<![CDATA[Kopeability - Products & Services to take the edge off.]]>

<![CDATA[Kopeability - Products & Services to take the edge off.]]>Sat, 30 May 2020 13:33:45 -0300Weebly<![CDATA[JOINT FRIENDLY COMPUTER MOUSE]]>Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:08:53 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/joint-friendly-computer-mouse

An experiment with an ergonomically correct computer mouse.

This year I was thrown into the world of auto-immune conditions that knock me off my feet. No exaggeration. It started with my knees and I was a hobbling mess until the doctors figured me out. Thankfully, I am in treatment but my condition takes time to knock into remission. While I no longer limp, I have lingering neck joint issues and inflammation in my finger joints. Not what I would call fun but, as this site suggests, I am all about coping. Which brings me to today's joint friendly product of conversation.

Recently, my husband came home with a fancy new mouse for his work computer. It was an upright ergonomic mouse made by a Canadian company, Evoluent. I had never used one before and I was truly envious after holding it once. Not long later, he surprised me with my own. Yes, I am a very lucky wife!

I used the Evoluent mouse for the first time today for an extended period of time. I am pleasantly surprised at how my finger joints are not as sore as compared to my old traditional mouse. The idea is that your wrist and fingers rest in a natural position with natural movements. I do not have all of the functions figured out but I can tell you the following:
- my wrist is perpendicular, as opposed to parallel, to the table (i.e., no wrist twisting);
- my pinkie finger is supported by the outside curve of the mouse; and,
- the "clicklers" and roller require little to no joint manipulation.

It is a little pricy compared to a traditional mouse; however, if, like me, you use a computer daily and need the joint support, it might be well worth the investment. You can buy direct from the company at http://www.evoluent.ca/. Best of all it is a Canadian company. Love to support Canadian innovators!

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.
Maggie

]]><![CDATA[Bring me your weary Knees! Fun Flat Shoes to the Mobility Rescue]]>Sun, 09 Apr 2017 19:34:33 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/bring-me-your-weary-knees-fun-flat-shoes-to-the-mobility-rescue

Recently, I entered the foray of mobility misery. A long story that I will share another day. Suffice to say that my gait is reduced to an inelegant hobble and I have developed a whole new appreciation for flat footwear. Keep in mind that I have been a hard core pro-heels anti-flats gal since I was given the green light to wear heals by my parents.

This transition has been an exercise in frustration. To find flats that do not make me feel like I am 102 years, old and simultaneously accommodate my battered knees, has been a challenge.

So, when I saw the above photo for a New Brunswick company venturing to make a go of the fashionable flat shoe business, I had to take a look. What attracts me to these Cheena Baree shoes is the promise that they were designed with good orthopedic principles in mind. My knees are already begging for their cushy relief. The fact that they are appropriate for all genders and all ages, is an added bonus.

I do not know the folks behind Cheena Baree, so I can honestly say that I have no personal connection to the creator. But, I do fully disclose that I have a financial interest. The company, Cheena Baree, is bravely entering the Kickstarter realm to make it work. To that end, I invested in their Kickstarter by pre-purchasing a pair of shoes. The way Kickstarter works is that the company presells the product to be launched. Those who prepay, like me, only get the product once all of the target funds have to be raised.

So, check them out and, if you are interested, help give them a kick start! Come on, Maggie needs a new pair of funky shoes!!!

Maggie

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

]]><![CDATA[Do not let shaky hands stop you from playing cards - use this smart tool]]>Wed, 16 Nov 2016 19:46:18 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/do-not-let-shaky-hands-stop-you-from-playing-cards-use-this-smart-tool

Yesterday afternoon I was waiting for my children to finish up their after-school art class. Per usual, I chat with my friend, Terry Monaghan, who is likewise waiting for my niece.

Terry is a carpenter by joy. That is, it is something he works hard at doing and takes pride in what he accomplishes. Furthermore, Terry likes to problem solve. The difference between many problems solvers and Terry is that he actually sees his solutions through to fruition. His latest creation, a card holder for is truly a Terry Monahan original.

To explain, Terry was inspired to create a card holder specifically for playing cards. His inspiration came from watching the elderly and people afflicted with mobility or arthritis issues while trying to enjoy a game of cards. With his holder, a player can easily see and manipulate up to 15 cards (3 across with 5 rows). He cuts, stains and varnishes each holder by hand.

I asked Terry if I could feature his work on this site as I have no doubt these holders are useful and thoughtful, especially at Christmas time. If you or someone you know is being held back from this age-old game, please give Terry a call (506) 651-5566) or drop him an email (tcmterry@yahoo.com). They are $10.00 Canadian, no HST.

