The following video is perhaps one of the most compelling videos I ever seen, let alone one of the more though provoking public service announcements. I like the approach it takes in using visuals to reinforce a positive message on wearing your seatbelt rather than hitting you over the head with it.
Today, we received our third major snow storm of the winter season. Now, relative to other places, the amount of snow we are receiving is not a lot but for this region, getting 4-6 inches of snow is a major deal. Getting it more than once a season is a major deal compared to winters in the past 10 years or so.
Each of these storms do have their own personality. The first storm on December 18th brought a lot of snow and sleet on a Friday afternoon but on the following day, it was a bright sunny day. Perfect sledding conditions and the roads were decent to travel on. Cold temperatures for days afterward meant that the snow lasted for quite awhile. Last week’s storm brought a fair bit of snow but the intense cold meant that any melt off froze on the roads creating treacherous driving conditions for the whole weekend.
This storm is a mix of snow, sleet, rain and freezing rain. It is still ongoing so who knows what the evening will bring but I can assume that if the temperatures go down well below freezing, the roads will be ice rinks in the morning. Could expect a power outage too if the ice buildup is over 1/4 inch on the power lines and trees.
So we are getting a real winter here in North Carolina. For the past 5 years, if we got one day with significant snow, that was it for the season. Now, I am actually using the snow shovel I bought a few years back.
So the snow brings mixed feelings. It is great to see snow on the ground, to pack it into a snowball or build a snowman out of it. The kids loved sledding in it. Makes the time of the year feel like winter rather than a dreary late autumn day. But you do have to deal with the side effects: slippery roads, the shoveling of sidewalks and driveways. It is something that I have to deal with but at least we do not live in the mountains or further north where today’s storm may bring 10-20 inches of snow to Virginia and Maryland.
It feels like being home.
In just 10 days, the Winter Olympics will be coming to Vancouver. As always with the Olympic games, I will be totally enraptured by the various competitions which given the smaller scale of the Winter games compared to the Summer games over the same time span, makes it much easier to follow.
Now, while I have not been posting anything at all in the past months due to work and family commitments, I am finally able to start up my blogging once more.While I still have some posts to fulfill on what happened to us in October vis a vis the home, the majority of my postings over the next three weeks will be about the Winter Games. I will preview the events and the significant people and teams to watch with a special emphasis on the Canadian athletes, of course.
Medal winners, special observations, how television handles the games will all be topics of continuing posts throughout the games.
On February 12th, the world comes to Vancouver.
A Happy New Year to everyone!!!
… and a resolution that I will resume posting once more on a more frequent basis….
A few weeks back, I went to a specialist to address my ongoing battle with gout. For months, the situation was that I was hobbled by gout of varying severity that it was preventing me from doing the things I like doing especially my photography. Nearly everywhere I went, I had to take a cane with me to walk, albeit with some struggle. Taking painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs only worked in part. At one time, the gout was so severe that my family doctor mistook it for a potentially fatal situation of deep vein thrombosis that caused me to end up in the emergency room at the hospital. Followup visits with an Orthopedic surgeon wit MRI scans were inconclusive as regards to my gout.
So I went to a rheumologist who examined me, looked at my charts from the hospital and made the declaration that my gout is now chronic and will have to managed for the rest of my life. My uric acid levels were just too high and needed to be under the minimum level which gout manifests itself.
Now, I have tried the standard medication for gout control which is Allopurinol but my experience with it has been less than favorable. Taking the medication regularly always left me in a fatigued state and contributed to a lack of concentration which is critical for the sort of work I do. So the specialist put me on a new medication, Uloric which may have less side effects for me. So giving me first a regimen of steriods to take down the swelling I was experiencing so that I could start to walk again unencumbered, I was to start on a gradual program of taking Uloric.
It has been 4 weeks now since I have been on the new medication and I am feeling fine now. I can walk comfortably and I can reasonably eat a variety of foods now, not just the ones that do not increase my uric acid levels. But I have to accept the reality that I will need to be on this medication for years to come if I want to avoid future gout attacks
But I should not have to rely on medication alone. A strong contributor to my gout attacks is the fact that I am way overweight. Now, I did get the side effect benefit of this recent prolonged attack of gout in that I lost 20 pounds, primarily because I was afraid to eat nothing but carbohydrates to avoid intensifying the attacks. But I need to do more. If I get to an ideal weight of 180-190 pounds, that will lower the chances for future attacks and perhaps lead to a reduction in the dosage of Uloric in future (at $180/month, the medication is not cheap).
