I made my way over to the ATM at the COOP this afternoon, because there is no bank in Taloyoak, to get some cash out to pay for my kamiks as I had a call from the lady yesterday who sewed them, saying they were going to be ready. She called to say she has one put together but wanted to make sure they fit so came over for a fitting - I was excited to try them on, they look great! They're black hide bottoms, sealskin legs and green duffle liners with embroidery. Feel like you're only wearing socks. She told me to wear them on alternate feet each time I put them on so there is no left or right and you don't get the big toe stretched out to make them wear that way. Maybe she'll have them done by tomorrow she thinks. I also this week managed to score a pair of earrings made of polar bear bone in the shape of drum dancers. Beautiful.
This has been a full work week where I got to read an xray - no I didn't take it as it was during the day and the janitor did (pretty straight forward when you know the patient is non weight bearing and the pain is on the outer edge of the foot) as a fractured fifth metatarsal seen here in the picture I offered to email to the Dr. on call (we take a digital photo of the xray film) and put on a back slab. Not too complicated, better than some of those done by Docs if I do say so myself and I cleaned up my own mess too. This evening I learned to do a manual white blood cell count. Have seen the lab years ago sitting with the little counter clicking while peering into the microscope and although it's more of a challenge with bifocals, it's not a difficult skill to learn. We had a telehealth session on putting in IOs (yes I meant intra osseous) and several of the nurses in the region have done this already. We have the handy dandy EZ - IO drill and all the different size needles. Actually, less daunting than an IV in a wee baby I'm thinking.
This week at work involved some Monty Python like moments where a fellow booked a 'well man' appointment through the front desk staff and my CHN coworker picked up the chart to find a pap smear cytology requisition (which is used for well women appointments) so questioned the staff "well man" they insisted. He sat in the hectic waiting room and finally left when it was clear he wasn't going to be seen before lunch. One of the staff said "he was really angry too because.......he wanted to know if he was allergic to dogs". Not clear how that or the pap smear form related to a well man appointment. Someone supervising a school dance was knocked down in the dark by a large student playing tag and although not seriously injured was really ticked and immediately shut down the dance. Saying"no one will own up to doing it" caused me to have an overwhelming urge to ask if "it was a hit and run?" however I restrained myself. One of the grocery stores had a customer faint there before supper and the excitement and calls for one of us to come pick this person up (no ground transport here) then sending someone to come pick one of us up, no we're not doing that, you bring her over etc. was a bit over the top. Especially finding out it was a prenatal who hadn't eaten since the evening before. I said to Nellie "what would they have done if it were a cardiac arrest?" and she said......"they have an AED there". I'm sure hoping I'm outta here before THAT gets used by such a crew.
My roommate was attempting to go home today and the plane overflew Taloyoak (as well as another community) for something mechanical, and so tomorrow will be another chance. She now has to overnight in Yellowknife and won't be home to Moncton until midnight Sunday. Her job share contract in NWT begins March 1st so she is supposed to fly out there on Wednesday. She is (understandably) not impressed. We watched The Town at the Top of the World which is a CBC documentary from about 2007 about Grise Fiord - interesting if you get a chance to see it - the most northerly non military settlement in Canada with about 150 people. And I thought here was small with about 20 - 25 vehicles in the community and no taxis - it's very unusual to have to wait at a stop sign for a truck, a skidoo perhaps. I'm not likely to find myself there as it's a one nurse health centre and it's so much better to have someone to hang out with.
Been a rough week at home with a fishing vessel lost in a storm with five young fellows on board. The search was called off on the fourth anniversary of the accident with the rogue wave. Hitting a bit too close to home when it's young fellows who played hockey with your son-in-law and you watch CBC with a father you went to school with talking about the search for his son. Sigh. Not one of those things as a fishing family that you want to think about but with the number of fishermen lost at sea memorials in our are it's clearly not something new to us.
Well, plans to skype two out of three daughters tomorrow so I best crawl into bed and hope that the circus which was this evening on call has left town.