Like all of the other products and services I have featured on this site thus far, I do not get any pay, commission or reward for the feature.

No single copying strategy will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

Maggie

]]><![CDATA[Asperger Experts]]>Wed, 26 Oct 2016 13:00:23 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/asperger-experts

A group of young people with Asperger's Syndrome started a website called Asperger Experts and it is really taking off. They share information and offer courses on a wide variety of topics from the viewpoint of a person with Asperger's Syndrome. It is a unique and wonderful initiative. They offer courses (e.g., getting out of defence mode) but they also offer excellent free videos. Danny, the speaker, is articulate and relevant. The information and tips definitely have wider application than Asperger's Syndrome.

Here are my favorite videos from Asperger Experts:
1. Want to know why someone with Asperger's wants to sit and play video games all the time? Watch this video on How Asperger's Works or this video on Why People with Asperger's Play Video Games.
2. Want to understand how simply learning skills can improve the quality of life of someone with Asperger's? Watch this video on Overcoming Asperger's with Skills and Don't Try to Fix Your Asperger Child.
3. Want to convince your Asperger's child that good health is more than just eating to avoid hunger? Watch this video on Asperger's and Exercise - An Interview with Brandon Kelly.
4. Want to help your Asperger's child cope and have fun at high activity events and parties? Watch this video on Aspergers and Special Events.
5. Trying to decide whether to tell your child of a diagnosis? Watch this video on Should I Tell my Child (s)he has Aspergers?

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

Maggie

]]><![CDATA[Reflexology as a coping technique]]>Wed, 05 Oct 2016 14:20:52 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/reflexology-as-a-coping-technique

Reflexology uses pressure points in the feet and hands to purportedly affect changes in the body. In my words, it is a damn fine foot massage!

I have been interested in reflexology for some time. When my mother was ill with cancer she was not terribly mobile. This meant that she suffered from many ailments associated with lack of activity. Her digestive system wasn't always great, her breathing wasn't the best and her joints would stiffen up.

In typical-me-fashion, I headed off to the bookstore and purchased a how-to guide on reflexology. Armed with my new literature I set upon my test subject. Luckily Mom was not ticklish and was more than happy to have someone massage her feet. She told me that her body definitely felt better. I am not sure if it was because of the exact pressure points I focused on, or simply because she liked getting her feet rubbed.

Mom seemed to love the foot massages so much I started massaging my son's feet. He was having digestive issues and I figured it could not hurt. He definitely liked getting his feet rubbed but he invariably fell asleep. Definitely not a waste of time because a sleeping child equals a happy me. I wouldn't say that his digestive problems suddenly went away, but I would say he was more relaxed which may have helped get things moving.

Now it was my turn! I wanted in on the action. My husband would have been the obvious choice but since we got married the quality of his foot rubs has declined. I would get a better massage from my 7 year old poking my foot with a crayon. I maintain I was duped into getting married on the false marketing of a husband with foot massage capabilities. I have stayed with him for 14 years so his other virtures seem to have stuck. But I digress...

In an effort to secure a reasonably priced foot massage I booked an appointment with a local registered massage therapist, Paige Danaher, who happens to practice reflexology. The fact that her clinic, Stillpoint Clinic, is located in my town of Grand Bay-Westfield is a bonus.

Having booked my appointment, I arrived at Paige's clinic with hopeful, but cautious expectations. Could someone actually rub my feet for a whole hour? Apparently, yes. Could it feel like heaven on earth? Absolutely. Did I fall asleep doing the elegant and dignified sleep spasms of a drunk jerking chicken? You bet. BEST FOOT MASSAGE OF MY LIFE!

Without a shadow of a doubt, I felt better after the reflexology session. I was more than happy to attribute my relaxed state to the footwork inducing short snooze. It was like I had taken a sedative. When I resurfaced I was dreamily dazed with suddenly clear sinuses. Extra bonus: as an RMT, Paige's massage is reimburseable under my health plan.

Definitely try out reflexology if you are looking to ease some tension or simply to keep your dogs from barking.

No single coping technique can take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

Maggie

]]><![CDATA[Suicide Prevention App and Trans-Canada Concert]]>Wed, 07 Sep 2016 15:12:36 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/suicide-prevention-app-and-trans-canada-concert

I know of two families who lost someone to suicide in the past three months. I don't know either very well but it doesn't take much imagination to figure their gut wrenching pain must be suffocating. I cannot begin to contemplate how they cope.

In honour of suicide prevention week (Sept 5-11) and suicide prevention day (Sept 10), I combed the internet for resources. I was overwhelmed in a very short period of time. Trying to weed through the information while in the throes of grief must be impossible. So, I am just going to highlight one product and one event in this post. There are certainly many other resources available, I simply chose two for the sake of starting the conversation.

