Nursing in Barrow

A very good little 95 year young friend asked if I would bring back some caribou and king crab when returning to visit her in Seattle.   She said that her husband used to hunt game and made wonderful stews using sauerkraut and pineapple.   Wouldn’t it be fun to have fresh caribou and make a feast along with some King crab for our mutual friends on a visit down?   Yes--absolutely…so part of my being here is revolving around finding a source of caribou.   Although I’ve heard that there are King crab deep in the ocean here, there is no way to harvest them.   I’ll need to go to Southeast Alaska for this incomparable, melt-in-your mouth meal that only needs a drizzle of butter to transport you from a normal to an extraordinary day. While walking home from work several weeks ago, I saw a truck with two large caribou being pulled behind it on a trailer.   I began to feel encouraged as it was my first sighting.   There is no caribou or other subsistence...

I packed three boxes of Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria and aculluar pertussis) into the insulated bag on Thursday morning.   I had learned that these particular vaccines needed to be kept at temperatures ranging from 35 – 46ᵒ F at all times or otherwise they could not be used.   I placed two ice blocks on the bottom of the bag, made a second layer of bubble wrap, a third of refrigerated cold packs, a fourth of the immunizations, and the final layer of cold packs.   A thermometer was calibrated, inserted into a plastic bottle and placed inside the bag to ensure that the vaccines were kept within their required temperature range.   This bag could not leave my sight on the trip to Point Lay where I would be offering Tdap immunizations to adults at the Health Fair that afternoon.   The Public Health Department is working to make sure that an outbreak of pertussis on the North Slope is prevented.   There have been no cases reported since mid October.   ...

I was excited to be flying along with Darlene, the Public Health Nurse Coordinator, to Point Lay on Thursday morning to participate in a Health Fair for the villagers there.   On most of my walks to work and back, I find myself jogging, enjoying the beauty of all I’m seeing as well as the crisp, cold air.   This morning, I had an additional reason to jog, being anxious to get to the clinic and finish packing my boxes and the immunizations I’d be taking.   Near the post office, I saw Darlene walking, so we walked together for a short distance before I invited her to join me going across the lagoon.   I’ve come to love the treks across it and after doing a sweeping search for polar bears or foxes, seeing none, feel as though I enter a different and more wonderful world.   Darlene said that she wanted to walk on the road this morning, so we said good bye and I jogged up and over the berm and onto the snowy ice wondering by how many minutes I would arrive at the W...

My original plan was to enjoy a hot cup of tea on Sunday morning.   Finding a single tea bag was the catalyst for the way the rest of the day unfolded.   Here at the itinerant housing one could find a multitude of single packaged tea bags under, on top of, and wedged between the 11 intact boxes, all tightly vying for their spot in the very crowded cupboard.   I had the feeling that if I removed one tea bag that an avalanche of others and boxes would come tumbling down, creating an interesting assortment on the counter and most likely, the floor.   Inspired to give the cupboard some sort of organization led to a good three hours of deep cleaning and reorganizing of the entire kitchen, sipping on multiple cups of tea while enjoying my morning.   The cupboards hold an interesting assortment of packaged food, many spices in triplicate, pots, pans, containers, gadgets, etc. all organized now for any successive apartment mates.   Even the toothpick disp...

Photos of an Aaka (grandmother) with her little granddaughter, now soothed by being carried on her Aaka’s back and Valerie and part of energetic Thule on our walk from Valerie’s apartment to mine across the larger frozen lagoon.  It looks as though we're on the moon.  All taken on Saturday.

Saturday morning found me looking forward to the program being held at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium in the early afternoon.   The talks are always interesting and I’m enjoying conversations with others who attend while waiting for the van, on the van trip there and back and while waiting for the program to begin.   While waiting in the lobby of the library, I talked with a young Inupiat grandmother (Aaka in Inupiaq) who was taking her granddaughter to the program, needing a change of scenery and to get out of the house for the afternoon (see photo in next post).   The little girl was not happy while waiting until her Aaka lifted her up, put her on her back beneath her parka and cinched up her belt, holding her in securely.   The child became quiet and looked sweetly out from her Aaka’s hood.   I talked with Marie on the van ride out and we agreed that we’d enjoy walking to BASC on some upcoming Saturdays.   A legal aid shared our ride and talked a...

I stayed at the apartment today, Sunday, deciding to take a day off from walking anywhere.   Along with the seven churches open this morning, only the grocery store and a few restaurants remain open for the rest of the day.   This is a haven for those who enjoy solitude and a much, much slower pace of life.   I enjoyed most of my walks to work and back this week and am getting used to the temperature being somewhere between -7 and +10 ᵒ F when I set out each day, but my feet asked me for a change of pace, so I happily obliged.   I had studied the 70 page State of Alaska driver manual and planned on using some of my comp time to walk to the DMV and take the required written test on Tuesday.   The conditions were white out and the temperature cold, so one of my co-workers insisted on driving me there, about a mile from work, saying “we can’t afford to lose a nurse!” I was very grateful and was glad that I wasn’t someone that they could afford to lose. ...