All settled in to the routine now and although my roommie says that the two out of three days on call is "too much on call" for her, you do get used to it. And….this is the only work I'm doing now. There are nurses who work in between contracts here, with a contract in another region or territory or 'down south'. For me it's….you're working and it's a steady pace and then….you're not and it's relaxation central. Already almost three weeks into this jaunt. Mind you, we are just starting out on an eight day stretch with only two of us, as one of the nurses is heading out for a week to see her oldest daughter graduate. Hey, that was me just last year this time! Anyway it will mean sleeping with one or the other phones until we have a third CHN again.
The clinic has been a very busy thoroughfare this past few weeks as we have had the dental team (doing repairs, extractions etc) for ten days and the dental screening team (exams, fluoride for a week, teaching) - they had a list of a possible 220 children from ages 0 - 7 years in this community of 900, the gyne/ob locum (they fly in with the chartered plane which waits at the airport for the morning and off to the next community) and now the GP is in doing his four day clinic. These additional clinics put people in the waiting room who you have to check out as to their destination, add to the bustle and noise level and increase the workload. As in, 'oh, if I have to sit here for 15 minutes while I wait for my appointment I should ask the nurse……insert request here ex. tylenol or advil, to be examined, to have their child examined, to pick up their meds which have come over on the plane from the pharmacy, to ask for test results, etc. etc'. These are usually the same people you are chasing for immunizations, pap smears, chronic disease check ups, bloodwork or generally any morning appointment. A great deal of the not wanting to get up, is that many people have only been asleep a couple of hours by 10 am. When I asked one of the clerks if she was a nite owl she said "no I am not, I go to bed by 1 am always" so it is a matter of degrees I guess.
The 24 hr. of sunlight, where the sky is as bright at 3 am as 3 pm is in full swing now. We
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| Canada geese |
have resorted to double layers of garbage bags taped/pinned to the bedroom windows behind the curtains. As my roommate calls it 'the first year university look' of either a blanket (most likely with wolves or horses on it) or possibly a towel or a flag. It feels as if one is working perpetual night shifts. I looked out the window at 3:30 am this morning and there were more people making their way around the community than during the day. The geese have returned to their summer home and these two were some of those hanging out at the golf course.
I've done a bit of baking….scones (as promised for the roommate - it was the bribe to get her to join me here) cookies for ice cream sandwiches (most of which we took to the supper we were invited out to last weekend) cupcakes, and homemade butterscotch sauce. I had thoughts of baking this evening but instead we watched a romantic comedy (we've also watched Despicable Me - both 1 and 2 and The Book Thief) on the 47" LG flatscreen TV that the Acting Nurse in Charge bought for us - how's that for a Nurses Week gift eh? Well, not actually….the TV in the other apartment was small and so they convinced me (the non TV watcher) to switch. When the roommate arrived, she was not impressed and made it known, as she'd brought an external hard drive with 362 movies downloaded to watch and the ancient rejected TV didn't have the ability to hookup the laptop. When the TVs went on sale for $800 (which I'm told is a good price) at The Northern Store….we hit the jackpot. Good thing my husband aka roommate is handy and could assemble the stand and hook up all the wires. We've decided she's my husband because she doesn't listen well a lot of the time, has good ideas that someone else can do and doesn't walk anywhere. She has been heard to state "I don't walk anywhere, I wasn't hired to walk". In fact one of the home care workers asked her if the headache she had might have come from walking to the clients house (home care truck was begin repaired) as she is widely known to only walk as far as the truck. More on her later. I have downloaded e-books, paid bills, uploaded my photos and downloaded some that others shared from the Honduras trip and have made a valiant attempt at saving myself some income tax. More on that later too.
My call shifts have been fairly steady - my touch of having entertaining work hours has followed me north of 60. I worked the Friday afternoon of the long weekend which was called as a local holiday and received a call from the Post Office saying there was a parcel there for a person ℅ the health centre. I stated that we'd have someone pick up the parcel on Tuesday and the clerk said "what if it's an emergency?" I assured her that if it was an emergency, it wouldn't have been shipped through the mail. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked the NIC what the parcel was on Tuesday and she said "shoe lifts". My nerves. I've had a 3 year old with a laceration to a thumb at 10 pm (yes because that is when he should be using a knife) and the child was very badly behaved. My first clue was when the mother made several calls for assistance to hold him down for thumb repair and no one accepted. He was yelling before he got to the door, slapping his mother, throwing pieces of the paper off the exam table and she said "he's like this when he has to come see the nurse". That earned him glue on his cut which sealed it and a wave goodbye. The lab called with a 'critical value' of a K+ of 2.8 (low but not critical in my assessment) at 3 am. Since the patient in question was asleep in bed I thanked them and went back to sleep. When I checked in the morning, and found the result had been steadily dropping each of the pat four months, and the patient was being followed by specialists, I phoned the Dr on call and then the patient and advised eating bananas and orange juice over the weekend. When I later asked if there had been bananas and OJ consumed, I was informed "I don't like bananas, I eat country food". A 1 am call from a young mother with a 10 mo. old with D&V. When I questioned on number of poops the reply was "I don't even know". Then who does? A call at 4 am to examine a newborn "crying for hours" who was asleep and had to be awakened for assessment. Another call about an hour later with a ℅ abd. pain. I get up and dressed and then another call to advise "I'm not coming, my boyfriend took the honda to work". I saw an elder who was quite ill in the am and when she came back for reassessment told me "I ate caribou for supper that fixed me" well….A 2:30 am call to say "my knee is bleeding, I'm in the porch" from someone chasing a younger sister past the health centre might mean a laceration to suture but it was just one of those 'scrub the gravel out, debride the dead skin and put antibiotic ointment and a bandage on it' scrapes that mothers handle. The good thing about having a video intercom at the new health centre will be you can say "hold your knee up to the camera, no a little to the left - oh that looks okay, go home and clean it up and come back in the morning" without having to get dressed and go downstairs.
