Corneal numbness and a schizophrenic hitchhiker

You might think cocaine’s a prize

The truth is it’s a thing I despise

You’ll hallucinate bugs

On that class of drugs

And you might try to pry out your eyes.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. 2017 brought me adventures in Iowa, Alaska, and northern British Columbia. After a month of part-time in northern Iowa, a new granddaughter, and a friend’s funeral, I have returned to British Columbia.  Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

Before and after clinic, and between patients, the docs in this clinic congregate in an office with 6 chairs and computer stations.   You can find quieter, more efficient places to dictate or keyboard or research under this roof, but, still, docs who have work stations elsewhere come in frequently during the day.

Earlier this week, at the beginning of the day, I brought up the subject of eye pathology. In the course of a referral to an ophthalmologist, I learned that cocaine abuse can numb the cornea, and I spoke the new knowledge to my colleagues.  The information amazed them just as it had amazed me.  And then the clinical stories started.

Cocaine and other drugs like unto its kind, such as meth, speed, or crank induce hallucinations and delusions. Paranoia, of course, runs rampant, but so does the sensation of insects or foreign bodies in various parts of the body. Most people who have known tweekers know that they pick at themselves, giving rise to “speed sores.”  They also pull out hair (trichotillomania).  But then we all listened, rapt, while one physician talked about a heavy cocaine user who had used a screwdriver to try to remove a non-existent contact lens.  We all shuddered, shook our heads, and muttered, “drugs.”

Canada stands on the verge of national legalization of marijuana, and I see no good coming from it.

+-+-+-

I got called to ER for 2 patients in the early morning hours. The second patient recognized and greeted me by name.  “Were you gone for a while?” she asked.

Within 24 hours two more patients made the same mistake: they thought I had permanent status rather than temporary. The place is starting to feel like home.

+-+-+-

I picked Bethany up at the airport in Prince George Friday evening. We stayed the night, went grocery shopping at Costco on Saturday, and got on the highway.  Just outside of town, we picked up a hitchhiker.

Last summer we picked up a couple from Europe, working their way across Canada for a year.

This time, at about the same place, I pulled over for a middle-aged man with backpacking gear.  We chatted as the kilometers slipped by.

Residing in some of the more violent, drug-ridden, lower-rent sections of East Vancouver, he’d lost several bicycles and his wallet to theft. In years past, he’d driven motor vehicles, from garbage trucks to RVs, from the Midwest US to Anchorage, Alaska.

Then he started to talk about how dizzy he got when surrounded by too much technology, especially wi-fi.

He planned to take the Dempster Highway north through the Yukon to Inuvik, the capital of Nunavut, the Canadian Territory that belonging to the Inuit.   He wanted to work along the way.

As the now familiar highway slipped past, I listened to his delusions coming with increasing frequency, without contradicting.

I strongly suspect untreated schizophrenia.  He can function in society, even if he functions marginally. He can hold a job, even if not for very long, and he has chosen a path that leads him away from high availability of drugs.

We dropped him off in an area with decent traffic flow. I looked up the Dempster Highway when we got back to town.  I hope he times his river crossings right, otherwise he’ll be waiting a month for a ferry or an ice bridge.

 

 

Advertisements

Where FedEx doesn’t go

My summer plans just fell through

There’s a thing or two I should do

It takes hours and ages

To fill out the pages

To serve at a clinic that’s new.

 

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. 2017 brought me adventures in Iowa, Alaska, and northern British Columbia. After a month of part-time in northern Iowa, a new granddaughter, and a friend’s funeral, I have returned to British Columbia.  Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

My original summer plans fell through but another opportunity arose, slightly closer to home. If all works right, I’ll take 24 hour call Wednesdays, with clinic on Thursday and Friday.  I would face a 38 hour work week, perilously close to the 40 hour norm.

For me, every work place change involves applications and credentialing. I worked on the packet, and put together 59 pages with 2 passport pictures I just happened to have.  While I could receive the forms electronically, the hospital wants what is now called a “wet copy:” the actual signed forms rather than scanned/emailed or faxed.

