshiba, as the screen is better, and the keyboard and touch pad are centered; the keyboard and touch pad on the ASUS is off the the left by about 2 inches, to accommodate a full numeric keypad on the right. As I am a touch-typist, I find it hard to getting used to my hands 2 inches over to the left - I am always hitting the wrong keys. But I guess in time I will get used to this.

Yesterday, I thought it was time. I got out the new ASUS and started moving my data over from the Toshiba. That's when the problems started.

The computer started acting very weirdly. The first thing I noticed was that I could no longer control the sound. On this computer, the sound is controlled by the Function Keys. F10 toggles mute, while F11 lowers the volume and F12 raises it. F11 and F12 no longer worked, yet F10 did. Then I noticed that I could not control the screen brightness, again controlled by the Function Keys: F5 made it darker, while F6 brighter; well, only F5 was working making the display darker. I had a hard time seeing what I was doing, trying to dig into the bowels of the system to find some other way to bring back the brightness so I could continue to work on it.

Then, other weird stuff started happening.. after boot up, the icons on the screen would flicker. Then I lost control from my touch pad. When I tried to load a web page, it quickly scrolled up and down on its own. I got a message that the Bluetooth adaptor was no longer running, and also a problem with the screen display - something about the Chameleon Engine missing a critical file.

I managed to log onto the ASUS support forums, where I described my problems. Some guy replied with a link to the drivers on the ASUS site and suggested I reload them. Instead, I went back to the Driver and Supplemental software CD that was shipped with my system, and started reloading the drivers. All, the while the symptoms remained the same.

After about 2 days of farting around with this frustrating problem I was just about to give up and return the notebook to my dealer, when it hit me. I noticed that the TAB key on the left hand side was jammed down. I unstuck it, and believe it or not, ALL my problems disappeared. A stuck TAB key. I would have looked like a real dork bringing in a notebook for service with a stuck TAB key. I feel like a real dork for taking so long to notice it!

Poly Clens

I want to talk about a product that I believe few people know about, yet has been around for many, many years.

The product is Poly Clens by LePage. It is readily available in Canada, but I am not sure about other countries.

Poly Clens is basically a paint brush cleaner. Now, many people today use water based paint - one of the reasons is the easy cleanup: just rinse out the brush under the tap of running water. They avoid alkyd or oil based paints because the cleanup is somewhat messier, usually involving turpentine or mineral spirits.

But I often find that alkyd or oil based paints are superior and better lasting, espeically for exterior applications.

This is where Poly Clens comes in. It makes cleaning oil based paint brushes a snap. You just put a quarter of an inch or so into an old tuna tin, and work the bristles of your brush in the solution. (In this case, I am using a tuna tin for a smaller 1-inch brush - obviously, you will need to use a bigger container for a bigger brush, and a bit more Poly Clens - but, you really don't need a lot: use it sparingly).

After a few minutes of working the Poly Clens into the brush, just rinse it under luke warm tap water. The Poly Clens breaks down the oil based paint so that it becomes water soluable. So, cleanup is essentially the same as for water based paint brushes.

If you are really stingy, you can reuse the Poly Clens. Just let it sit overnight and carefully pour off the upper layer of clear solution. All the disolved paint will have sunk to the bottom of the tin. Personally, I just toss the whole mess down the drain when I am rinsing out my brush.

After rinsing the brush, shake out the excess water and towel dry it. Then leave it over night to dry, or put it out in the sun for faster drying. If you really need to reuse the brush right away, you can rinse it out in mineral spirits.

Poly Clens is also great at cleaning old dried up paint brushes. Just let the old brush sit in the solution for a day or so, and then rinse as usual. The brush will come back to life, almost like new. For really stubborn paint, you may need to repeat cleaning with Poly Clens.

If you are the type that uses disposable brushes, then obviously you don't need Poly Cleans. However, if you take pride in your work and use a good quality and expensive brush, and you want to keep it that way - Poly Clens is the perfect cleaner.

Ice Skating Pt. 2

Earlier, I blogged about Lois taking ice skating lessons.

Well, the class is over, and we are now going to 'free skate' each week. I picked up a pair of used skates on Craigslist.. a nice new looking hard-shell pair that give me the extra ankle support.

Got them sharpened and hit the ice last week - the first time in about 45 years. To my surprise, after getting over the shakes in the first 5 or 10 minutes, I was able to skate quite well. Did not even fall down once. Lois had insisted I wear a helmet, so I used one of my old motorcycle helmets.

We only did about 90 minutes, but I was dripping wet with sweat. Took off my helmet afterwards and it was drenched inside. Made a mental note to wear a bandanna under it the next time.

This morning we went for our second time. Once again, I felt pretty good going around the rink. There were probably 20 to 30 people on the ice, and I was surprised to see some very old people (like in their 70's and 80's) skating around the rink (and doing very well.. in fact, no one fell at all).

Except me. I was getting cocky, and decided to try skating backwards. And of course, I fell - hard on my left hip, elbow, and wrist - all of which have minor bruising. It does not hurt - now; I am wondering how it will be tomorrow.

We both enjoy it, and hope to go several times a week. The rink is open for adult skating Monday to Friday, from 9 to 11 am. At 10, there is a small break where we can have a cookie and coffee or tea; this is a nice time to chat with others who are there. It is very friendly, and everyone seems very helpful, especially with Lois who is still struggling. She was a bit envious that I just jumped on the ice and started skating after all these years, and did not have to take lessons like she did. I still have to master going backwards, hard stopping, and cross-legged turning.

Well, I am off to babysit my grand-daughter this evening. Unfortunately, it is raining and Lois is out with the car, so I will have to use the Harley in the rain. I hate this cause it messes up the bike, and more importantly, it is more dangerous to ride in the rain.

The not-so-friendly skies

As the economy is tanking, more and more airlines are cutting corners to stay afloat. They have eliminated free meals and drinks on most flights, and now they are charging for baggage. At first, it was just an extra fee for more than one bag. Now, they are charging a fee for every bag checked.

The above cartoon summarizes my feelings, and really begs the question: why are they charging extra for baggage, when obese people are charged the same fee as non-obese people? They are often much heavier than baggage, and spill over into the adjacent seats making it an unbelievable and uncomfortable ride for the rest of us.

Ireland's Shame

A long anticipated report on child abuse in Ireland was published last week. It took about 8 years to complete, and cost about 65 million pounds. The report covered a period from the 1870's to early 2000; some 35,000 children were abused by 800 Brothers, Nuns, and other lay teachers in these so-called industrial 'schools'

A report from Sky News here.
A report from Global Post here.
A report from BBC here.

And finally, for those that wish to read the 2,500 page report, it is available in both HTML and PDF formats here

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