The health centre construction continues at rapid sped and there is the promise of a December 2014 occupancy date. It is large structure which can be seen from all directions.
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| Green siding going on |
I met a young fellow working on the site as an electrician who lives about 35 minutes from me at home. He said his coworkers had told him to come over and meet the nurse who talked like him and came from where he lives. One of those small world experiences. Very focused, not creating any troubles in the community group of tradespeople here this year.
I also had a wonderful gift this week as a childhood friend from 50+ years ago shared that she had attended a church conference and met our elementary school teacher from the 1960s. It seems she must've married a military guy (there were two local bases in our area in those days) and moved to Germany and Australia and is now living a few hours away in NS. I dropped her a quick email saying I was working in Nunavut and she sent a lovely reply today saying she reminisced about those days and a bit on what she'd done. I was astounded to read that she had come to Taloyoak in 2011 to visit a teacher friend. Nunavut maybe, but specifically this small remote community? I wrote a quick note to say "I'm in Taloyoak and will write later" what a large country/small world experience eh?
This past week I've seen a few novel things such as some kids flying a kite in the middle of snowflakes and yes it has snowed here last week (I was pelted with freezing rain on my walk on Sunday too) but mostly it is becoming mud season. I watched a pickup hockey game at 5:30 am and no those young fellows did not get up early to play, they were on their way home from an allnighter but the ice is getting weak in the large pond they were playing on so the games have moved to another location apparently. Saw an arctic hare (okalik) in the front parking lot - but that wasn't the first time I'd seen that.
I'm slowly working my way through a stack of Inuit history/cultural books lent to me by the Mental Health worker. At present I'm reading 'In Order to Live Untroubled' which is very good. There is a course through Athabasca University which counts as an elective of the BN program, called The Inuit Way. It's a total cost of $777 for registration and tuition, which is a bit steep for just interests sake - auditing and challenge for credit cost the same, before you ask. The plan is to share the materials with the roommate when she takes it as an elective. No, I don't feel guilty, if the cost was more reasonable I would pay the institution for them. Here are a couple of links to videos, for those Inuit scholars amongst my loyal readers:
nfb.ca/subjects/inuit/netsilik
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/1960s-taloyoak-footage-comes-to-light-1.2554156
Speaking of freebies….all of us GN employees here have registered for Aurora Rewards which allows those of us frequent northern flyers to collect points (additional to Aeroplan) with silver beginning at nine segments/year. You know you're in the north when…..the security question on the sign up page uses "what was the name of your first car or snow machine?". Love it!
Speaking of travel….I had an online chat with my nursing colleague who is going to Liverpool, UK with me in December for the tropical nursing course. We've both gotten conditional acceptances (likely the only condition is sending them a significant amount of money) and she was telling me that a RAF friend of hers had won a $650.000 settlement for a sexual harassment claim and had purchased a condo in Cyprus so that is plan B for December. In discussion of how to get to Ireland to visit (flight or ferry? - matters not) another colleague she mentioned the hostess was in Singapore. Okay, hold the bus…the wallet and free time do not allow for Asia. Cyprus yes.
As promised the update on the roommate who ate dill pickle chips and the Cadbury cookie dough chocolate bar (dry as dust but not as bad as the astronaut food she said) before having a nap. Got herself wrapped in a blanket and thought she was in a sweat lodge, came out with her eyes all puffy from crying she thought. She was in high school, her brother was a baby, there were mean girls, she wanted to make out with the jock, there were muslims with serious guns (like the ones in the Hansel & Gretel movie she says - not a version I've seen) but the chauffeur picked them up. We both have weird dreams up here - strange beds, isolation, overeating? Not sure. I asked her if she had any more dreams and she said "I have but I didn't share them with you" apparently because they involved her being a pole dance and stripper. Now there's an image I can't get out of my mind.
Also as promised, I have been attempting to get my taxes reduced at source from payroll and sent to an RRSP so as not to have to pay so much income tax. It is an admirable idea and a saga that is likely to run as long as Bonanza. sigh. It involves the downloading of Revenue Canada forms, calling toll free numbers, mailing the form (can't be faxed or scanned) to my province of residence, not the one where I earn the money and the tax is deducted then waiting 4 - 6 weeks for the CRA ruling. Should happen before I retire, but not sure when.
The offspring are all doing well. The oldest daughter is talking about a trip to Seattle this fall. I am officially jealous!! just sayin. The teacher daughter has had full marks on both of her MEd assignments in the first course she's taking. They have met the yellow lab puppy (Pete) they wil be parents to in a few weeks and he is a very cute baby - their cranky cat Hank will not be impressed I am sure. The boy is looking forward to finishing up the spring lobster season and moving on to the next seafood harvesting gig. The nurse daughter is making her way through the final weeks of her first year as an RN - hard to believe!
So, it's off to bed with my friend the phone.