FedEx gets as far as Prince George. Using the Canadian Postal interface slows down mail to the US by weeks, and, from experience, sending things Express across the border involves a time frame that could be paired with the word Pony.

Purolator courier service, however, does a lot of business here. While they don’t have an office in town, they do have a driver.

The hospital has an account. With my Monday free as a reward for my weekend on call, I stopped in to the front office to inquire about Purolator.  Come back at 1:00PM, they told me, when we expect the pick up.

I walked to the mall and found an adequate manila envelope. I stuffed and addressed it and walked back over to the hospital at 11:00AM to find the Purolator van parked in front and the agent doing business in the parking lot.  When she finished delivering a C.O.D. package, I approached her with my packet.  She knew exactly what to do, but had run out of international labels in her van.  She had other stops to make, and asked how she could contact me.  I gave her my business card, and we agreed to meet in the hotel lobby in an hour.

She arrived on time, to the minute. Her consummate professionalism did not get in the way of her Canadian small-town friendliness and sense of humor.  I don’t think she expected me to have weighed the envelope (320 grams) nor to have called and found out the charge ($53.28CD).  Neither did the hotel front desk staffers who watched the transaction.

Everyone knows everyone here. I answered questions about why the package would go to Texas if the job were in Iowa.  I found out I don’t have to have my own Purolator account to send packages.

 

Weekend call: propranolol, Mounties, x-rays, Dave Brubeck, and geographic confusion

Geography knowledge is rare

And even those doctors who care

Have recommendations

That get emendations

With exclamations of “WHERE??!!”

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. 2017 brought me adventures in Iowa, Alaska, and northern British Columbia. After a month of part-time in northern Iowa, a new granddaughter, and a friend’s funeral, I have returned to British Columbia.  Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

Another weekend on call has passed. The heaviest day was Saturday; I attended 13 patients.  For the most part people came in a steady stream, yet I got breaks for lunch and supper.  With no regrets, I took every opportunity to nap.

I saw 4 Workman’s Compensation cases and 3 others from a motor vehicle crash. I don’t know why, but  I stand to benefit from laws governing reimbursement these two classes of injuries.  They represent the only two Canadian system areas lacking crystal-clear transparency.

My broad background helps me connect with a wide variety of patients. I relied on my short musical career to help one patient.  In the ‘60’s the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s artistry enchanted me into relentless listening of the ground-breaking album, Time Out.  I advised the patient to check two cuts on YouTube, Take Five and Unsquare Dance, examples of drum solos in difficult, unconventional rhythms (5/4 and 7/4) taken to artistic extremes.

I used my 7 years’ experience attending Adult Children of Alcoholics meetings to help another person. I pointed out that, just as perfect people rarely come to see me, perfect people rarely choose to become doctors.

I dealt with patients with neurologic, respiratory, infectious, psychiatric, blood, eye, gut, skin, and bone problems. I ordered and interpreted 3 electrocardiograms (all normal) and two x-rays (both abnormal). Four people had viral illnesses, expected to resolve with no treatment.   I ran 2 urine drug screens, results from one but not the other had surprises.

I sent one patient by ambulance to Prince George.

I called the Mounties once.

I ordered two CT scans for the upcoming week, fairly confident that one will come back normal and concerned that one might not.

I sought consultation from a Vancouver specialist who gave me a series of recommendations. After I hung up I called back.  She hadn’t realized the geography involved.  Just as well.  The patient (rationally, I felt) refused those measures.

I prescribed propranolol twice. With the blood pressure indication eclipsed by better drugs in the same class, it still has a lot of off-label uses: migraines, ADHD, stage fright, performance anxiety, premature ejaculation, rapid heart rate, tremor, and buck fever.  It stands as the first-line treatment for over-active thyroid.

I drove rather than walked the kilometer to the hospital. Temperatures have stayed close to freezing, with daytime thaws since I arrived, and frost coated the car windows after sunset.  This car rental didn’t include a scraper so I used a movie rewards card.

The last week of the year

The Canadians were boxing that day

The 26^th is a time that they play

But I took the call

Which was not rushed at all

But was long. What can I say?

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. A month in the Arctic followed a month in Iowa followed 3 months in British Columbia, to which we have returned. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

Much has happened in the last week.

