Tricia's Musings

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



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Why do I enjoy watching so many medical dramas on TV?

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You’d think that since I’m an ER nurse (well one that’s on medical leave) I wouldn’t be all that interested in watching medical shows on TV, but they are still one of my favorite form of television watching.

I used to love watching ER. Oh I’ll admit the early years of the show were the best, but I watched every episode right until the series ended last year.

Now this year a new crop of medical TV dramas are on ranging from more nurse oriented shows like Mercy, Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe to Trauma which covers the paramedic side of medical drama. I even watched the short HBO series Bloodletting and Miraculous cures – mainly because it was a series that developed from a book written by one of the ER doctors that I’ve worked with for several years.

I also watch House regularly, although as with ER I think the earlier seasons were better than what’s being produced lately. Likewise with Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. Geez there’s a lot of medical shows isn’t there? Maybe they all just need to take a multivitamin and they’ll get better?

These shows are full of errors – from having too many doctors and not enough nurses, to medical errors, to patients going from deathbed to miraculously healthy by the next day. LOL

Of all the new shows I think I like HawthoRNe best. It captures the emotions of being a nurse in the ER much better than most of the shows I watch regularly.

Although, just like Mercy, I don’t understand how the nurses that are supposed to work in one area end up working all over the hospital and even assist during surgical procedures. In real life, in a big hospital, nurses work where they are assigned whether it’s the ER, a medical floor or in the OR … they aren’t all over the place .. nor are doctors unless they are specialists – then they might be seen regularly in a few areas of a hospital over the course of a shift.

I think I like watching these shows because I can spot the mistakes and I get a little thrill when I spot them. LOL Maybe these shows keep me on my toes?

Anyway .. do you like watching medical dramas on TV? Which ones are your favorites and which ones could you do without?





How can I get my dog to let me cut her nails?

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I think it’s time to bring our dog to the groomers again. Midnight is a Lab, short haired and seems to be fairly clean, but man does she need her nails done.

She won’t let me trim her nails at all. It’s a huge fight from a dog that normally lets us do just about anything to her. She used to let me cut her nails when she was a puppy and in her first year, but all of a sudden last summer she didn’t want any part of it. Maybe something happened at the groomers that scared her off?

Anyway .. her nails are so long that I’m afraid just about every time I ask her to shake hands or when she gets excited and tries jumping up at me. Why? Well it’s because her claws dig into me and scrape my skin. Most days I get at least one fresh scrape on my arms, hands or legs.

I don’t heal well either. The scratches she leaves on me take a week or more to heal even though it’s really just a light scrape of the skin. By summer when I get a bit of color I’ll have scars all over me from our dogs claws scratching me. Hmmm I wonder if I could use some fade stretch marks cream to fade fine scars? Might work.

Anyone have any ideas as to how I can get my dog to let me cut her nails again? I have special nail clippers and one of those nail grinder thingies and she doesn’t want anything to do with either of them.

I’m so stressed out!

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I haven’t been feeling like my normally cheery self the last few days. Not even close …

I’ve had two colds or perhaps one loooong cold almost all year! Out of the 10 weeks that we’ve had so far in 2010 I’ve only had two that were cold free. That sucks! I do think I’m finally starting to recover from this latest cold though so maybe in a few days I’ll be done with this virus once and for all.

We’ve also continued to have trouble with our awful renter neighbors. They were supposed to be kicked out by the Sheriff on March 2nd … but as I suspected the home owners daughter in law didn’t do all the paperwork correctly so now they’re going to be evicted by the sheriff on the 23rd. Hopefully they pack up and move on their own this weekend or the next as I think if it comes down to a formal eviction things are going to get nasty. These people are just bad evil nasty people.

I’ve been more stressed the last few days because the renter neighbors – who’s turn it is this month to use the tiny shared driveway we have – have been having a lot of cars going in and out at all hours of the night.

