To begin, I was abandoned yesterday by my coworker who at this moment as I type is asleep in a bed in Nova Scotia. This means that the SHP (nurse in charge) and myself are holding down the fort. I'm first on call tonight and she's second call, then tomorrow we reverse roles. This is the pattern until the third CHN comes in on October 16th. We'll sure be sure happy to see her by then. This will give me a taste of what it would be like to work in a two nurse station such as the one I was offered the job share for though.
It has been a frantic week with four visiting consultants in to our little health centre. The GP who comes four days out of the month, the Pediatrician who comes twice a year and the Occupational Therapist and Speech Pathologist who visit quarterly. I am not sure why they all scheduled their visits together but it sure made for close quarters. I was working out of the storage / lab room since Monday and the waiting room was continually full of all ages. It also reminded me why I have chosen to work more independently and that I have no intention of spending that much time with 'the team' other than nurses unless I'm forced to, as we don't posture and show off for each other - no point in that!
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| Got Milk? No |
Going back over the past ten days... let me see. The weather had been really unsettled for over a week with ice fog, dust, crosswinds and low visibility so flights hadn't been getting in or out. The ultrasound tech got stuck in the next community and then with us for a few days each. One of the nurses tried for six days in a row to fly into Gjoa Haven. Each day she packed up her stuff (remember she's flying in with her food etc) and flew around Nunavut but ended up back where she began. Kind of like that movie Groundhog Day. Someone from Cambridge Bay had posted on FaceBook "flew around all day, multiple bags of chips, back where I started from, try again tomorrow". The stores were depleted of perishable supplies (2 cartons of milk left) and those travelling for medical appointments were stuck in or out. Apparently there has to be something called a 'legal alternate' which means that once planes fly into the Kitikmeot the next airport has to be available to them should they have to divert as they refuel at every airport due to being so small. With the combination of no fuel in Kugaaruk (the fuel supply ship couldn't get in as the ice pushed it out) leaving it unavailable and other communities without visibility there was no legal alternate and they couldn't fly.
There was a polar bear sighted at the airport and promptly shot and skinned - it was about six feet so not a particularly big one. My coworker got to suture the finger from that knife skinning accident. My evening began with a young fellow with hives who (his mother had diagnosed as his sister had the same) was allergic to narwhale. He'd been eating the mauktauk (whale blubber) for supper. There had been a narwhale entangled in nets and so shared amongst the community. I asked our janitor where the narwhale was as I wanted to get a photo if it was close and when I asked him if he'd seen it, he said "just the mauktauk" meaning it was already cut up. That same evening I got two lacerations in at the same time so I taped the first one and sutured the other, learning to do a ring block and putting three 4-0 prolene sutures in the finger tip. When I got the call I asked how old the guy who had been sharpening the ulu to cut frozen caribou was (I wanted to be able to find his chart) his mother said "he's old enough to go out alone".
Actually, getting an accurate age out of anyone up here is a challenge. I had someone call about their sister and when I inquired about her age, she had to go ask the sister. Now, I might say my sister is 52 because she's just had her birthday and is 53 but to not even be able to hazard a guess? A coworker was able to top that as she said a mother asked her child how old he was? I also had a mother who was wandering in the hall, and my coworker thought she was trying to get us to examine the child (jumping the queue) but when I asked what we could do, she said "I got the medicine but he thinks he needs to be checked, you could tell him that he doesn't need to". I told the very earnest little guy of about seven that he was fine and they trotted away while I went back to my office shaking my head. Statements such as "I'm going out on October twenty-two or gazing thoughtfully at the calendar in my office and choosing a date of the last menstrual period or when the cough or pain started as if the numbers speak to them is not unusual.
Last Friday night as first call I was awoken by the phone at 3:45 am so I groggily said "emergency line, nurse on call" and was informed by a strongly accented French voice identifying himself as Cpl. Stefan (something or other) that 'if someone should call about the red pickup truck with the window smashed out in front of the Boothia Inn that they would find out who did it after 9 am as they were going to sleep". I was completely confused and said "were there any injuries?" thinking that I might expect a call and he replied "no, no just the window of the truck but we're going to sleep so we'll deal with it after 9 am". By now, I was more awake and not impressed (although we do our best to stay on the good side of the boys in blue as they could potentially bring us trouble if we hassle them) so I said "who called you?" and he gave me the name William and a phone number but again said "I just didn't want anyone to call me as I'm going to sleep". So I promised not to call him and wake him up as he had just done to me. I went back to sleep and in the morning read my note and rushed over to tell the coworker who already had a less than positive impression of this dude as his only appearance at the health centre had been to drop off a form with specific instructions as to when it was to be completed and he'd be back to pick it up. Just to explain - you don't tell CHNs when to do things or you're going to get them done when they're good and ready, and it's good to keep the lines of communication open between the health and the law. This guy is clearly on his first trip north and lacking in the people skills department. When the GP came in for his clinic I was telling him as we closed for the day about the red truck as he stays at the hotel and told him to go all CSI on the situation and see what he could come up with. A few moments later he phones the health centre to tell me that the red half ton is in the hotel parking lot with plastic taped over the hole where the window should be. I told him not to give up his day job as I had that much info from my middle of the night call. The next day I got my chance to discuss the situation with the Cst. who is clearly raising Stefan while managing the community and he was completely unaware of the call and apologetic. He said "he teaches at RCMP Depot, hasn't been north and doesn't have a clue". Although I felt petty I asked him to relay my displeasure with Stefan's call and tell him that he was lucky it wasn't a week night. Josh finally said "you know, I bet he thought he was calling the communications centre and was telling them not to call him as their number is 1111 and the health centre is 5111". Now, a local, intoxicated person making that mistake is cut some slack but the RCMP themselves? Not amused.
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| Mural at Netsilik School |
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| Traditional display |
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| Elders |
Alas, the girls were absent so I spent a few minutes checking out the mural on the wall and the collection at the front of the school which serves as a museum. Very interesting, will have to try to find my way back there. There was a large husky which I was unsure of waiting at the bottom of the steps but "Daisy" thought I had something good in the cooler and just ambled over to the vehicle.
Had a FaceTime chat with the life partner and he was sitting in the veranda with a beautiful sunset over the harbour behind him so he was showing me the view and I said "what are those things on the right?" and he looked and said "what? trees?" and then laughed heartily. Little tundra humour there.
The first born had her birthday and although she spent it at work, the guys on the project even remembered her special day. Spoke to her on the phone that evening and she is all settled into her new community of Bowden which is smaller and much closer to work with the kitties who are liking the new apartment although.....they killed a lamp the other day. Oh dear. I sent her the story of how the gorillas at the Calgary Zoo had broken in (for the second time) to the kitchen where the food is prepared and she was pretty certain the kitties would do the same.
Speaking of animal collections the family of four continues to manage except that the baby daughter picked up a gastro bug at work, got dehydrated and ended up with some meds and two litres of IV fluid to rehydrate herself. She told the boyfriend (so he wouldn't worry and think it was too serious as in the Emergency Dept) that she was in ambulatory care and he thought she'd been brought in by ambulance and almost tripped getting over there. He doesn't speak nurse yet.
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| Roadies setting up a concert? |
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| The project at sunset |
The construction project next door which will become the new health centre in two (more likely three) years is moving along swiftly as they work to close it in before the weather stops them. There are huge floodlights and the work continues on into the evening as sunrise is 6:30 am and sunset 5:30 pm today. Lots of construction crews makes for some jealousy in the local community with the 'visiting' of local girls. Kind of like junior high.
Well, time to head for the bed as it has been silly season for calls this evening - is it a full moon? I didn't think so.....