Sunday: I don’t celebrate Christmas, I support my colleagues who do and go out of my way to take call on 12/24 and 12/25. But this year, I had to compete with two colleagues who don’t celebrate either, and for the 3^rd time since the 70’s I didn’t work the holiday.  Bethany and I went cross country skiing.

Monday: We rented waxless skis from one of the hospital staff. I wore most of my clothing, including seal skin mittens and a beaver fur hat purchased in Alaska.

Bethany and I hadn’t cross-country skied together so far this century. The last time I went out on skis, waxless skis had just come out. I still ran then, compulsively, and I had some flexibility left, and my hair and beard had yet to turn the color of snow.

We went out for 3 kilometers, not far as cross-country skiing goes. I didn’t fall till the very last, and had to clip out of my skis in order to stand up.

Tuesday: I celebrated Boxing Day for the first time.  One of my Canadian patients explained the holiday:  “You stay in your pajamas all day and eat left overs and play with your toys.”  Of course I thought that kind of celebration laudable and wondered why it would only come once a year.   But I had volunteered for call that day, giving it to the Canadians who celebrate the holiday, and who couldn’t imagine that an entire country wouldn’t.  Steady patient flow, about one per hour, let me pay enough attention to each patient without rushing.  But it kept up till just shy of midnight.

Wednesday: ER patient at 3:00AM, requiring lots of ER care. In the middle, I returned to the room, showered, and changed. Back at the hospital an hour before dawn, the sky brightening in the east.  I faced the coldest temperature of the year thus far, -25 Celsius (-18Fahrenheit).  The new snow squeaked in protest as I stepped.  I worked the walk-in clinic, despite assurances I could take the morning off after a hard call.  I lunched back at the hotel, napped marvelously, and walked back to finish the afternoon.  I didn’t want to drive; scraping car windows inside and out takes more time. I did, however, drink a cup of coffee.

Thursday: after caffeine ruined a good night’s sleep I returned to clinic early to finish the inevitable odds and ends that come at assignment’s termination.   Unable to enter the dictation system for a discharge summary, I sighed, sent an email, and moved on.  I cleaned out my electronic queues of lab and x-ray reports, and consultations. I had 500 items, of which two made me exclaim out loud, not because I had been wrong, but because I had been right.

Friday: We scraped the car windows, put the heat on full blast, and packed.  At the clinic we said good byes and snapped pictures.  On the drive to Prince George any outside temp less than -19C iced our breath inside the glass.

Saturday: Getting to the airport 30 minutes before boarding gave us plenty of leisure.  I pointed out my multi-tool to the airport security personnel.  She told me Canada approves blades less than 5 cm, but I would lose it in the States.  It doesn’t have a blade but I didn’t argue.  We left in the dark and the snow, and 18 hours later landed in the dark and the snow in Sioux City (and temperatures of -26F/-33Celsius, even colder than Canada) after two long layovers separating three boring flights.  The best kind.

 

A Tale of Two ER Patients

The blood came gush from the nose

Staining the floor and the clothes

But a Merocel pack

Slid from front to the back

Brought a stop to the flood, I suppose.

 

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. A month in the Arctic followed a month in Iowa followed 3 months in British Columbia, to which we have returned. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

A tale of 2 ER patients.

I find the process of transferring patients out daunting and frustrating. The remoteness of the community demands stewardship of the two ambulances with their crews.  Thus, when possible, I send  patients to Prince George via POV (privately owned vehicle).

Even then, the process of stabilize-and-transfer can involve an hour or two of ER time when I get to chat with a patient.

I got to talk with a chef, who gave me permission to write a good deal more than I have. His camp, with 120 workers, employs three cooks, each responsible for one meal a day.  We had a great time talking about gravy; we agreed that corn starch beats flour for thickener, and that a good broth or stock means more to the sauce than the drippings.

*-*-*-

 

I gave a different ER patient the reverse of my usual dietary advice. Eat three scoops of premium ice cream at bed time, I told her.  Don’t drink water, always make sure your beverage has calories, especially high fructose corn sweetener.  I described how the Iowa beef industry uses it to accelerate fat gain in cattle.   I told her not to eat anything without gravy, mayo, or a sauce.