So I have to know what to eat in the future as I diet so to reduce weight but not encourage a return of the gout.
The key trigger to gout is when you consume a lot of purines (a form of amino acid) from food. Some foods are higher in purines than others notably organ meats. They are metabolised by several enzymes, including xanthine oxidase, into uric acid which if gets to a high level can crystalise in the tissues near joints giving you gout.
There are certain food recommended to eat and others to avoid:
Low purine diet :
To lower uric acid:
- cherries have been shown to reduce uric acid
- strawberries or blueberries (and other dark red/blue berries) are also reputed to be beneficial
- celery extracts (celery or celery seed either in capsule form or as a tea) is believed by many to reduce uric acid levels (although these are also diuretics).
- limit food high in protein such as meat, fish, poultry, or tofu to 8 ounces a day. Avoid entirely during a flare up.
Food to avoid high in purines, that is, high in DNA:
- sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, brains, or other offal meats
- sardines
- anchovies
- scallops, Prawns and Crabs
- alcohol, especially beer because brewer’s yeasts are very rich in purine (alcohol may also reduce the rate of uric acid excretion).
- meat extracts, consommés, and gravies
To use moderately:
- Vegetables: asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms and green peas
- Lentils, dried peas and beans
- Beef, pork, poultry, fish and seafood
- Oatmeal, wheat bran and wheat germ
- diet sodas (these act as diuretics in many people, causing uric acid to concentrate in the blood which can then easily precipitate)
To avoid dehydration:
- Drink plenty of liquids, especially water, to dilute and assist excretion of urates;
- Use sparingly diuretic foods or medicines like aspirin, vitamin C, tea and alcohol.
So any diet I will have to undertake to lose weight will need to factor these foods in mind.
One thing I do have to watch out for is rapid weight reduction. Lose weight too fast and it creates a high uric acid situation again. Remember, I lost 20 pounds in a fairly rpaid fashion which no doubt prolonged and intensified my recent gout attack. I do have time to lose weight gradually.
In many ways, it is like living life as a diabetic. For people with moderate cases of diabetes , you could take medication to control your blood sugar level but keeping a steady weight and watching your diet can provide the same benefit without medication. It’s just a bit harder to do than just popping a pill.
So this is my life now as a chronic gout sufferer. It is not where I want to be in life but I have to make the best of this situation and lead a normal life which is quote possible now with this new medication and some effort on my part to maintain a more healthier lifestyle.
Here are a few Jeff Foxworthy jokes about Canadians, forwarded to me by my sister. You would be a bit surprised on several of these actually strike close to the truth about us.
If your local Dairy Queen is closed from
September through May,
You may live in Canada .
If someone in a Home Depot store
Offers you assistance and they don’t work there,
You may live in Canada .
If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time,
You may live in Canada .
If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation
With someone who dialed a wrong number,
You may live in Canada .
If ‘Vacation’ means going anywhere
South of Detroit for the weekend,
You may live in Canada .
If you measure distance in hours,
You may live in Canada ..
If you know several people
Who have hit a deer more than once,
You may live in Canada .
If you have switched from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’
In the same day and back again,
You may live in Canada .
If you can drive 90 km/hr through 2 feet of snow
During a raging blizzard without flinching,
You may live in Canada .
If you install security lights on your house and garage,
But leave both unlocked,
You may live in Canada .
If you carry jumpers in your car
And your wife knows how to use them,
You may live in Canada .
If you design your kid’s Halloween costume
To fit over a snowsuit,
You may live in Canada .
If the speed limit on the highway is 80 km —
You’re going 90 and everybody is passing you,
You may live in Canada .
If driving is better in the winter
Because the potholes are filled with snow,
You may live in Canada .
If you know all 4 seasons:
Almost winter, winter, still winter,
And road construction,
You may live in Canada .
If you have more miles
On your snow blower than your car,
You may live in Canada .
If you find 2 degrees F, ‘a little chilly’,
You may live in Canada .
