My apologies in advance for the formatting...there are gremlins in the system I believe...I've tried several times to correct the spacing and it made teeny tiny print...so we're just going to have to live with this version....
Well, another week into the contract
and past the half way point now (that is if I leave on the scheduled date –
haven’t heard anything on the extension as the manager is away with labour
relations) as it’s been over four weeks since I said goodbye to the kitties in
the middle of the night. From this point on, the time will move even more
quickly…if that’s even possible….
I’ve been minding the distance this
past week as my youngest daughter’s 57 year old mother in law who was only
diagnosed five weeks ago with advanced lung cancer, was palliative and then
passed away. She was a kind, giving person who loved her family fiercely,
handled her fate bravely, left much too young and gave back to her community,
so will be missed by many. Yes, I know it’s a completely different diagnosis
and scenario but….there is survivor guilt for those of us fighting the good
fight as well as the helplessness of not being there to help as you see your
child and her husband having to do such difficult, grownup tasks. They managed
the situation with maturity and grace, honouring her wishes in a way which she
would have been proud of. I’m thinking they will welcome the space and
anonymity now of the urban life vs the rural area where everyone wants to
express condolences and speak of the deceased. I found that so difficult when
returning to work as a homecare nurse after my father had passed away…the
patients were his cohorts and they all wanted to say they were sorry and speak
of him. With time I welcomed the stories (many of which I hadn’t known) as a
great memory, but those first visits were tough. At the end of a very
trying week my baby girl had her 29th birthday but I'm not sure how that
happened as I'm only 29 myself....
I am writing this post in a
document and expecting to have internet access at least by later in the day to
post it. The server/satellite access was likely the reason I fought with
Picaboo yesterday to upload photos for a book in order to use my
voucher….Picaboo was the victor and I saved the organized pics to a flash drive
for a trip to the library at home I think. At this point we have no network
access on the system (and 30 minutes with musak from Yellowknife radio (where
it is incidentally 26c today) in my ear is my limit for being on hold with the
TSC helpdesk – why do they name themselves so, you would think they provided
assistance?) as they were providing a security patch over the weekend so
perhaps ran into troubles. A second phone call and I reached the TSC tech on
call who after some clicking and muttering, confirmed that yes there is no
external internet access across the territory, only the government system of
email and EMR – so at least we can see and enter patient information. He put a
ticket in to the geeks above him for as he said…a heads up that the calls will
start coming in. Temporarily this morning I couldn’t send texts although
that function has returned and of course I can use my data for online access.
I've been keeping track of my data usage as I wasn't sure I needed to
temporarily add on to my 3GB plan as it's much cheaper to add 1GB than be
billed for it, but if my calculations are correct, I’ll make it under that
limit by the bill date. Good thing I downloaded my eBooks yesterday
online.
Perhaps it’s atmospheric
conditions as the weather is nasty here, it snowed a lot Friday night and it's
My trip to the COOP on Friday yielded milk with an expiry date of June 23rd which is truly impressive here
as well as the not so impressive small container of $8.99 blueberries (this included the $1.04 nutrition north subsidy) and $3.49 grapefruit. I was assured by the clerk that dragon fruit seen here to the left is delicious but…at $7 each I decided I’ll sample those at southern prices, mind you in hindsight a better deal than the berries. As I was waiting in the checkout line I offered to let a local person ‘go ahead’ as I had more items. Now, at home if I saw someone buying yeast, raisins and sugar I’d suppose they were making raisin bread…in the north you suspect …home brew. It takes a while for the fermenting so no hazard to my on call (this) Saturday.
The work day continues to be quiet
and yes this is a setting where a nurse actually dares to say the Q word out
loud. One of the phone calls last week was this question “do you times it by
2.2 for pounds?” which I confirmed, this led me to believe that someone was
entering the fishing derby. Did have a phone call asking if the nurses could do
an injection for trigger finger? “Umm…no, that is definitely not in our scope
of practice, the physician does it” To which the patient replied that “yes the
Dr did it before, but I just wondered if you could, you nurses do everything”
Despite the vote of confidence in our abilities, I assured that the Doc was
just making it look easy, there are lots of nerves and blood vessels in the
joint and it was best to have the qualified healthcare professional do the
injection as losing the finger wouldn’t be convenient. The patient agreed and
then disclosed a duty travel trip to Inuvik on Monday… ahhh, the point of the
call – to see if I’d advise it was worth a walk in clinic visit “yes, go see
the Dr there, if not we’ll put you on the Dr list and it may be a couple of
months before we have a clinic here again”. The EMR, although I will
never think of it as a close friend is less of an enemy to me and I can usually
manage the routine functions.
When the most exciting event in your work week was cooking two hams (I am known as the ham nurse here) slicing and
delivering them to the school on Thursday afternoon for the Kindgergarten
graduation and feast…you know life is good. The community turned out to see our
two graduates march to Pomp and Circumstance (makes me teary every time) and
receive new bikes for graduation presents. Prizes were handed out to various
students from the school population of 11 – the only boy attending school
received the male athlete prize and was pleased with his odds. Our most senior
elder said grace in Inuvialuit and we feasted on turkey, ham, salads and more.
Although I am well compensated for
my work and expect to have deductions from my pay, being a nurse there have
been VERY limited occasions when I relied on the unemployment system as in a 12
week maternity leave in 1984 and sick EI in 2016. I realize that I live in a
system which is socialist based but…when I read this post online… EI
reviewed the hrs and its still the same.630 hrs to qualify. 20000.00 insurable
in 20 weeks or less gets u max ei of 547.00. more details to follow shortly….
It makes my blood pressure rise to think I am funding the camping vacations of
those in the Maritimes who have planned this as seasonal workers grrr.
Travel
sites have been popping up with ‘how to travel to Cuba without resorts’ which
is pretty much what we’ve done for 20 yrs now. This one isn’t too bad but I
took the opportunity to correct the statement of inability to access internet
in the casas as we had this service in both Cienfuegos and Trinidad.
One of the tours was advertised as a
catamaran tour to the ‘south coast’ and made it as far as Cienfuegos…hardly
what I’d call the south of Cuba. Sure could use some of that warm right about
now…
And since we’re discussing
travelling, here’s a link to an app you can download to find a bathroom
worldwide but…I’m guessing it wouldn’t work in Cuba if American based but I
plan to test it out in other areas for sure:
Crocheting play food continues and
the box I’m taking home is stocked as well as a Stantons food
order. Hopefully the kids enjoy playing with them as much as I enjoy making them. I am planning to take them as carry on considering the time I've spent. I also created two hats for a former coworker who is adopting a baby boy and one is a polar bear hat with a nod to her Inuk heritage, the other plainer in case they're not as fond of ears on hats as my grandchildren are. I'll mail it on my out to them in Dawson City. So, I've had busy fingers. 
Tonight at the edge of the snow
flurries over the sea ice there was….a beautiful rainbow. Can’t say I’ve seen
one in the snow, in June before…
