I finished up my stint in Anchorage at the hospital there. I got to see and work with really sick patients, watch a few die, save a few, and deal with the drunk and disorderly. I have seen the best in people and the absolute worst. I reflect on the words of doctors and nurses a like. We had a woman brought to us via Anchorage PD for a suspected sexual assault. So that sucks. But then you get the story from the girl. You hear it, you want to believe it, you bring them back into the ER, you tell them that the doc is going to need to evaluate them. She refused the evaluation. And it was an interesting thing. Do you be naive and believe her or are you the asshole because you don't? The general consensus was that if you can't see it... it didn't happen. How weird to feel both naive and like an asshole at the same time, and yet I still haven't made a real opinion on what had happened. I got to see lots of overdoses, attempted suicides, WAY drunk people, lots of synthetic marijuana (spice).... which is HORRIBLE stuff... legalize the real stuff and ban that fake stuff! I got to help with putting in chest tubes, and rapid sequence intubations. All good things to have done a few times because the chances of doing them in Nome are few and far between. I also had a few "what the fuck am I doing? why am I nurse?" moments... Those weren't so fun. I asked a few of the new friends I made if this was "normal" and a few of them candidly told me that they had been having those exact thoughts for 5 years, and that it is indeed normal. Asking my nursing school friends the same question.... I'm not alone either.
Speaking of Nome I am finally in my own Nome nice place! It's a cute stand alone 1 bedroom house. Yes it has running water, plumbing, heat, windows, floors that aren't dirt, electricity, cable and internet! It's like I walk in and I am in the lower 48! Hahahaha!! Almost! I have my own little deep freeze freezer because i have a micro freezer in the fridge that doesn't hold more than ice cubes. My new little freezer holds my 10lb bags of frozen chicken breasts, and my 5lb of steak, ice, butter, milk, all the things I buy in bulk in Anchorage and bring back to Nome with me. I will post pictures of my place once all the boxes and totes are removed and my clothes are hidden from view! The weather is changing and it has been snowing a little, and raining and 35 degrees a lot. The wind is picking up and it most certainly feels like winter is coming. I bought a snowmachine when I was in Anchorage. T and his friends are going to teach me how to ride it and I will ship it to Nome in January some time. Don't worry there is plenty of snow on the ground in Nome until around May so I will still be using it as my daily driver for awhile after I get it up here. I have been asked to be the medical staff for the Nome to Golovin snowmachine race by one of the local snowmachine/4-wheeler shops (the one I frequent quite often)... that should be a nice resume booster... certainly unique if nothing else. Dirtrude has been upgraded again to nice warm grips for my hands. They get HOT! even on the lowest setting. I'm sure this is something that I won't regret.
I'm back to night shift now in Nome, it's a nice change of pace. I am really enjoying it. We get more actual sick people than people that come for a well baby check up (Yes they bring their healthy babies to the nasty, gross, germ filled ER for this.... WTF?). For those wondering we are still getting about 9 hours of daylight now. The sun doesn't come up until around 9am though. We've had some really good aurora sightings around here when the sky has been clear. So far we haven't much excitement at night. Just had a pt come in and drop a knife at my feet with cuts all over their arms saying they wanted to hurt themselves... talk about dramatic entrances... jesus. I know I may sound a little cold in saying stuff like that, but if you were to know the entire back story... This individual needs more help than may be available in the state. They know all the right things to say to get in the door and all the right things to be let out the door. Manipulative, and cunning. I also saw something I hope to never see again and that is a unilateral (one side of the body only) seizing 3-month old baby with absolutely no fever at all. The team in the hospital (Hey I was included in the team this time! YYYEEESSS!) got this very sick kiddo from door to in the air in 1.5 hours. This is medicine in rural Alaska. I am just so thankful that the baby stopped seizing after we finally got medication into it, and also that the weather was clear enough for our little King Air to get off the ground and to Anchorage where this kiddo needed to be.
So for now I have had 4 days off and I have stayed in Nome for all of them... I must be sick! It's been good though. I have been out with other nurses from the acute care unit, my old roommate Megan came back to town to visit her boyfriend, I was able to go and partake in a Mexican potluck dinner and other festivities! Making new Nomite friends! And keeping my old ones too :) I go back to Anchorage for a haircut and such on Sunday. It has only been like 8 months since my last trim and my hair is WAY to long.... it takes 4 hair ties to keep it up at the gym! That is just insanity! NO! So I will take about 4"-6" off and the best part? no one will be able to tell the difference. Long hair is awesome like that.
We have been having serious Nome problems lately. The post office is down two people and the packages are backing up for everyone! I fear when it is time for me to receive all the packages I have been ordering the last 3-4 weeks and my from Ohio box filled with flour, sugar and brown sugar (That stuff is SUPER heavy and dense and takes up too much room in my totes when I travel for how much they weigh!) that I will be yelled at for not picking up my boxes in a timely fashion.... or there will be so many that I will have to drive out by the airport to the annex and fetch them all!
Life is okay up here in the tundra. And hey fake it til ya make it right?
Until later (which I promise will be sooner than this post came about) lovelies! I will post pictures tomorrow some time!
So for now I have had 4 days off and I have stayed in Nome for all of them... I must be sick! It's been good though. I have been out with other nurses from the acute care unit, my old roommate Megan came back to town to visit her boyfriend, I was able to go and partake in a Mexican potluck dinner and other festivities! Making new Nomite friends! And keeping my old ones too :) I go back to Anchorage for a haircut and such on Sunday. It has only been like 8 months since my last trim and my hair is WAY to long.... it takes 4 hair ties to keep it up at the gym! That is just insanity! NO! So I will take about 4"-6" off and the best part? no one will be able to tell the difference. Long hair is awesome like that.
We have been having serious Nome problems lately. The post office is down two people and the packages are backing up for everyone! I fear when it is time for me to receive all the packages I have been ordering the last 3-4 weeks and my from Ohio box filled with flour, sugar and brown sugar (That stuff is SUPER heavy and dense and takes up too much room in my totes when I travel for how much they weigh!) that I will be yelled at for not picking up my boxes in a timely fashion.... or there will be so many that I will have to drive out by the airport to the annex and fetch them all!
Life is okay up here in the tundra. And hey fake it til ya make it right?
Until later (which I promise will be sooner than this post came about) lovelies! I will post pictures tomorrow some time!
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