I was first on call yesterday and second on call tonight, although I was only called to have a look at something which I saw yesterday. The days in the clinic have been rather full but the after hours (except for some exceptions outlined below) have been manageable. I have managed an IV on a 5 year old and a blood draw for a seven year old this week so am getting back into the saddle. Starting on the third week of this contract already - time always flies up here!
I had a rather steady on call shift yesterday but at least it wasn't like the one night last week that my co-worker endured which involved lots of celebrating and calls from the inebriated. Each community has tags for various hunts ex. bowhead whales and the tag from here was used by hunters from Gjoa Haven, who took some local boats and local men to harvest a 33 ft. bowhead whale on the other side of the Boothia Peninsula. Their return with the whale included ocean travel, then overland, then lake, overland and sea again. They arrived with lots of cut up whale meat and the partying began, it included fireworks (COOP just got some brought in by barge) and firewater. No, that's not brought by barge but it is mailed in and transported back as in "can I take my action packer with me to get groceries?" when accompanying a sick patient. "No, you may not, it won't fit in the King Air". The bowhead celebration began with a community feast and extended for a couple of days, as I mentioned causing multiple phone calls to the nurse on call. As in "the bowhead people are in my house and they won't leave, (aside to the intruders) time to go now, where are the police? can you call the police? is this the police? one of the bowhead people grabbed me by the throat seven times etc etc etc. approximately every 20 minutes or so. A looonnnnggg night when you have to get up and put in a full day following that.
The second ship with supplies for Taloyoak was here a couple of days offloading materials and has since moved on to its next port in Nunavik (northern Quebec). It was interesting to see how they moved the containers, crates and various construction supplies from the ship to storage on the shore. The foreman who I spoke with said the usual northern shipping season is from May to October depending on ice and weather conditions.
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| Snow will soon be staying |
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| Barge with tug unloading |
Long hours for the (mostly Quebecois) heavy equipment operators moving large amounts of materials from the shore to its storage area near the various construction sites. There will be one more shipment for this community which is expected next week. After that, it will be next year before some of the
materials ex. empty oxygen cylinders being shipped out for refill can be sent. There was a lot of movement, energy and excitement in the community while the ship was in. Years before there were flights, especially daily (or supposed to be daily) flights, ships were the only means of movement for supplies and people to travel 'out'. You have a new appreciation for limited resources when you see an entire community's annual bulk needs arrive in the sea lift. Some families do a 'barge order' and every apartment/house has a 'sea lift' room for storage. The northern health centres annual barge orders are completed by the spring, packed in Quebec and arrive in September. That's long range planning. In between annual orders the supplies are 'shared' between health centres and 'put on the flight' if we run short of anything. It is a real lesson in cooperation.
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| Bread? |
As I was on hold on the phone last week waiting to speak to someone on the 'eye team' in Yellowknife I realized that instead of musak I was listening to the local radio station in Hay River as I heard the name Ptarmigan Inn and then The Dog House, which apparently is a pub where Thursday evening is 'carnivore night'. My coworker and I did a pretty good replication of this when we shopped on Friday evening at the Northern Store and found fresh steaks and frozen ribs so bought a bag of chips to go with them - had a little testosterone rush when we were planning the meal. My coworker proudly said "I picked the one which still had air in it" and they were pretty fresh - mind you, they're light enough to get flown in but....they do get handled as roughly as any luggage in the north. And although bread gets flown in...there wasn't any for several days at the COOP and a very limited, crusty supply at The Northern. Biscuits are always the solution.
I received news from my dog walker that the taps weren't producing any water at the house when she was down. There are some times that it's best to be away and not involved in plumbing issues however....the shore captain sent a cryptic message to my inquiry that he'd been searching for gloves and hit the switch next to the water pump. If all solutions were that easy!
Had meant to have a FaceTime chat with the life partner this afternoon but the internet was iffy due to the 50 km + winds so we settled on tomorrow. The high winds caused the flight to Kugaaruk (Pelly Bay) to be unable to land and so the ultrasound tech who was expected to arrive today from there will be here (hopefully) tomorrow. So I had a FaceTime chat with my buddy from home - and she says she's not into computers - on her iPod. Even saw the wonderful squash she got at the market! Caught up on the news both south and north and heard about her first shift as a retired person where she chose to do a casual shift - entirely different than 'having' to go apparently. Much the same as I feel here.
I did get out for a walk about noontime and it was a cutting wind! Walked up towards the water reservoir aka lake and will have to try to get back again in milder conditions as it is pretty. The only tracks I noticed were likely dogs and the polar bear which had been sighted last week wasn't seen near this area. Although today is the first day of fall, the local weather if measured in Nova Scotia standards would be a definite winter report. And to think the news from NS is that the fall colours are in full swing. Hard to believe when I look at the white stuff on the ground here which will soon be staying. I asked Rita in the office when the snow came to stay and she said "sometime before Hallowe'en, I'm not really sure when but I want to use my skidoo." When you have snow on the ground about nine months of the year, it's not something you put a lot of thought into.
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| Traditional fishing hook and line |
So on Thursday afternoon I had a visit from a local fellow who often makes traditional crafts - and sells them to those of us passing through. He had a hook and line, which of course would be an appropriate gift for a fisherman in my life. As you can see, it's made of a caribou bone with a 9 ft line of caribou sinew (for spring fishing as that's the depth of the ice by then) with a bone hook on the end. Daniel told me that his grandmother would have covered the rectangle of bone holding the hook with fish skin to make the lure look even more fishlike. He does lovely work and it is a great souvenir - he didn't even have to pick up the phone in the front entry of the health centre and say "I'm in the foyer with some crafts" which is much too grand a term for such a humble spot.
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| Family bed |
And finally to close I must clarify something that will be obvious to those with good observation skills. Maude, the recently adopted grandkitty is missing a front leg - not back - as is obvious from the photo. Apparently she and Miss Molly are settling in well and best friends - two babies that will grow up together - and the two original fur children are tolerating the new additions with the only small issue that Pous has developed an addiction to kitten food (versus weight control food) and yowls at the cupboard where it is kept. Large family now. Good thing the puppy will be trained before winter sets in.
Time to crawl into the sack now. The cold which I've been housing for the past two weeks has decided to settle in to a bark. Nice. Doesn't lead to a great deal of empathy when someone comes to the office and tells me that they've had this bug for three or four days and they're tired of it.
