Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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A week of appointments

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In a short while I’ll be leaving for my third doctors appointment this week! Three in one week is just too much.

The first was with my pain doctor. She finally prescribed a pain medication that I’ve alluded to in the past. I’m going to try it for the first time later this evening when my husbands home. I would have tried it earlier, but I have strange reactions to drugs – often in the form of allergic reactions, so it’s better that my husband is around, not sleeping and available to take me to the ER if necessary when I try it! I’ll write more about this new medication tomorrow after I’ve taken my first dose.

The next appointment was on Wednesday with my Gastrointernologist. Remember I swallowed that camera pill? The results were inconclusive because they still couldn’t see all of my small bowel! I have to go for even more tests! God I just wish I’d start feeling better and not have to go through all these tests etc.

Todays appointment is with the Occupational health doctor at the hospital where I work. I say work with a grain of salt because I haven’t actually done a shift there for 14+ months now due to this illness. There’s been no change for the better in my health so there isn’t much I can tell him. I might be coming down to the wire though were he might tell me that he can’t keep me off work indefinitely for much longer. I’m starting to face up to the fact that if I don’t start to get better soon I may end up losing a job that I love.

I’ll tell you how this last appointment went later today or sometime tomorrow.





Getting organized

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Thirteen Things about re-organizing my days

This is Thursday Thirteen #36

1…. Get a better sleep schedule – because of my illness I tend to stay up late or have trouble getting to sleep at night. As a result I tend to sleep in late in the mornings. I have to get out of that cycle in order to get organized. A better sleep cycle might also help make me feel better too.

2…. I want to dedicate at least one hour a day to visiting the blogs and web sites that I enjoy.

3…. Several reasons to visit other sites – one of them is that I don’t want my friends to think I’ve forgotten them. Bloggers like feedback, and I can’t expect to keep getting comments on my sites if I don’t start getting into the habit of visiting sites and letting other bloggers know that I like what they are doing.

4…. Another main reason to leave comments on sites that I visit (new and old) is of course to help bring some visitors back here. People do click on links in comments, or visit people that leave them comments. I’ve discovered some bloggers that I really like by clicking on comments that they’ve left me.

5…. I feel that some of my sites – this one is the worst- are getting cluttered, and I’d like to set aside at least an hour each day to work on maintaining my sites. Some are going to have new themes installed soon, but if I don’t make the time to do it, it will never get done. My gigantic web site needs a total overhaul. It’s so big it will take a solid week to redesign. I need to get working on stuff like that.

6…. It’s still winter here, but it is warming up. Again, I’d like to set an hour aside each day to get outside for a walk or bicycle ride. If I’m ever going to get back to work I need to get back into shape. As a nurse I lift, turn and even catch people all the time! I’ve got to be in shape so I don’t injure myself too! Plus, getting outside and getting some exercise will be good for me not only physically but mentally too. I spend far too much time indoors lately.

7…. If I can’t get outside for a walk or some outdoor activity because of weather or because of how I’m feeling I still need to try to do something indoors to increase my activity. I have one of those balance balls – maybe I should start using it?

8…. As the weather gets even better and my garden starts to come back to life I’ll need to add at least another hour to my schedule for garden work and garden maintenance. Gardening is good for the soul. It’s also good exercise- at least the way I do it. Remember I’ve coined the phrase “Extreme Gardening”.

9…. Since I’m still not back to work, the internet is my work place. I need to set aside a specific amount of time to work on my sites and to work on the type of things that help me earn money. Namely paid blogging. so ….

10…. I’ll set aside at least three hours each day to write articles for my various sites. I have 7 blogs and 2 websites that I actively work on (ok the websites aren’t daily work, but they do need some attention). My husband only has two blogs but I do help him maintain their design etc. I like to write articles in advance when I can. Why? Well some of my sites need me to stay on top of things – like the gardening site for example. I need to put a little research into some of my posts if I want to have quality information on that site. So setting aside some time for research and writing articles in advance helps me ensure that the quality of posts on each of the sites is good. I don’t like posting just because I should – and I don’t like posting drivel.

11…. Having articles for my sites written in advance helps on those days when I’m not feeling well and just can’t make myself write anything. It also helps when I’m working on my paid blogging posts because I have some good posts already in draft to put around the paid work.

12…. Working on the sites in order to make money needs at least three hours a day. At least on good days when there are decent writing opportunities available. I haven’t been doing as much paid blogging lately because I’ve gotten very picky. I want to write about things that suit my many sites. So hunting down worthy items that I think my visitors will appreciate takes some time.

