Welcome back

Well, I am settled in and living my spring life north of 60. It's pretty close to 24 hours of daylight but….there are supposedly about three hours of dusk in the middle of the night. However, last night while on call as I looked out the window at 1:30 am in good light and saw a pick up hockey game in progress on the ice near the COOP, a toddler walking down the road with his grandmother following, skidoos zipping around across the lot in front of the new health centre, a group of preteens playing on the steps of an empty building next door and the street in front of the craft store filled with a crowd of kids…I thought - oh yes, that's right you're north now. It goes without saying that the nurse on call had a quiet morning as the community slept in. Although I was second call I managed to have a relatively quiet day including a nice walk down to the sewage lagoon with the coworker and mental health worker. The only task was a house call. The home care nurse will be here Wednesday so will handle the in-house visits. It's a former roommate who's coming back so I'm pretty excited - she has put her order in for scones already. 

My commute to work is getting routine and the travel Gods smiled on me yet again. As I was waiting in the departure lounge in Halifax, I was paged to the gate and the agent said "are you travelling alone?" when I replied "yes" she said "I'm going to change your seat" so I agreed "as long as I get a window seat" and she smiled and said "oh, I'm giving you a better seat, we've got to get those Aeroplan points working for you" and indicated I was being moved to Executive Class. It's been over 20 years since I sat up there. Not only was I upgraded but I had a window seat in the front row so leg room for a 6 ft. passenger. For those less fortunate in their travels I can share that some of the amenities include warm washcloths before a lovely breakfast is served with cloth napkins and real silverware. Too bad it was on the shorter segment of my journey but I certainly did not look any gift horses in the mouth. Had a very comfortable nap and awoke on the descent to Toronto. A very brief wait at Pearson and on to Edmonton. A window seat but none of the accoutrements of the morning - I did however, watch the movie The Monuments Men and it was excellent. I don't usually watch war movies but George Clooney et al convinced me that it would be worth it and it was! Had a wonderful afternoon with my two girlies in Edmonton where we had a snack then shopped at the mall - Davids Teas and The Body Shop (essentials for northern contracts) before heading to Walmart for the spring provisions. With three of us sourcing groceries the shopping went fairly quickly. A stop at the hotel to tear off the excess packaging, load up the action packers and send them to the hotel cooler for retrieval in the a.m (have developed this scheme so they'll be brought to me on a cart as I catch the shuttle vs me wrestling them out of the room and down the corridor) and to print my boarding passes. Off to have supper at Canadian Brewmaster - good meal and visit for the three of us before the electrician daughter headed back to Bowden for work in the am. 

The baby daughter slept over and I snuck out in the early a.m. to catch the airport shuttle. I've learned to insert myself firmly at the first of the queue for the van and stare down any oil workers who attempt to butt in line. In to Canadian North - my action packers weighed 48 and 49 lbs each (the new limits are 50 lbs per bag) and my duffle bag passed - on to the oversize conveyor belt and scanner and I am free with only a knapsack. Ahh. I console a chocolate lab who waits patiently with only a sigh beside the scanner in his kennel. Through security, time to check the online world and then zip up the jacket for the boarding - no jetports from Edmonton onwards. A beautiful day to fly, warm breakfast and a nap then we're landing in Yellowknife. Oh, definitely much cooler here - I so want to pull out my hat and mitts but the Inuit on the plane with me stroll with open jackets to the terminal, so I resist. As I come through the door I meet an elder from this community who is attempting to get home but apparently someone in medical travel used her Inuit name which doesn't match her health card so her escort is attempting to sort the situation out in the hour remaining before boarding. I find a mother/daughter from Taloyoak in the departure lounge and as I'm waiting the dentist recognizes me and comes to have a chat. He is going in for a ten day clinic which is part of a five week tour of the region. The elder and her escort have joined us, so apparently the name snafu was sorted out, but now the escort hasn't been checked in - they are having their troubles. We head out to the Dash 8 and climb the steps. The flight attendant firmly instructs us to take our assigned seats and I smile and say to her "how is that working out for you?" as it's been traditional for years that Inuit climb on the plane and sit wherever they choose, if you were to try to approach them with your boarding pass in hand and insist on your assigned seat, you'd likely be met with a blank stare and the indication that the passenger doesn't understand English. "I'm sure it's not going to work at all" the flight attendant replies with a smile. She makes the announcement repeatedly and finally says "you just have to keep these seats for take off and landing due to weight distribution, you can move around after the seat belt sign comes off". A routine flight to Cambridge Bay and we are down for a refuelling service stop. We meet a passenger from the previous

High Arctic view

day because the flight yesterday went mechanical here and instead of making her ultrasound and mammography appointment in Yellowknife, she has overnighted in Cambridge Bay and is returning with us and will be rescheduled. A lovely day for flying, clear blue skies, lots of clean snow, blue stretches of sea ice and brilliant sunshine. Not sure what you saw on your commute today but I just have a feeling of coming home when I look out the plane window. 

We are down on time in Taloyoak and I explain to the flight crew that I'll see them in July when they take me home. I head in to the terminal and see more familiar faces, including the health centre caretaker who has come to pick me up. He tells me that they expected me yesterday (boy HR sure was determined to have

Awaiting the luggage

me here a day early) and wondered why I hadn't shown up. I am greeted with "welcome back" by a number of community members and we're off to claim luggage. I am ecstatic to discover both my action packers and duffle bag have arrived and are being ejected from the back of the pick up truck aka luggage carousel. We drop the dentist at the hotel and continue on to the health centre. I am amazed at the progress of the new health centre construction. I introduce myself to my coworker and the acting nurse in charge (both from Ontario and experienced northern nurses) and am welcomed by the support staff. Up the stairs with the perishables, 

 unearth the gifts of coffee for the staff, over to the COOP for milk and eggs (no hamburger) and suddenly it's suppertime. After retrieving my stored goods and settling myself into the apartment it was an early bedtime. 

I headed down to count narcotics at 9 am and discovered that I can't read a calendar properly as I'd thought I was on call Sunday. Nope - today! Good thing I had breakfast first. A relatively quiet on call day - quite a few people out on the ice seal hunting for ringed seals  - just some sore ears, teething, rashes and bladder infections. My last visit at 10 pm is the final one for the night. I am amazed that I have been allowed to sleep when the alarm went off this am. 

I looked out the window this morning and realized that a polar bear hide was stretched out on a frame leaning against a house in front of the health centre. Ah, what would the Coca Cola advertising machine think of that? Mind you, they sell enough of their teeth destroying elixir to northern people, so shouldn't worry about those marketing symbols being traditionally killed. 

Well, time to wrap this up and hit the sack. Getting back into being employed again always takes some work. Had a bit of a warm up with the mission but nothing like being an independent practitioner again. Ahhh, back to the routine.