If you actually understand these jokes,
And forward them to all
Your Canadian friends,
You definitely live in Canada.
Sometimes we wonder if we are somewhat cursed as a family. Whenever our life seems to just become a bit better, disaster strikes us at the most inopportune time. We strive to overcome these setbacks and eventually we do but it takes a lot out of us and we wonder how further ahead in life we would be if these things do not happen.
Friday Evening
So it was on a Friday evening just three days before Andrea was due to enter the hospital to give birth to Patrick and I was sitting down in the living room reading my paper while Andrea took a bath upstairs. A few minutes later, Madeleine came downstairs to wish me good night but she greeted me with not a smile but an expression of horror. I could not understand what she was trying to say bu then she grabbed me by the arm to show me what she saw.
Turning the corner to the hallway between the foyer and the living room, I saw what she saw and what she walked through. Before us was a deep and spreading pool of raw sewage that was coming from the downstairs half bathroom. Our toilet had seemingly exploded.
I knew there was no time to waste so I went to the garage to get the shop vac to start sucking up the sewage. I must have sucked up 40-60 gallons of sewage and depositing it outside. The affected area was large and everywhere.
After getting the immediate situation under control, I put in a call to the local Roto Rooter to send someone out. My thought was that the whole problem was a clogged drain and when Andrea drained her bath, the water had nowhere to go but out of the downstairs toilet. So a quick run with the drainage snake to break up the clog would take care of the cause of the problem is not the aftermath.
So the plumber came out, checked that the clog was not on the city line thus was on my property. We went down to the basement garage to where the clean out valve was located. We positioned garbage cans around the valve to catch the outflow of sewage when the valve was released and believe me, it was a lot of sewage that came out. Pushing the cans out of the way, the plumber looked down the pipe and did not like what he saw.
He did not see a clog or obstruction down the pipe. What he did see was that the pipe had broken clear off from the outside pipe to the city line. Dirt from the ground above had settled into the area where the pipe should have outflowed and this was the obstruction that blocked the flow.
The plumber told me that the problem was outside of his means to fix and that I would need a specialist plumber to fix the problem. He said that if the problem required to dig up the pipe with a backhoe, the expense could run into the thousands of dollars. In any event, I could not use the plumbing in the house except for emergencies until the problem was fixed.
So here was my problem. I had no plumbing. My wife was supposed to go to the hospital in three days. I had to travel to South Carolina the next day to pick up Andrea’s mother to bring back to Winston-Salem.
Saturday morning
Despite the events of the night before, I decided I need a good rest to take on the day. My first call of the day was to my insurance company to put in the claim. They mentioned to me that they had on retainer, companies that specialised in disaster recovery such as home flooding. Then I put in a call to a friend of the family who is a contractor for some advice on dealing with this situation. He did give some advice but then also volunteered to come over to give Andrea some assistance on this matter while I was on the road.
With plans in motion, I set out for South Carolina. I did not want to do the road trip with so much to do at home but Andrea wanted her mother to be with her for the birth.
So our friend came over and started the process of removing carpet and vinyl flooring. A little later, the disaster recovery team continued the process as well as bringing in dryer to start removing the moisture in the plywood flooring and spraying all surfaces with anti-bacterial agents. The dryers were to be in the house all weekend and they were incredibly noisy. As well, it was advised to Andrea that since she was pregrant, it was not advisable to be in the home during this time. As we had no plumbing in any event, we knew we had to go to a hotel that night.
Saturday Evening
Like I mentioned before, we seemed to be afflicted with more than our share of bad luck. Looking for a hotel room proved more of an ordeal than we imagined because this was the weekend that the Furniture market was taking place in High Point and consequently, hotel rooms all over the Triad were booked solid. Mind you, I was still on the road when all of this was happening. I kept in touch with Andrea on the day’s progress via cellphone so I could not help her in figuring out where to find a hotel. She had to use the old fashioned Yellow Pages. Eventually, she was able to find a room on the North Side of town so I had to gather all of the family together including Andrea’s mother, luggage and other accessories when I arrived back in Winston late that night. It was about 9:30 that evening that I was able to settle down and relax.
So it was a most trying 24 hours that we experienced in our lives. But it was only the start of things for us.