6 week update

Six weeks ago, I started my career in nursing. At last, I was following through with my dream of becoming a nurse; after decades of thinking about it, now I was living it. Let me tell you, that first day was scary as hell. No amount of clinicals or school can prepare you for the day that you are now the nurse and not the student. Your license gives you the ultimate responsibility of helping people lead healthy lives and to stay alive when health is failing them. The first few weeks were very overwhelming. Here I was a baby nurse in a surreal situation in a small town in Alaska I had never heard of a few months ago.

The organization I work for is unique in many ways. I work in a clinic that would probably be considered an ER in most small towns in the lower forty eight. We do procedures and tests that an ER back home would do and it doesn’t matter if there is an LPN or RN behind your name. Up here we are all just nurses on the tundra.

The people we serve here are far different than the patients I worked with during my clinical experiences. They are so appreciative of our services and our facilities have made such a difference in the health care of the Eskimo people. Gone is the highest rate of tuberculosis deaths in the country and now, epidemics of the flu don’t wipe out entire families. 

The Eskimo people value life so much more than their American counterparts. You won’t find an abortion clinic within hundreds of miles. Eskimo’s greet children with open arms by adopting the children born to mothers that choose life but not motherhood. Children are honored in this culture. I’ve also been amazed at how active the men are in their children’s lives. It definitely goes against the old stereotype that men don’t know how to nurture like a mother can.

I am proud to be a nurse for the Eskimo people and Bethel is definitely an experience like no other. I am happy to go to work every morning. Gone are the days of hating my jobs as a preschool teacher. I will be a stronger person, man, and nurse in three years when I head back to my Oregon home. I love you all and miss you all more than you will ever know but I don’t regret the decision I made coming up to the last frontier of Alaska!

Things are happenin'!

Wow, it’s been crazy up here!  Our belongings arrived at the end of March so I had the mover bring it all on the 1^st of the month when our contract started for our new rental.  YAY!  We stayed in the temporary housing for a few days longer because I wasn’t able to hook up the water etc until the next week.  I tell you, you will never appreciate the access you have to water until you live with limited water through a water tank and weekly delivery.  We were relieved to move out of the temporary housing especially because the roads leading to it were not paved and have proceeded from ice to frozen mud, and now to mud which means the taxi’s won’t drive out there anymore and we’d have to walk about a mile just to get to the nearest paved road to be picked up.

Our new place is about the same distance from town as the other place, however it’s about double the distance from the airport so we hardly hear the airplanes anymore.  It’s a side of a duplex that is farther from the road so it’s a little bit quieter and we have a better view.  See picture below! It has 2 bedrooms and a kitchen with more storage than the one I had in Oregon! It also has a washer and dryer which is fantastic and means no more frozen hair! So you understand about frozen hair; while living at the temporary house, I had to walk around the outside of the building to the other side to access the washer and dryer for laundry. One day after I’d washed my hair, I walked around to do laundry. When I got to the other side, I noticed my hair wasn’t really swinging, and just felt weird on my head.  When I felt it with my hand, I realized that it was frozen into thick strands!  It was the craziest thing that had never even crossed my mind before.  After that, I had to make sure my hair was dry before going outside).

Our new place also has fireplace which we won’t use much since our landlord pays for heating fuel, a deck at the front entry and a deck that leads out of the master bedroom.  It’s really nice!

 Our living room

 The view from our living room. The houses you see in the distance are where we lived before and just beyond them (you can't see unfortunately) is the airport.

The temperature today is 36 degrees and sunny. It's the warmest it has been since I arrived 6 weeks ago! I stepped out onto the deck earlier today and decided that I have acclimated to the temperature probably as much as I ever will!  I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans and standing in the sun (or even in the shade) didn't feel cold!  Right before I left Oregon and when I was still working, I remember wearing a scarf and sweater every day in my office because I was so cold every day. It was only about 50 degrees... Now when the temperature is in the teens, I feel as cold as I felt in Oregon at 50 degrees.  I have a feeling when I get back to visit in Oregon I'm going to be too warm!

I am happy to announce that I’ve found a job!  I’ll be working as a Medical Support Technician II at the hospital, in fact just down the hall from Jeff.  I had two days of orientation last Wednesday and Thursday and was impressed with the presenters thoroughness and passion for their subject.  Despite that it meant sitting for 8 house a day, two days in a row, I found most of it interesting.

My first day was Friday (yesterday). I arrived early (gotta make myself look good!) and waited for 30 minutes for anyone else to show up.  Apparently attendance up here isn’t as strictly enforced because it is harder to fill a lot of these more skilled positions with someone more reliable. I intend to make sure I am there on time, every day so that they know I am a reliable employee.  When the phone started ringing at 8am, when I was there by myself, I was itching to answer it.  I had to persuade myself not to several times because I wouldn’t be able to help them… But I sure wanted to!  In the end,  I spent most of the day waiting for different access on the computer to be given to me so that I could do my job and I ended the day not having booked one single appointment.  I know that next week I’ll be able to do more so I went with it.  Two weeks from now, I’ll be in the front offices for the week, training for that area so I can move back and forth as needed.

I learned the other day that the last large flight of the day is Alaska Airlines, which leaves around 8:30 every night.  This flight is called (by the transplants in town) the “Freedom Flight”.  In other words, it’s your last chance out! LOL!

We hope everything is well for you!