Goodbye Mr Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

Have had a steady rotation so far and the past week has moved along quickly. At the lunch after the Remembrance Day service I was summoned by an elder who told me they'd like to have a tea the next day to thank the NIC for her work. "You make a cake" she said, stating she wanted to bake for her. When I protested I wasn't a good decorator she said "that's okay". When the elders arrived (via the school van/bus) the lady who had arranged the event said "I didn't make a thing" and I had to turn away to smile.  We spent a nice afternoon drinking tea, snacking and hearing stories about life out on the land. That evening I made chili and sweet potato biscuits as a farewell supper for the NIC and stranded OT. Tonight I entertained one of the RCMP officers, his wife and almost two year old son. Managed to pull together a salad (broccoli) pasta and meatballs with garlic bread, then cream cheese with caramel sauce and skorr bits dip with apple slices for dessert. Not bad for a northern supper. Nice to have company. 

As I was drawing routine bloodwork on a patient (no lab, just us - we draw, centrifuge and package, then ship on the plane) we were discussing local hunting. He keeps a trap line and will set it up next month when the arctic fox pelts 'bloom' meaning they get thick and white. He asked if I was interested in buying one "you know to hang on the wall as a decoration" apparently thinking since I wasn't local, I needed such things explained. We discussed price and if I could take it with me (apparently a similar export permit to the one I carried with me for the musk ox is required). I smiled after he left thinking to myself 'that encounter would never happen to me in NS as a nurse'. 

The dental team arrived on Thursday via charter and that makes for piles of action packers in the front lobby and more traffic through the health centre, although it is a good way to catch the young, healthy population you never see. This is the dental assistant's first trip to this community and it shows. She has been told NOT to walk in Sachs Harbour. When I tried to reassure her that we hadn't seen a polar bear in a couple of weeks since the sea ice had frozen, it had the opposite affect - I think all she heard was the world bear. She asked on Friday if we'd received a parcel for them and I said "no" and she said "why not?" and I replied "because there wasn't a flight today, there are flights three times a week here".  She was astounded and repeated  "three times a week?" which I confirmed as Monday, Tuesday and Thursday then added "weather dependent". She walked off with a look on her face like I was pulling her leg….

Thursday morning a sick baby was brought in and I was arranging a medevac, dealing with an ill enough infant that several nurses in an ICU would've been handling the tasks and my coworker was exiting. There was no flight on Tuesday due to weather, so when Thursday came around a lot of people were waiting for the scheduled flight, there was talk of having two scheds. A decision was made that GNWT employees would be offered seats on the charter and so the NIC heading out for her maternity leave was on of them. When the charter landed, the report of a 1500 ft. ceiling was apparently more accurate at 300 ft., the twin otter pilot managed to land, but refused to take off again until visibility improved. The operations and DPW folks who were coming to inspect the health centre arrived, rushed about while the plane waited and left again. Like Japanese tourists someone suggested (always taking pictures, nothing ever changes). The Operations Mgr introduced himself, pointed out that I wasn't wearing my ID badge and offered to make me one - I have one of course, we all do but in this community everyone knows my first name. Who did he think was wearing a uniform and doing nurse things? I was too busy to follow through on my fantasies of physical harm to him so simply picked it off the hook and put it on, muttering to myself. On my top ten list, the ID badge was number 11. While I waited on hold to talk to the Dr. on call in Inuvik a radio station was broadcasting  and I heard an ad for 'jerky poutine at the Burnt Toast Cafe' which Google later told me is in Whitehorse. 'Only north of 60' I said to myself. The medevac was denied for weather, no the liability was too great to put the baby on the charter in the arms of the nurse heading out (this is 2015 not 1975 after all) and the twin otter took off in limited visibility. Worried me to think that my pregnant coworker was airborne in those conditions. Then finally the weather cleared 'up island' the medevac was given clearance and was 'wheels up at 1355' or supposedly…they always lie about their departure time. And clearly did this time as the one and a quarter hour medevac flight and the sched arrived at the same time about 4 pm so the COOP manager was considering cloning himself. He dropped the flight nurse and medic off to assess the baby, dragged passengers and freight around the community then returned to pick up mom and baby and medic team. Because I'm old enough to think of all the 'what ifs' and have enough sense to not enjoy the adrenaline rush anymore, I was thrilled to hear that plane take off. Whew. 

On Friday a lady called for her husband asking if we had any back rub cream. He could be heard yelling in the background "and I don't want any of those home remedies either". So I chuckled and said to her "he doesn't want you to put an onion in a sock and tie it on his back?" and she said "onion?" so I quickly explained I was joking before we set him off again, that we don't carry A535 and they could order it from the pharmacy by giving them their credit card and it would be here next week. You can imagine how well that went over. 

There's been a steady stream of influenza immunizations and I was surprised to find out while chatting with my niece that Nova Scotia doesn't fund FluMist (intra nasal spray) for those ages 2 - 17 yrs as Nunavut and NWT do. You wouldn't believe how many folks attempt to convince me they are under 18!

My job share partner will be back from Ulukhaktuk in about 10 days and we'll have a couple of weeks together, then she'll head home for a week of early Christmas celebrations and back to spend the actual one with me. She will head east with a shopping list as we've decided we need to have war cake for the holidays as in both our mothers used to make it. It's certainly very holiday like with all the white stuff on the ground and chilly temperatures - easy to get into the spirit. I have been working on baby gifts for all the expected babies but will turn my hand to some holiday decorations soon. 

The sun is disappearing for the long arctic night and we won't see it again until mid January. Tomorrow is the last day we have sunlight at noon time for about an hour I think. Will be odd to see a sunrise again between the holidays in the 'south'of Edmonton. The blu light with my alarm in the morning gives me 15 minutes of UV. Not sure if it helps or I only think it does, either way I'm pretty peppy. It's the 24 hours of daylight which is more a pain to me. A while before I have to think of that…...