13…. Ok so how many hours do I figure my days have to be? 1 hour for commenting and socializing, 1, hour for exercise, 1 hour for site maintenance, approximately 6 hours for writing, researching and paid blogging and an extra hour during gardening season so that I can keep the garden in top shape. That’s not too bad. 9 to 10 hours a day working from home and improving my health. That’s not too bad. Notice I didn’t list house-keeping? Oh oh … well some days there won’t be as much maintenance or writing needed on the sites so those days will have their extra hours devoted to keeping the home clean etc.

Sounds like a plan. I already do a lot of this, but it’s scattered throughout the day. Some of it, like the paid blogging will still be scattered here and there because the opportunities to make some money pop up at different times of the day. I think that if I can get myself to start working on this schedule I’ll feel a little more organized and perhaps a little healthier.

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Non Profit service to help those in need of drug rehab

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As a nurse working in a busy emergency room I can’t begin to count the number of times that I helped treat people with addictions who had either come into the ER on their own, or who were brought in by the police, often for some type of “Public nuisance” complaint.

Believe it or not the majority of the people suffering from one form of addiction or another that I’ve cared for in the ER wanted help. They knew they had a problem. They knew the drugs or alcohol abuse was messing up their life, or worse had already done a lot of damage to their life and relationships. They wanted help but they didn’t know where to turn in order to get the kind of help that they needed.

Unfortunately we can’t help them all that much in the ER. Oh sure, we do have a rehab clinic that’s associated with our hospital, but 4 times out of 5 when we’d call them to tell them we wanted to send someone over to them they’d tell us that they were booked up.

So when I came across 1800nodrugs.com’s site earlier today I was very pleased. You see, I can use that number myself, give it to a doctor treating a patient with addiction problems, or even give it directly to the patient so that they can get some help and advice about drug rehab. 1800nodrugs.com is an addiction treatment referral service.

It’s a non-profit organization that accepts toll free phone calls from people who are seeking drug rehab. People who want help but have no idea where they can go to get the help that they need. Much like many of the patients that I’ve seen come through our ER.

Check out the site for yourself. If you know someone that suffers from drug or alcohol addiction please give them the site address and phone number. You might help them get on the right track if you do.

I just thought of one other way that you might help others with drug addictions through this service – give the site address and number to your family doctor too. Your doctor might not be aware that such a service exists and he or she can give information about this non-profit service to patients that might be looking for drug rehab services.

Will Meridith on Greys Anatomy die?

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Wasn’t that a great episode of Grey’s Anatomy last Thursday? I can’t wait to see the third part of their little series of episodes.

Ok, so how many of you that watched last weeks show and think that Meridith is going to die? It’s one thing after another on that show isn’t it?

Personally I don’t think she’ll die.

You see I’m a nurse. Beginning with last weeks episode when she fell into the water I had a feeling that she’d end up drowning. However it’s winter time on the show and the water is cold which means that she became hypothermic in the water.

Evidence of this is of course when they were arriving her they first said her body temperature was only 80 F, and then it reached 81 near the end of the show.

I work in the ER. We’ve treated people who’ve drowned or passed out in the cold and seem dead when they are brought in. On those people you sometimes have to do CPR for HOURS until their body warms enough that all of your efforts begin to work (or not). I think the longest we’ve ever done CPR on a drowning victim found in the winter time was about 16 hours. You need a lot of staff to work at resuscitating a patient for that many hours because it’s exhausting work.

I’m sure people watching Greys Anatomy last night were probably wondering why they didn’t warm her fast. I actually wondered why they didn’t have a warm air bubble type blanket (warming blanket) on her like they did on the pregnant woman with the severely damaged face and chest that had just come out of surgery. The warming blanket would help warm Meridith up – but it works slowly. You can’t warm up a person with hypothermia too fast. It has to be gradual.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how they play this out in next weeks show- part three of three.

What do you think will happen?

Find the best prices for contact lenses at lensshopper

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I wear contact lenses almost daily and as a result have to purchase replacement contact lenses a couple of times a year. I’ve started purchasing my contact lenses online and there’s three things that I look for when I’m looking for an online contact lenses store.

One of the things that I look for is obviously “Do they have the brand and model of contacts that I like to wear?”. If the answer is yes then I move on to look at the prices of the contact lenses. If the price of the lenses is satisfactory I then also check to see if they charge for shipping, and how long it will take to receive my order once I make my purchase.

All of those things are important to me when I’m buying contact lenses.

I like lensshopper.com because I can look at the listings for my brand and click on the lowest priced item. Once I do that I’m taken to the Online store that is offering the lenses for the lowest price. You can also scroll down their list of lenses that begins on the home page, or use the search box above the listings to search for the make and type of lens for which you’d like to check prices.

Their systems certainly makes searching for the best price a heck of a lot easier. This is another site to be added to my bookmarks.

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