Nursing in Barrow

The red door in the photo is the entrance to Julie’s house where I have been doing my laundry these past few weeks.  Inside it is warm and cozy while the snow and ice are blocked from entering, most likely intimidated by the bright red door, thank goodness. These photos were taken this Saturday, 1/19, on my walk to Julie’s and during the wash cycle, on a walk to the post office.  The sun officially comes up over the horizon this coming Tuesday, but it was making a sneak appearance on Saturday…the bright, orange/red expanse in the distance is a welcome sign.  The sky was again the most beautiful combination of pink and blue.  I’ve never seen more beautiful skies and after only two, what seemed like short, months of darkness, this new turn of events is resurrecting my love for being here in this beautiful place. The wind is howling outside my window at 9 am this morning and it is very dark.  I'll be looking for the top of the bright orb in the ear

I signed up for and began a Friday evening course at Barrow’s two year college, Ilisagvik, this week.  The history course is entitled, “Alaska, Land and its Peoples” and will run through mid-April.  I had missed the first session working at the flu clinic at the grocery store, so was happy to be joining the 14 other students and our instructor, Dan Wall.  His degrees are in anthropology and history and his presentation was captivating and interesting.  The first week’s assignment had been to gather information about an Alaskan community and share it with the class.  Fellow students talked about what they had learned, either first-hand or by reading about: 1) Homer, the halibut fishing capital of the world with a very prosperous coal industry, how the spit there had dropped during the 1964 earthquake, that Tom Bodette and a woman named Jewel (I’m not very well-informed and don’t know who Jewel is…no laughing) were either from or had lived there and that the most predominant gr

I learned when returning to the clinic in Barrow on Friday that my vacation request for two weeks in late March and early April is just one signature away from approval.  I can hardly wait to see Lisa, Josh, Jordan, Keira, Peter and Emily again along with many good friends.  I imagine spring flowers may be pushing their way up and that I’ll have a chance to take some long bike rides.  Lisa tells me that Jordan is making plans for my visit and I’m thrilled thinking about the fun we’ll have.  Lisa and Josh might take advantage of my coming and have a much-needed weekend away…so fun to think about contributing in this way again and spending quality time with them as well.  I’ll make a trip to Bellingham and spend several long and happy days there with Peter and Emily and their children, Ruby, a pit bull and Bobby, an American bull dog…it’s important for grandparents to be impartial and these two grand dogs are adorable. I really enjoyed being back in the clinic on Friday after retur

The flight that Bertrand, Liliana and I were on Monday night landed at 11:25 pm in Anchorage.  With an approximate 50 degree positive temperature change from Barrow, it did really feel like the tropics…20 degrees Fahrenheit was a welcome temperature.  We learned that with recent high temperatures and rain, followed by freezing temperatures and a snow fall, that the roads were icy and extra care was required when driving.   Our hotel was in downtown Anchorage, around six blocks from where the 30 th Annual Health Summit was being held at the Captain Cook Hotel.  Because of the icy conditions, Darlene, Liliana and I took a shuttle to the conference in the morning where Liliana and I registered and learned of events taking place that day.   Bertrand was in search of a Star Bucks, so walked and Julie had arrived earlier.   Bertrand, Liliana and I had missed a full day of the conference including the welcome and comments by the Summit Chair and the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Alas

I woke last Saturday morning to a very cold apartment and snow covering a portion of the living room.  One of the latches on a window wasn’t secure, so it had blown open during the night.  I imagined myself leaning against the cold window all day and wondering and if building maintenance was available on Saturdays.  Being highly motivated, I was able to determine that the latch needed to be turned in the opposite direction to keep it in place.  There are so many opportunities to be sincerely grateful here and this presented one of them.    Darleen Lord, the Coordinator of Public Health Nursing and Julie Serstad, the Deputy Director of Community Health in Barrow were both wise, having flown out of Barrow on Friday and Saturday, respectively, missing the blizzard that descended in full force on Sunday.  Winds between 40-50 mph with falling snow created whiteout conditions, grounding all flights out of Barrow and preventing any from landing.  Liliana, a CNA and Bertrand and myself,

I’m in Anchorage for a Public Health Nursing Summit this week, so am taking advantage of the faster internet speeds to upload the videos of the drummers and dancers at the celebration in Wainwright.  I hope you find them as enjoyable as I did. I think it’s interesting how there is such a strong connection between the older and younger drummers and dancers.  The younger ones seem eager to learn, watching the older ones and imitating their movements.  The older ones don’t appear to be encouraging by visibly instructing in any way, but seem to be allowing the younger ones to find their way by watching and imitating.  I think it’s interesting too how in one of the videos, a young boy sits down with the drummers.  The adult drummer on the far left moves to the outer seat, giving his seat to the young boy.  The message I took away from his action was that he was telling the young boy that he was one of them, a welcome member of their drum group.  Over the generations, this

Having finished two recent pertussis investigations, I was ready to begin clinical direct patient care training once again when returning to work after New Years Day.   Fortunately, I had reminded myself lately that complaining is counterproductive, lowers one’s self-esteem and greatly decreases enjoyment of the moment.    Being one of two nurses in the clinic and the only one without my own patient load, I gladly accepted the fax from State Epidemiology letting us know that there was another lab-confirmed positive case of pertussis (whooping cough) in Barrow.   It was an eight month old boy, so my first concern was whether he was being treated with antibiotics.   Pertussis can be fatal in children, especially those under one.    I wasn’t able to reach his mother until when in the mid-afternoon, she came to the clinic in response to my phone messages.   Her little son was on her back under her hood, smiling out at anyone nearby.   I invited her to my office where she allowed me

Using Bertrand’s truck to move was a blessing, but necessitated extra efforts and responsibilities that I’ll be grateful to turn back over to his care tonight.  He, Kim and their son, August, are on vacation in Indiana and New Mexico so he offered me the use of either their pickup truck or Chevy trail blazer while gone.  The pickup, he said, was filled with old tires and snow and he wasn’t sure my boxes would stay in, but I could use it if I wanted.  The trail blazer has a slow rear passenger tire leak so would need to be filled up frequently.  This sounded like more responsibility than I wanted, so I decided that the truck might be good if I could shovel the snow out and rearrange the tires to make room for my boxes.  Bertrand said that he thought the trail blazer might be the more dependable vehicle as the truck doesn’t start or dies frequently and that he had to run an extension cord of some type out the driver window…I can’t remember why.  He was very patient with my decision-makin