My time in Taloyoak has begun! I had an eventful day making my way here but nothing too serious happened, just stuff to include when I write my memoirs.
I was up in good time in Edmonton, out to grab a luggage cart and to the lobby for my booked shuttle just in time to see it pull away. Apparently it was full and was going to return for a second load of us. I join a group of mine employees making their way in to NWT and Yukon by charter airlines and a teacher who is returning to Hay River via WestJet to Calgary then Yellowknife - it's her first year in the north and she wasn't aware of Canadian North and First Air. I am the last dropped off at the terminal and pile my mound of luggage on a cart. When I check in, I am asked to prioritize my bags as the flight is full and likely only two of my four bags will accompany me. The action packer filled with perishables is the easy pick but I will surely remember for next time to make sure which one of the bags has both at least one uniform and my work shoes. The mature desk clerk tells me firmly while surveying my cable ties on the handles of my action packers "if you're going to fly around the north in the winter with these things make sure you wrap them with duct tape". I am advised to make haste as the security lineup in Edmonton is long this morning and wow they were not kidding. As I snake my way through the line and finally get through the screening process the scanner can't decide what all the electronics cords are so they swab my laptop and search my knapsack. Argh. The final boarding announcement for my flight is being called as I pull up in front of the gate and I am the second to last person to board the plane. The flight is completely full and I am stuffed beside a 6' 3" likely 300 lb field worker and his buddy on their way to Norman Wells.
I am relieved to make my way off the plane in Yellowknife through the terminal and over to Canadian North gate - this consists of a room at the end of the corridor with a desk for Canadian North and one for First Air. There is one other woman from Gjoa Haven and myself on the flight and the flight attendant walks us out to the 20 seat turboprop. We're greeted by the pilot who gives us weather and flight info in person and we're up and off. I feel like a rockstar on a chartered jet with all the personal service. It's a 2.5 hr. flight to Gjoa Haven over lots of snow and ice. We deplane for refuelling and hang out for about 20 minutes. Then about 1/2 hr over to Kugaaruk and another 1/2 hr to Taloyoak. I arrive by 4:30 pm and the First Air desk clerk calls the health centre to advise I've arrived. The local MLA arrives eventually to pick me up and we wrestle the one action packer and two duffle bags into the back of the truck. It feels like I'm having an asthma attack by the time we get these heavy things up the front steps then up the set of stairs to the apartment.
 |
| Refueling at Gjoa Haven |
 |
| Taloyoak Airport waiting room |
 |
| Canadian North baggage carousel |
I spend my evening getting things unpacked, making my bed and finding out that there is no cell phone service in Taloyoak. Oh well, will just have to skype. Needless to say I slept soundly! Yesterday morning my body was still on eastern time so I was awake before the alarm. The blu-light to reset my circadian rhythms in the 24 hrs of darkness worked well and I enjoyed 15 minutes of rays while I checked my email and the news after awakening. A quick breakfast, ready for work and the commute downstairs reminds of the years when I did case management and worked from a home office.
Introductions all around with very friendly staff and then an orientation tour with the SHP (nurse in charge) of the Judy Hill Memorial Health Centre. For those of you too young to have known or old enough to have forgotten the story is……in 1972 there were patients and a nurse (Judy Hill from Great Britain) who had just flown over from Taloyoak (at that time it was called Spence Bay) to Cambridge Bay to be medevaced out - a pregnant woman called Neemee Nulliayok, a 14 year old Inuk named David Kootook with appendicitis. The Dr. and nurse in Cambridge Bay arranged for Martin Hartwell, who had just flown prospectors onto the barrens, to fly the patients out, the weather was uncertain and the pilot wasn't cleared for instrument flying. The plane crashed between Cambrige Bay and Yellowknife and the nurse was killed on impact, the pregnant patient died several hours later, the pilot had two fractured ankles, left knee and nose fractured and the native lad helped him to survive in -35 c temperatures. The lad died at 20 days surviving that long off tree bark and Hartwell was found at 31 days physically okay but mentally very unstable as he had survived by eating the flesh of the nurse. I remember hearing of the search in the news and reading the story in Readers Digest of the ordeal but it is almost surreal to find myself working in the same community as Judy Hill once did.
 |
| Trauma / treatment Room |
The health centre is small and very functional. It reminds me of the older hospital I worked in when I first graduated - and those are positive memories of hard work and good times. There is however no lab (we draw samples, centrifuge and send to the plane), X-ray (the janitor or we do films and we try to interpret) or no physician present here. Well, I should qualify that - a physician is on call Mon - Fri 8:30 am to 5 pm and he visits monthly to do a clinic, there is a physician on call somewhere in the region after hours. There are computers but they are not used for scheduling or order entry, mostly email. And on Friday the email was down in Cambridge Bay as well as the phones so no one from IT there was able to phone and get me online. Just as well as I likely have 1100 messages as the inboxes continue to fill while you are not here. The patient registers, the chart is pulled and nurses take the chart off the top of the stack and call the patient in - very straight forward. I was a bit alarmed however to find out that I was first on call on my first day as I have limited understanding of how things work here. Lots of support here, the cleaning staff even found my glasses which I'd set on a shelf when they were steamed up as I brought my luggage in the first evening.
I convinced the second on call to answer the phone for me (no cells so you have to be in the apartment to hear the phone) as I took a trip to the Coop store after work for milk and eggs. The selection is a bit less than Cambridge Bay and the prices slightly higher but you can still certainly exist very well here. My Canada Goose parka, snow pants, Pang hat and sealskin mitts served me well in the - 45 c (with wind chill) walk down and back. I did put the grippers on my Boggs though as the roads are slick with ice from all the skidoo traffic.
Had a few calls in the evening and then an interaction with the RCMP later, a phone call at 4 am and another at 6 am, then up at 8:30 am to give report and see a patient. So all in all, not particularly eventful and today has been for the most part handled by the agency nurse who is first on call as I am her backup. There was a loud outburst which I heard this afternoon while surfing the net and hustled downstairs to see if my work colleague needed a hand - she didn't, but the RCMP in attendance asked if they'd woken me when he saw my hair. It was reassuring to know that if you yelled loudly that others would be able to hear and come rescue you so that's a good safety feature.
 |
| Living room |
 |
| 1 pm view from our window |
The apartment here is very spacious for two people and we have a large living room, two large bedrooms, a dining room and well appointed kitchen with everything you can imagine to cook with. There is a large storage room with deep freeze, lots of closets, cable is included and there is a large flat screen TV although neither my roommate from Moncton who is working with Homecare nor myself have turned it on. The health centre is on a bit of a hill so you can see out over the hamlet of approximately 900 people - nice spot. The 24 hours of darkness is not completely accurate as it is dark in the morning, a bit lighter at noon then almost pitch black by 2 pm on through. And yes it is cold but....it's a dry cold.
So, here's hoping for a quiet night. Not sure if that's compatible with the removal of the holiday ban to have liquor shipped in as there is quite a bit of ETOH in the community this weekend. Since there are only two RCMP who work 9 - 5 and then are on call 24/7, they share our wishes. Here's hoping.