I haven’t had much sleep in the last few days because our dog barks every time she hears our neighbors “visitors” slamming their car doors or talking just outside our house … you know at 2, 3 and 4 a.m! Grrrr

Plus my brother was visiting from Vancouver over the last week so I was staying up to try to keep the dog quite while our neighbors were doing whatever stuff they were doing in the middle of the night.

Now thanks to the cold and all the stress I’ve been under my Crohn’s is really acting up and my abdomen feels like I just had bariatric surgery or something. I mean … it hurts. I don’t want to do anything but lie on the couch and not move, because every time I move or drink or eat anything my abdomen hurts really bad. Damn Crohn’s. What a terrible disease this is.

Hopefully if I take it easy over the next few days my Crohn’s will settle down, my cold will go away and I’ll start to feel better. With any luck our awful renter neighbors will move out on their own as well … I know that will help me de-stress!

Go Canada!

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I can’t believe it, I’m sick with a damn cold again!

It started on Monday evening with a sore throat that progressed to a runny nose and a throat so sore I could barely swallow yesterday. I thought for a while that I might have strep throat, but my throat feels somewhat better today than it did yesterday.

You know when you have a sore throat and you realize that you’re actually not swallowing your own saliva? That’s how I was yesterday. I was avoiding swallowing.

I don’t feel all that well today – lots of fevers and like I said my nose is running a lot, but I’m a bit better than yesterday. Man I wish I could afford to check into one of the top Toronto hotels for some luxurious spa treatments right now. I’m sure some pampering would do me good. LOL

Instead of getting pampered I we’re going to be watching the big Olympic hockey game between Canada and Russia tonight. It’s just started. Man I hope Canada wins! If they do, they’ll go on to play USA for the gold on Sunday! Speaking of Hockey the Canadian women will be playing the USA for gold tomorrow evening. Again – Go Canada!

Ha! First Canadian goal in minute 3 of the game! YEAH!!!!! Go guys!

I know I have a lot of American readers but I have to root for my own country.

Are any of you watching these big hockey games or any of the other Olympic sports?

Migraines and Auras

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Over the past year I’ve had more headaches than I’ve had in a long time. I used to suffer from terrible migraines.

They seemed to start when I was about 12 years old and they were really bad until I was about 25 – then they just stopped. Well for a few they slowly started up again, but they were never as bad as during my teen and early 20’s.

Now it seems they’re coming back with a vengence. I get a migraine at least once a week and sometimes as many as three times a week. Each one lasts for half a day to a full 24 hour day. It’s awful … especially when they’re really bad.

I have a migraine now and If I know my body, I’d say it’s going to be a real pounder in about an hour or so. I’d so rather be reading about the best best fat burner for men or feed for cattle than be about to suffer from a massive migraine again.

I also get auras. When my headaches are really bad my vision is a little different. My peripheral vision seems to decrease and I get wavy lines at the sides … kind of like the Northern Lights. LOL Yes, strange.

However, Last July, October and in early January I got a different kind of aura – when I didn’t even have a headache! I started getting wavy almost pixelated lines in the middle of my vision. The first time it happened I was watching TV and working on the computer and I mistakenly thought something was wrong with the picture on the TV … until I realized I could barely read the words on my computer screen as well.

Within 15 minutes or so I could barely see at all. This was really scary the first time it happened! It was after Midnight and my husband was in bed and I didn’t think I could even get up to go and wake him up to tell him something was wrong with my eyes. Luckily after about 30 minutes the auras disappeared and then about two hours later I got a headache. The other two times this happened I never did get a headache.

From what I know of migraines (I worked in a Migraine and whiplash clinic as a nurse for 10 years (as well as my own experiences)) the auras were actual migraines … they just didn’t produce a bad headache or in two cases no headaches at all.

Compared to the pain of a bad migraine I think I’d almost prefer the “almost no vision’ aura migraines – well if they weren’t so darn scary, I would!

Do you suffer from frequent headaches or migraines? Have you ever suffered from auras or vision problems before, during or after a headache/ migraine?

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