I get homesick - Larry Bird

Mt. McKinley

Somewhere NW of Anchorage. I LOVE this picture

While I am making some pretty incredible friends here in Nome and continuing my awesome friendship with my original Nomie I was so so overcome with wanting to go back to Denver today I almost couldn't get on the plane to come back to Nome. I cried in the airport and on the plane.  I miss all the luxuries in life that cities have to offer, I miss driving a car and cranking the music and singing at the top of my lungs, or how much a place of refuge it can be. I wanted to see my friends in Denver again.. desperately.  I wanted to play in the sunshine and climb mountains, and be warm with my friends! I called my friend Emily who is in Nome and she talked me down. She wisely pointed out that I haven't been in Nome long enough to experience the charms that make people stay for years, and raise kids here. I haven't been able to see open water from the shore yet, or the midnight sun, or going 4-wheeling at 2am when it's still bright outside. While Nome doesn't have big city luxuries it does have some serious small town charm.  Getting on a plane where everyone knows everyone, the flight attendants know regulars by name. Walking down front street you know people! Emily and I were in the post office and between the two of us we knew everyone there! That doesn't happen in big cities usually.  Our ER docs bring shotguns to work because they want to show it off to everyone... this DEFINITELY  doesn't happen anywhere else! The best analogy I have heard is Nome is like a neighborhood you just can't physically leave unless you get on a plane.  And hey.. neighborhoods can be pretty nice :)  Here are some pictures from the plane ride to and from Anchorage.  It's like they are paintings. The landscape here is absolutely breathtaking.

 There is no need to worry. I am just adjusting (slowly... but it's forward progress).  It's just going to take some time. Until then I'm gonna ride my ATV and take pictures of cool stuff.  I'm getting together with a group from the hospital that skis in the mountains outside of town and will hopefully be skiing again Saturday!

Me and Jesse going for a ride! 

Ha! Happy Nurse Sara! 

Tomorrow is a new day, and a new day brings new beginnings, and a better outlook than today.  I am excited to be in Nome, and I will make the best of it. Homesickness be damned!

Take care lovelies! Talk again soon!

  

With the new day comes new strength and thoughts - Eleanor Roosevelt

YUMMERS!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my FAVORITE uncle (my only uncle), for sending me two glorious care packages.  I will no doubt be on a sugar high for the next few weeks! Haha I am rounding through my third 12-hour shift in a row, and by tonight I will be completely exhausted. I head to Anchorage (The Big City!) tomorrow morning, and will ski one last day at Alyeska, the ski resort just outside of town (this is their closing weekend).  

Mail is here! Hehehe just bungee the boxes to the racks and I was ready to come home from the post office

I probably won't get back to update until Sunday.  The last few days have been interesting.  

The only thing I will say about the patients that I have seen so far this week is that domestic violence is terrible.  And even in a little town like Nome you will never escape the threat of it.  I just hope this person finds the means inside to stay away from the person hurting them. But being in such a small town there isn't anywhere to really run to.  I hope they heard me when I told them that the ER is a safe place to come should they find themselves in that situation again.  Big city problems? Sounds like people problems; and sometimes, people suck. 

Time to slam down some oatmeal and hot tea and run out the door! 9a-9p is the shift today! 

Take care lovelies!

If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through - Chinese Proverb

So this happened since we all last met:

2007 Can-Am 650 (I went native with the color... CAMO!) with winch, mudding tires, front and back racks. It's pretty rad :)

I picked her up today, and it feels good to have wheels again! Because my bank is in Seattle, and I couldn't get a cashiers check ASAP, the family I bought this from held onto it until my check cleared.  Now I have exciting things to do for the next three days that I am off.  My schedule seems to be close to 2 days on 3 days off. Although next week I work 3 days on and then have 3 days off. So I guess I'm just at the mercy of the scheduling Gods.  Don't worry kids! I will be purchasing a full face helmet in the very near future! Until then it's sticking to the main roads in town.  I love that this is a 100% legit mode of transportation up here.

