Just checked the posts and realized that it's been a week since I updated the blog. The time does fly by up here. It's been a steady week and tonight for supper we hosted the staff dinner (which was supposed to be held at Christmas but didn't happen) with a roast turkey feast. I'm too stuffed to settle down to sleep yet. So to recap the week just ended....
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| Arctic char for supper yum |
My roommate and I had arctic char for supper last Sunday as someone came to the door selling it, offered to filet it and so and we baked it. Yum. It's sort of like salmon, or sea trout but a better milder flavour. Have some more to take home and some left from my last trip so will have to have friends over for supper (you know who you are) when I'm back. Last weekend while we were enjoying our fish here, in Nova Scotia it was a wild ride of blizzard, wind and power outages. The shore captain wrote a cryptic email saying that he'd had four hours of broken sleep in his office chair in the previous 39 hours as he babysat $200,000 worth of lobsters in the tank house. He moved those from his satellite office to world headquarters as that meant only one generator to keep running. All this with his main employee on the way back from Disney World so doing it solo. There was also the incident of having the fishing boat break down and 28 hours later arriving with the Coast Guard towing them to the fairway buoy and then the boy captain bringing them to the wharf from there with the lobster boat, although it's a short distance it took over an hour and was described as towing a transport with a half ton truck with the transport putting the brakes on occasionally, which was the equivalent of a wave hitting them periodically. So, although call shifts have been busy here, he wins for the busiest weekend award.
I have this past week though, learned to do an X-ray and could likely stumble through it with the manual by myself if I had to now. We only do chests and appendages. The most difficult part was feeling in the complete darkness (there was no red light) of the dark room to open the plate and get the film out and into the machine and then a new film into the plate for the next one. I kept worrying I was going to lose a finger to the machine when it inhaled the film to process. We send the x-rayed person home on crutches and this involves a very small, stubborn grandma attempting to piggyback a child taller than her down the steps to the snow machine although I clearly instructed her to use the ramp. When they came precipitously close a second time to both tumbling down the stairs I headed out in my uniform on to the steps at -53c and read them the riot act. She finally relented and they headed down the ramp with me waving my arms like a traffic cop and yelling over the skidoo. Nothing like putting someone in a car in front of the hospital in the rain, nothing. It turns out my roommate was watching horrified from the upstairs window, unable to do anything as the window was stuck shut and when she sees me appear on the scene was relieved. I get to bed after midnight.
Although I'd been hoping for a quiet night after that, it was not to be as I was awakened at 0245 hrs by someone with an allergic reaction that had been going on for several days, been back and forth a few times for benadryl and it had worn off again, so I gave her another injection, told her to stop scratching and crawled back into bed. At quarter to five I have another phone call this is from the C.A.R.S. (Community Aerodrome Radio) operator who deal with the airport who tells me "your medevac flight will be here within the hour". I assure them that we don't have a medevac going out as there is no one here at the health centre and try to fall back asleep. The next call says "your medevac will be here in 20 minutes" which I again dispute as we are not evacuating anyone, "well it's Discovery Air the fuel truck operator told me and they do your medevacs". I can't help it, no medevac here - do you want me to call Nellie? "This offer is declined. Well, I'm going to have to call the pilot then" to which I reply "you do that and if it's not for me, don't call back". By six a.m. I am still awake and hear the loud roar of the plane land as it can be heard all over the hamlet in the stillness, usually we're really busy and don't hear it. Apparently it was a plane chartered for the Rangers as they'd hoped to go overland to Cambridge Bay on a winter training mission but the current is keeping the sea ice open in some areas so needed to do a fly over to see if the route would work - it won't - so they're going to Gjoa Haven instead. I just dozed off when a grandmother brings in a croupy three year old who we fix with dexamethasone and he's recovered within the hour. By then my work day has started. It passes in a busy blur as I am fried. Mind you I do remember that I see children named Lazarus and Samson in the same day - rather biblical eh?
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| Electric power plant |
We have had large numbers of children, especially small babies, premies and those with other illnesses in with bronchiolitis from RSV. Those who are struggling more are usually the bottle fed ones in homes with smokers, or those who smoke with babies in the amauti. We've had a few parents who smelled so strongly of weed that I insisted they remove their jackets and wash their hands. I asked about grow ops here as pot smoking is not uncommon and was told that this isn't possible as the electricity is produced locally by burning fuel and so the offenders would be easily caught. Hmmm. The bronchiolitis requires frequent aerosols or inhalers and reassessments at the health centre for many days and the cough stays often for weeks. One of the grandmothers who brings her adopted baby for a recheck on Saturday evening says she doesn't trust to leave her bingo cards with her husband as he's so deaf. I tell Nellie "under the I - 24 and she says "B is for baby or bronchiolitis not for bingo" as she's very displeased. Nellie often has sayings that are in different order than I'm used to - perhaps her Jamaican roots - and when we are discussing writing the no shows on the charts for parents who haven't returned as requested with their children for rechecks, especially one very difficult family she says "that one will come back with teeth on it" as opposed to 'that'll come back to bite you'. But the sentiment is the same.
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| First Air in from Gjoa Haven |
I took the dental team to the airport on Saturday and the dentist was asking me about the treatment for bronchiolitis as he'd been hearing all the yelling from the exams and treatments the past week. I explained the aerosols and commented that if they yelled the medicine got into their lungs better although the parents weren't pleased with it and that was likely why they didn't give the aerosols as often as they should at home with the machine. He said that it wasn't uncommon for them to be discussing doing a dental extraction for a two year old and the parents to ask the child if he wanted it done. More often than not the kid refuses so they say "he doesn't want it" and take him home. "Yeah, to come back some night to see the nurse at 4 a.m. with a dental abscess" I say. I headed out to the airport a second time to pick up the ultrasound tech who was flying over from Gjoa Haven and snapped this photo of the plane landing, can't you just see how cold it was?
It's been a good weekend though all in all. Heard from my buddy at home who is awaiting her first grandbaby and all the emotion that will bring. The lady who is making my kamiks came to do a personal fitting this evening - they're going to be black leather bottoms, sealskin sides and green duffel liners - anxiously waiting for them to be done. Had a chat with the life partner and can't believe I turned down a chance to travel to Boston as he is planning to take in the Boston Seafood Expo but...it's the first weekend I am home so I'm taking a rain check and he'll head along with some industry counterparts. My roommate is getting ready to desert me as she's shipping out on Friday and moving on to a job share in Aklavik which is a community in NWT. I shall miss her as we share a twisted sense of humour and she likes to eat my cooking (cranberry scones being her personal favourite although the blueberry and chocolate chip weren't bad) which is helpful as I like to bake but don't want to eat it all so I can get into my jeans to wear home. I am pleased that she has found some security in her work life though. This quote is the advice I've given her as she begins her new career as a CHN. I shall need to remind myself of it as well as we head into a new workweek.