Product: The product for this blog is The Lifeline app. It is not to be confused with the video game "Lifeline", a completely different app. The Lifeline app is available for both Apple IOS and Android.

While originating in western Canada, The Lifeline is intended to be national in scope. According to their website:

"The LifeLine is Canada's National Suicide Prevention and Awareness App that offers access and guidance to support for those suffering in crisis and those who have suffered the devastating loss of a loved one from suicide. The LifeLine also provides awareness education and prevention strategies to guide people in crisis all across the Globe."

The app sweeps through many resources for crisis prevention and awareness by drawing on established entities such as the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Canadian Mental Health Association and the International Association for Suicide Prevention. For example, if you feel you are at risk for suicide, click on "Need Help" from the home page and then "What else can I do to decrease thoughts of suicide?" There you will find an article on "Coping with Suicidal Thoughts." Or, if you are trying to help someone struggling with suicidal thoughts, click on "More" from the home page and then "How can I help someone?"

Coping-wise, there are many useful coping strategies and techniques found by clicking "More" on the home page and then "Pattern Interrupts." I found everything from graphics depicting depression and TED Talks, to Ways to Improve Your Mood and Self Management.

It is clear from this app that warning signs are key and can often be dismissed or overlooked. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention warning signs are set out in their "IS PATH WARM" acronym. If you take anything from this blog, please remember this acronym. If you are willing to take it another step, please share and like this blog with links to The Lifeline app.

Event:
The event I want to share with you is the Mysterious Barricades Concert. On September 10, 2016 at sunrise, musicians in St.John's Newfoundland and Labrador will begin a musical concert. As the St. John's concert ends, the music is picked up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and so on. The music will be "passed" from the Canadian east to west culminating in a final concert at sunset in Victoria, British Columbia. In all there will be 18 hours of music from 13 different cities. All concerts are free and may be streamed live on the website.

The mission of the Mysterious Barricades organization is described as follows on the website:

"To bring the gift of music to Canada on World Suicide Prevention Day, to raise awareness surrounding the mysterious barricades between mental illness and health, between the darkness of depression and a flicker of hope, between life and death. To encourage public discourse about the prevalence of suicide and measures for suicide prevention. To encourage the formation of community by those impacted by suicide, and to raise funds for education and support for those at risk and those impacted by suicide."

The inspiration for the Mysterious Barricades concert is a response by Elizabeth Turnbull to the suicidal death of her husband, Chris Kubash. Click here for the Edmonton Journal article she wrote to explain the concert's background. I draw your attention to this interesting aspect of the article written by Ms. Turnbull:

"My one request was that Les Barricades Mystérieuses, Chris’ favourite harpsichord piece, be played on as many different instruments and in as many locations as possible. Each rendition will be singular in its sound and interpretation, in many ways a reflection of the fact that each human mind is the same, yet unique in its workings."

I hope you join me on September 10th and listen to the message inherent in the Mysterious Barricades concert.

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.
Maggie

]]><![CDATA[Dealing with Food Sensitivity: Elimination Diet and Probiotics (Bio-K)]]>Tue, 19 Jul 2016 03:00:00 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/elimination-diet-and-probiotics-bio-k

Have you ever heard the phrase "your gut is your second brain"? Our doctor explained how the health of your gut (from your stomach downward and outward) affects your mood and mental health. For us, we know first hand that when your gut is disobedient, it can be hard to cope.

The pain of a disobedient gut:
Our oldest son has significant problems processing wheat and dairy. The idea of an elimination diet came up when our son was complaining of constant tummy aches. The doctor's x-ray showed he was full to the brim of both ends of his gut.

Off we went to the pharmacy for an enema and Restorolax (aka PEG). The enema the doctor recommended was fairly strong but that was what our son needed at the time. It worked but not after my little boy turned a grotesque shade of grey-white and endured some terrible elimination pain. He begged me to never give him that medicine again. I can understand why. The PEG is used to retrain the organs but it isn't a permanent solution.

In our household we embrace traditional medicine with both arms and try to prevent and support on our own where possible. This means that once our son's urgent care needs were under control, we set off on a preventative medicine mission. For our son, that meant an elimination diet and high quality probiotics.

Elimination Diet:

There are many elimination diets on the web and at the bookstore. We consulted with a medical professional to confirm what constitutes a healthy and non-offensive diet for growing young boys. We put both our boys on the elimination diet because we also had a son with bleeding puffy eczema-inflamed cheeks. It was a bonus that neither boy felt left out and it worked well for us as parents to have all in the household eat the same food.