Nome is a town of some very interesting characters. Ha. Understatement of the century! I love my job  because I meet so many different people with so many different backgrounds. Everyone from Natives whose families have lived here for literally hundreds of thousands of years, to the town clerk who is a city boy from New York, hates his life here because he doesn't really like the outdoors (what on Gods white earth would possess someone like that to come out here?!). Hearing everyone's stories is fascinating.  Speaking of interesting characters. my friend and I were walking out of the post office and spotted this tremendous hood ornament:

Whale vertebrae. Because why not?

There is also a man in town who has a pet reindeer. He loads him into the bed of his truck and drives him around town.  I will get a picture of this sooner or later.

So Thursday we saw about 30 patients in the fast track, Friday we only saw about 10. (Fast track is where non-emergent cases go, it's open from 9a-7p, and those working there will see anything from a follow up, to re-bandaging, cleaning wounds, headaches, RSV and flu testing, etc.  It's like a cross between a primary care doc and urgent care... Yes this crowd doesn't necessarily know how to use an ER in the sense of how big cities would use an ER.  What is cool is that you never really know what is going to come walking through the door.) So not a lot of excitement this week. Just got too see what happens when you don't treat a strep rash on the hands... an entire family will get it, and a poor soul will have to have their hands wrapped up in mittens of kerlex to keep all the pustules from bursting EVERYWHERE. It was so gross. I gave away the pen I used to document that case right to the trash can gods and never thought twice about it.

Here is a palate cleaner after that mental image: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11uu8L8FTY
(You are welcome)

So the sun is shining and I'm going to go gallivanting around the tundra side, and perhaps see how far the road is open to the east.  High today is 36.... 36!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I may as well enjoy the warmest day of the year! After I go to the gym and run my intervals and make my arms hurt from lifting those weights.  Just because I live around bears doesn't mean I need to look like one :)

Oh I forgot one more picture.  This is of the flight schedule for the the docs and what villages they are going to.  Diomede is a teeny tiny island about 20 miles from Russia .. you can most certainly see it from your backyard there. Anyways the runway there is on the ocean. So when the ice gets gross and cracks, there is no longer a runway... meaning no more plane access until the ocean freezes up next fall/winter.  There is a blackhawk helo that makes runs there once a week when the runway goes away.

Take care lovelies! Adventure waits for no one!

Time is the longest distance between two places - Tennessee Williams

I took this picture right after the last real post I wrote about it being a snowy day.  It's all sunshine and severe clear here today

Today marks the last of my three day weekend.  I have found that my one puzzle I brought lasted for about 2 hours, I go to the gym a lot, and walk around town a lot.  I don't have much to do. So I think a lot about what I left behind, and what awaits me when I return.  It was weird to watch the TV and see what had happened in Boston.  It sounds weird and feels horrible to say but being so far away it was  as if it happened in another country, on another planet! It was and is a horrible tragedy in every way, but up here people didn't much talk about it.  They talked about hunting and kiddos and life... their blissful small town lives.  There is a lot to be learned from that I think. It wasn't that the community ignored the news, they acknowledged that something terrible had happened, but in the next breath it was on to the next thing. It is kind of refreshing.  I am sitting here drinking my tea and watching the Today Show and all they can talk about is this tragedy, how these pressure cooker bombs were made... if nothing else the people in Nome are probably more worried about the government taking away their crock pots than anything else.  Life runs at a much different pace here. After 10 days or so at this pace I find it very hard to relate. I see everything that is happening on facebook, and the news, and from talking to my friends in the lower 48 and I feel like my life is just standing still. I am in this weird time warp; and the rest of the world is just whipping around at a million miles an hour.  My god I need a hobby stat because I'm thinking like this and it's been only 10 days!

The good news is today I am going to look at an ATV that is for sale!  Perhaps by the weekend I will have a mode of transportation that isn't just my feet!  I will be sure to post a pic of my sweet new ride! (Yes it will probably be camo.... when in Nome!).  They are starting to clear the roads outside of town.  Yes they are dirt.  I met an awesome girl from VA here. She is a new ER nurse like me, and will also be here for 2 years.  Seems like a lot of people either run away from things up here or just wanted an adventure.   So my friend and I are going to be studying how to properly triage folks at the Bering Tea... it's like Starbucks, except that it's not at all.  But they have hot soups, and home made baked goods (Which all of those things would make Starbucks just SOOO much better!)

My god that blue sky! It's not like Starbucks because it's closed on Sundays, and after 2pm all the other days of the week. But what if I want Reindeer Vegetable soup on a Sunday?!?!? (That is what they are serving today. Don't mind if I do!)

 I went to dinner with one of my original Nomies Monday and we enjoyed our $35 pizza (yeah this meal doesn't happen all that often, and this was a cheaper pizza on the menu!). We then went on a drive to the other side of the mountain into a little teeny town of Dexter (note this was a 5-10 minute drive outside of town).  This is what we saw when we came around the corner:

Taken at 1045pm

If that face was fully covered in snow I would probably ski right on down it... Next winter! And don't worry there are numerous insane people like me here that like to skin up the sides of mountains and slide down them and then repeat :)  So I won't be doing this alone by any means.

On our way out of town we stopped at another friends place, this guy was a riot! I met his two little girls, and also go to see his very impressive gun rack:

There is a third rifle hanging from the left antler.  He said this was the biggest moose he had ever seen.

I want this to be known about this community, and about most of the native villages and bush towns in Alaska.  People don't hunt animals here just for a nice rack to mount, or skins to make a rug out of.  These people rely on these kills to give them food for the entire year.  A village called Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island off the coast of Nome just harpooned a Bow Whale, and the entire village will be get meat from this kill.  It is extremely important to know that every single piece of every animal that is killed is used. From the fur, to the meat, to the bones. Nothing goes to waste. ::::::: steps off soap box :::::::::

So fingers crossed this ATV works out this evening!  Also I was just voicing my feelings earlier, I'm doing great, I'm making friends, just have to get used to the speed of life here. It takes time, and soon enough I will be running on bush AK time just like the rest of them ;)

I leave you with the receipt from me purchasing a HALF a gallon of milk yesterday.  Yup that is most certainly $5.99.  Makes your milk seem pretty cheap eh?

I work the next two days so perhaps I will check in on Saturday or Sunday! Until then lovelies!

Hospital picture!

Took this on my way to work this morning. Too cloudy to see the northern lights :-(

Chat soon lovelies!

Why climb Everest? "Because it is there" -George Mallory

So why go to Nome? Cause why not?

Lots of interesting history up here!

It has been casually snowing here for the last day or so, and probably won't stop for another day or so.  I was told that there are three seasons in Nome: mud, dust, and snow. I have experienced all three so far.  They have a truck that drives around and sprays water on the roads to help with the dust... sometimes it's too much water and we get mud.  2 seasons in one day! It got to a tropical 17 degrees Thursday! and Friday was the first day I didn't wear thermals under my scrubs! It's really starting to look like spring time ;)

Can't see the Bering Sea today. Hopefully tomorrow :)

I was thrown into the deep end and as good friend told me it was time to be a duck.  Cool and calm on the top and swimming like hell underneath the water where no one can see you sweating!  So far I have seen what happens when butchering a caribou with a bandsaw goes wrong (it was only a finger amputation that was sewn back on... still don't know if this person got to keep their finger or not), got to see severe respiratory distress, lots and lots of sick sick kiddos, a rule out TB with a bloody hacking cough (YIPES!) and a person that came into the ER for "dry skin rash".  So we really get the gambit of things from emergent to the not so emergent.  We usually have 3 nurses on at the ER, and it is usually pretty calm and not super busy. Yesterday this was not the case as we had a medivac, ambulance and a few walk-ins that could have been bad if not seen immediately. This really taxed the small amount of resources that are available here.

They needed new fall precaution signs for patients doors. This is what was come up with.
This make me smile every time I see one!

I learned that bush AK is not where you want to have something catastrophic happen. The hospital only holds 12 units of blood here, and it would take 12-24 hours to get anymore from Anchorage.  So if a small plane goes down out in the bush... we pick the blood receivers wisely.  Ironically enough Nome has the best CT scanner in the entire state... Ironic because when I walked into this beautiful hospital (I promise to take a picture soon!) I felt like I had taken a step back 20 years technologically.  Paper charts EVERYWHERE.  EEK! It's like doing triple work.  I guess we are going to the electronic medical records sometime in Novemeber/Decemeber... I see a lot of push back on this monumental upgrade.