Gradually we reintroduced foods to their diet. Within 10 days our oldest showed remarkable gut function improvement and our youngest's skin cleared to a sweet pinkish hue. We watched and observed how they responded to each new food. For one son, dairy and wheat were the offenders. For our other son, strawberries and oatmeal were to blame.

To be clear, an elimination diet is tough and wildly inconvenient for the whole family. That said, the rewards of being able to pinpoint where things fell off the rails are well worth it. Half of my frustration as a parent is the constant guessing. Is this right? Is that right?

Once we had a better line of sight as to what had to be removed from our son's diet, we set off trying to figure out what needed to be added. For our family, the main addition was probiotics, which leads us to our product review for this post.

Probiotics
Product: Bio-K comes in fermented rice, fermented soy or fermented milk in a variety of flavours.
Supplier: You can buy this at many health food stores but you might want to call ahead to avoid driving all over town. A couple of times I ran across it in major grocery stores but the selection was limited. You can find a point of sale or order online using Bio-K's website.
Website: https://www.biokplus.com/en_ca
Claim: "As shown in peer-reviewed clinical studies published in scientific journals, Bio-K+® is a 100% probiotic product with proven benefits and effectiveness on human health.

Bio-K+ Strong/Antibiofix (50 billion) capsules: Helps reduce the risk of diarrhea due to antibiotics and the risk of diarrhea due to Clostridium difficile in hospitalized patients. This is the ONLY probiotic product in the WORLD to make such a claim!.
Based on sound clinical studies published in the most prestigious medical journals, such as the American Journal of Gastroenterology, these claims confirm that Bio-K+® is a safe product with proven results.
The bacterial concentration in Bio-K+® products is guaranteed upon consumption, rather than on the manufacturing date, as is the case for many other probiotics on the market (it’s always useful to know the exact amount of probiotics we’re ingesting!)."

(Source: https://www.biokplus.com/en_ca/about-probiotics#why-bio-k)
Our take: The first couple of times drinking the product were a little nose-wrinkly but not offensive. We took the position that it was an acquired taste and there was no reason we couldn't acquire the taste. Yes, everyone in our house tried it. No need to make our sons feel out of place and probiotics are good for all of us. Bio-K definitely helped restore our son's gut to a state of stability in combination with a reasonably adhered-to diet. The rest of us noticed a generally improved ability to ward off illness, i.e., we cannot say we were X% better but we did feel better.

Not everyone has to drink a full bottle each time. We saw benefits with our son just consuming a quarter of a bottle. These days they have vanilla and strawberry just for kids. As far as I know, the kids line is provided as fermented milk only. Where we were trying to avoid dairy in our son's diet, we went with the blueberry fermented rice. No problems at all with getting it down.

While we do not necessarily need probiotics as a regeneration response to a serious physical problem like our son's locked gut, we do stock up at strategic parts of the year. For instance, the beginning of the school year is fraught with icky sticky colds. As well, the dead of winter and the first few weeks of spring seem to be prime times for our bodies to revolt. At those times of the year, or at any time when the mere whiff of a cold rears up, we immediately pump the probiotics into our bodies. Most times we are successful at warding off illness. Even if not successful, the ailments tend to be short lived and less arduous.

Colds aside, I like the positive effect a quality probiotic has on my family in terms of mood. The gut is, after all, the second brain!

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

Maggie

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]]><![CDATA[The Listening Program]]>Thu, 07 Jul 2016 01:05:47 GMThttps://kopeability.weebly.com/products--services-to-take-the-edge-off/the-listening-program

Product: The Listening Program
Supplier: Advanced Brain Technologies
Website: http://www.advancedbrain.com/
Claim: Improving your learning, focus, listening and communication. Specifically "TLP involves listening to acoustically-modified instrumental music through high-quality headphones, or our Waves™ multi-sensory audio system to reduce stress, improve focus, self-regulation, learning, memory, and more."
(Source: http://a.advancedbrain.com/tlp/the_listening_program.jsp)
Our take: Both my son and I tried the music along with the headphones. The headphones were expensive. I asked if I could buy the headphones locally and just buy the CDs from the supplier. No go. So, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. That was 4 years ago. We still have the headphones and I have to say they are spectacular. The sound is incredible. Unfortunately, the music on the CDs themselves didn't resonate with our son. He even complained that when he listened to them before sleep he would invariably get nightmares. So, we kept the headphones, parked the CDs on the shelf and used spa music CDs I bought locally.

If anyone wants to try the CDs, contact us and we are happy share. We would love to find out if someone else can have a different experience.

No single coping technique will take all the pain away.
Try anyway.

Maggie

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