I am still slowly collecting the 30 or so boxes that were shipped here with my life in them.  I also got my PO Box here. So I have a real address. So I am settling in and getting ready for the ride.  I work tomorrow.  These 12's are killing my workout schedule.  Ahhh 1st world problems!

Bentley is good! I got a report from cat camp that he has been an easy keeper, and is just lovely to be around. Here are some pictures of him eating a fir tree and stretching it out!

Paperwork!

Well the last few days have been all about the paperwork and meeting everyone in the hospital.  I won't be actually on the floor until probably next week. Then let the fun begin!  Yesterday was signing all the paperwork for HR, HIPAA training (cause God knows I haven't had enough of that in the last 4 years), sat through boring mandatory OSHA classes, got my official ID badge, but also got to meet some kindred spirits as well; here for an adventure and the beauty of the unknown.   I will post a picture of the hospital next time. I can't believe I haven't taken a picture of it yet!  Here is a picture of the view from the hospital though

This is the view from the front. Looks out over the Bering Sea. I will get a picture of the view from the back soon!

Today I woke to an incredible sunrise and walked to work.  I know one day soon it will be above 0 when I walk to work... at least I hope it will!  The wind chill hasn't been above zero much either.  At least the sun is blazing! I got to meet all kinds of people in the hospital today including the forensic nurse who works with sexual assault victims. I hope that I have a chance to do some outreach within the villages that Nome supports as well as in Nome to help teach awareness about this topic. I don't think I could draw that line between work and my personal life if I were to be trained in doing the exams.  The sad trend in this region is that roughly 53% of all sexual assault happens to children.  Horrifying.  Most of this abuse is discovered when the child reports it either to a parent or a teacher.  This actually shocked me a little. That a child would know and not be ashamed or bullied into "keeping a secret".  This is because of how much work has been done already to discuss this topic, making it less taboo, and make it a topic of public health and safety.

Fishies in the sky!

On a totally new and less deep topic... the hospital has incredible artwork! It's almost like a museum with all of the artifacts, paintings, sculptures, and stuffed animals on display. Here is some artwork of caribou and salmon.  The salmon art is a huge mobile that dangles 2 stories over the main entrance.  It is very cool!

Caribou wall art

If you guys ever have any questions, whether I personally know you are not, please leave a comment. I will get back back to you! I'm sure some of you have the same questions too!  

I leave you with my sunrise this morning. So long lovelies! Until next time!

Nome sweet Nome

Fun little sign in town

I have made it to my new home! I came in on the late jet and was picked up by my boss, we also picked up a traveling nurse who was on the flight as well.  Tomorrow is syllabus day.  For those of you that don't know what "Syllabus day" is it is the first day of school where you go over the syllabus and talk about things like where the pencil sharpener is (although I'm sure those don't exist anymore because kids can make sharp objects and it could be a potential hazard... how did I make it this far in life alive?), where and when to turn in homework and the like.  It's paperwork day, get my paycheck in the right account day, set up my 401k day, get my hospital ID day... it's the boring HR day (sorry mom, it is boring!).  Tuesday however I get to put on my new scrubs and be a real nurse.... ummm??? I don't even feel like I remember anything from those two years in nursing school.... you want me to not kill someone DAY 2????? that is a lot of faith!  My trusty boss told me in his deep southern draw that he hasn't lost in the 10 years that he has been here "Don't worry it'll come back, just gotta find it again"  Okay Todd. Whatever you say.  As my dependable nursing school friends and I would say in nursing school "Fake it until you make it"  I guess it's time for the ultimate fake it until you make it game.

So once I arrived at my lovely corporate housing home (It is on the second floor of a two story place... come to think of it it might be one of the 5 tallest buildings in town... I am not joking).  I have cable TV and hard wired internet.  Fun Fact: internet here is charged by the megabyte... hello 1993!  I have a big blue couch, a love seat, kitchen table, dishes and pots and pans.  The sheets are actually really soft, but I am still using my own towel! I am 3 blocks from the hospital (walking!) and 4 blocks from the Bering Sea (since I am in such a tall building.... ocean front view!).  The Bering Sea is still frozen up to about 2 miles out, but soon enough the sea ice will break up and move north and then it will be for real ocean front!

I will take another shot when the ice is gone.  This is the view from my kitchen window

The Bering Sea is out there. All covered in ice.  This is the view from my living room window.

The prices at the grocery stores aren't so bad. maybe 100-150% of what you might pay in the lower 48, this is far better than the bush town of Bethel where every thing is around 300% the cost of anything in the lower 48.

 So without further ado here are some pictures of my new stylish place that I will be calling home for the next 6-8 weeks until I go to Anchorage for training in June.

My living room.  Pretty sure this stuff has been floating around Nome for about the last 20 years

My pretty large kitchen!

This is my TV.  no HD here.  hahaha look how tiny it is!

And one last picture. This was taken at 945pm.  Around mid May is when Nome has 21 hours of sunshine and 3 hours of dusky time (still gonna need those sunglasses!)

Until next time!

Where the edge of nowhere is located

The red flag on the map is where Nome is. You can only get there by airplane or a barge (3-4 months out of the year), and the occasional dog sled. You cannot drive to Nome from any major city in Alaska.  I take a 737-combi jet operated by Alaska Airlines (this is a major airline in the Pacific Northwest) from Anchorage. Nome has three of these flights a day. The combi jet is a 737 that is half for passengers and the other half is for cargo.  I hope this clears up my actual location! Alaska is far away... but Nome is in the bush and literally on the edge of nowhere. 

Here is a closer up of the state of AK.  The dotted line you see is the International Date Line.  Sweet stuff right?  Oh and it's 5 degrees there right now. SPRING TIME!!! hahaha (the blue arrow is my current location in Girdwood, AK, the distance between Nome and Girdwood is roughly 530 miles... this is a HUGE state! It fits 3 Texas's in it! WOWZA!)

More to come lovelies!

Saying ain't this life so sweet? - David Gray

Touch Tank in Seward

Alaska does not disappoint. Ever.   It is completely mesmerizing and leaves you absolutely speechless, and for those of you that know me... you know that is almost impossible to do to me.  Mom and I got into Anchorage Tuesday night, went to the wonderful Humpy's bar and restaurant (mom swore I was taking her to ta titty bar with a name like Humpy's!) We had awesome halibut tacos and got to watch the cook make everything as we sat at the bar that overlooked the grill.  We made our way to Girdwood where I am staying until tomorrow.  Mom and I went to a little port town named Seward and it was so cool! We went to the Alaska SeaLife Center and got to see all kinds of things! Even got to touch a Sea Cucumber, and see brand new baby octopus (like real baby, thing was the size of a pencil eraser and still pretty clear)

Awesome building art in Seward! Notice the painted birds above the windows

I got to put down some turns on the ski hill yesterday.  It made my soul feel complete.  The scenery at this ski place is absolutely unparalleled to anything I have ever seen.  I am excited to call this place my new home mountain for the next couple of years, and I look forward to spending some serious hours sliding down the sides of these mountains! When I am among the mountains and playing in what nature has to offer it here that I feel most at peace and closest to the heavens...

View from the top of Chair 6 at Alyeska.

 

I am just waiting for the lift to open around 11am. (Ski buddies this place would be killer for us because of when the sun comes up here lifts don't open until late! We could brunch and THEN ski! Hahaha we would have no problem getting first chair ever again!) To kill the time whilst I wait I am reading up on how to triage patients when they come into the ER and continuing to wonder how I will make the change from living in an urban lifestyle to a very rural one. I"m curious about what mode of transportation I will pick up first. A car, an ATV, a bike? I have no idea! Speaking on no idea.  I have no idea where or what I will be living in. Tomorrow is sure to be a real surprise.  It's also going to be cold.  Note on the picture that Saturday the high is.. 3.  I guess I should be happy it's a positive 3 instead of a minus 3.. right?  

 So the mountains are calling and must answer them.  I will chat more Sunday! I am excited to see my friends when I get there, and eat all the fresh meat one can handle.  I don't know when I will be back to Anchorage, maybe in a month or so. Back to the BIG city ;)

OH I almost forgot! A Bentley update!  We picked up Kitty Kat Attack and smuggled him into the hotel by the Denver Airport for the night Monday April 1. The next morning I gave him some homeopathic remedy called "Rescue Remedy" by Bachs and crammed in his little carrier and away to the airport we went.  He was awesome on the plane and since there was no one in the middle seat, and the guy in the aisle seat was a cat person Bentley was allowed to hang tough in the middle seat in his carrier.  Although I did take him out a couple times and this happened:

The sweetest little boy was so excited to see the kitty out of his carrier! He only wanted to see him, didn't want to pet him. Bentley.. making cat people everywhere he goes ;) The people around us on the plane didn't mind, and enjoyed it when he was out, and I don't think the flight attendants even knew he was on the plane.  Bentley was picked up by Marie at the Seattle airport and he is hanging out at All My Kitties until all of my training in the Anchorage trauma center is done in July.   I will keep you posted on how he's doing at extended cat camp!

So long lovelies! Until we meet again!

Until we meet again

I am certainly on my third glass of Sangria at the hotel by the Denver airport with my lovely kitty and my mama, and I am inspired to write a little.  To say that the last week has been bitter bitter sweet is an understatement.  Selling my my wonderful Betty (my car) was a lot harder than one would think.  Who knew one could grow so attached to and completely inanimate object? Everything that wasn't shipped to Nome now lived in a 5'x10' storage unit.  And everything else is in 3 big duffel bags and two huge ski bags.  I have run the gambit of excitement to completely dreading stepping on that plane tomorrow.  Walking away from everything that I have ever known and stepping into the unknown. I was so freaked out that Thursday night after an incredible workout that I went to Chipotle to get dinner for me and mom.  The woman behind the counter asked me how my day was and I just totally broke down.  I told the woman and her workmate (who happened to be the manager) that I was moving and that I didn't want to go, and just looked like a total blubbering fool. So much of a fool that the manager comped my order.  I called and told my wonderful friend that also lives in Nome about this little episode and she let me know that before she moved from West Virginia to bush Alaska that she did the same thing at a Bravo! restaurant and they comped her entire meal as well.... lesson learned here? Meltdown at a pricier joint than Chipotle.

I have finally stopped losing sleep over if I will be able to get all of the chores needed to be done, and if my stuff will fit in a horribly small storage unit.  I still can't believe it all fit in there.  The movers must be crazy insane good at Tetris!  I am now losing sleep over I will be able to cope with living in such a remote place, if I will be live up to what the people that have hired me to be? Will Bentley ever forgive me for making him move this much in the next 2 years?!  He is going to live in Seattle for the next 4 months until I am done with all my training in Nome and Anchorage.

I am saddened that I have had to say "See you soon" to my incredible old friends and the amazing new friends that I have met along the way here in Denver.  I cannot wait to make my way back, by for now it is on to probably one of the most insane adventures I will ever have in my life.  And I guess two years will fly by.  The last 7 months that I have been back in Denver surely have!   But no matter how ya slice it it is so hard to walk away from the place where your soul just feels at home.  I know I will be back, but I just want to stay.  I guess I'm at the top of the first hill on the roller coaster when you are at the top looking down and have that sudden panic of.. "Oh shit... let me off... I don't want to do this anymore!"  Only you can't jump off and you can either throw your hands in the air and just go with it and scream and laugh and enjoy the ride as best you can, or you can white knuckle it and be terrified and miss all of the sensations that come along with the ride.  I choose to throw my hands up and scream until I laugh, and enjoy this entire opportunity.  Through every up and down.  And then at the end... the plane will roll back up to the gate in Denver, and I will be home again :)

Bottomless mimosas with two old friends.
Mindy and Danielle. No matter the miles
these girls are some of my truest friends

Fabulous old and new friends. My new Chris friend called this
my "work release" party.  My old Chris friend has been around
to welcome me back every time I come to Denver. Adrienne and
I will always have the whiskey connection, and Lindy has been
there for me through all kinds stuff, and I love her so much.
Marissa is my ski buddy and is crazy.  I wouldn't change a thing.

Me and Jen having wonderful  fun at Keystone! Lovely days.... EVERY day

My beautiful Betty.  I look forward to Betty 2.0 when I get back!

My cross country travel partner. Mom!