At the end, I said, “I write a blog. I won’t mention name, diagnosis, or age, but I’d like to write about the eating plan I gave you, the opposite of what I usually give out, how poison for one person is life-saving for another.”

She waved her hand and said, “You can use my name if you like.”

 

*-*-*-

During my IHS time in New Mexico, I saw 2 or 3 major nose bleeds a week for 18 months.  In that time, I became skilled at packing the front part of the nose to stop the bleeding.  Most times I could get the stanch the flow, and when I couldn’t, I knew what to do to get the patient to specialist care.

But since then the nose bleeds I’ve seen were simple, easy to stop temporarily followed immediately by a touch with a silver nitrate stick for permanent resolution. .

But the problem of serious epistaxis (bleeding from the nose) relies heavily on equipment, and the equipment has changed in the last 30 years. Our hospital has specialized catheters with inflatable balloons (the Rapid Rhino), and sponges made of material that promotes clotting (Merocel).  We also have tranexemic acid, unknown in the 20^th century

For the time frame involved, I’ve seen more than my share of complicated nosebleeds this trip. I discovered that the closest Ears, Nose, Throat specialist doesn’t take call, and that most of the ER docs cheerfully confer by phone.

I joined NIRD

I think that what you have heard

Could be boiled down to a word

The truth I must face,

And even embrace

Is the fact that I’m really a nerd.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. A month in the Arctic followed a month in Iowa followed 3 months in British Columbia, to which we have returned. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

No one called me “nerd” in high school, only because the word hadn’t come into currency. I belonged in the clique of intellectuals that didn’t have a clique. I figured out pretty early that I’d rather study than party, read a dictionary than drink, and find a movie’s logical inconsistencies and anachronisms than sit back and enjoy it.   By the time I could relax and embrace my nerdiness, I knew how to find groups that valued and even revered book learning.

So I jumped at the chance to join Northern Interior Rural Division of Family Practice, or NIRD and the chance it offered for a Christmas party and an opporutnity to get together with other rural docs. I even ignored the misspelling.

True to my inner nerd, I got us to the party on time at 11:00AM, and before anyone else.

Most physicians brought their families and most of the kids were younger than 12. I probably graduated from med school before half the docs were born.

I gave a yoyo demo. Bethany and I repaired an 11-year-old’s yoyo, I gave him a new string and taught him how to wax it to improve the sleep time.

The docs from our clinic, with spouses and kids, settled at one table. To my surprise and delight, we didn’t discuss patients.

We had a great meal, centered on turkey but with plenty of vegetables. We didn’t rush dessert, and chatted on after everyone else had left.

At 3:00PM, little daylight remained. Bethany and I picked out a movie, but couldn’t find the theater in the dark despite 3 GPS units.

We stayed overnight in a rather nice hotel room. I’d never seen glass interior walls that opacified for privacy.

The next day we bought groceries at Costco and Real Canadian Super Store, which vies with Costco for great prices but offers a better selection.

Without the rampant Canadian politeness, we probably wouldn’t have escaped from the parking lot of either store before closing time.

We had a beautiful drive back, with clear skies and bright sun, and fine, gleaming white frost on the trees.

 

 

We had a short, boring flight

In Prince George we stayed over night

Though the sky turned quite black

It’s good to be back

The laughter and warmth bring delight.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. A month in the Arctic followed a month in Iowa followed 3 months in British Columbia, to which we have returned. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

We waited in the boarding lounge in Vancouver for our next flight north, and fell to talking with fellow passengers. One has retired, and I asked what he does in his spare time.

His wife has volunteered at the hospital for 50 years, he said, and he visits her on the days she does. He also farms, raising hay in the summer. As I have farm land, and have worked with farmers, I very much wanted to know how many cuttings of hay he gets in a year.

“One,” he said. And in the exceptional year when he tries to get two, the next year’s yield suffers.

He also told me about his medical problems. While the rules of confidentiality don’t apply to airport conversations, I don’t like to write about anyone without permission.

The sun set while we chatted, and we boarded in the long twilight.

The flight was short and boring, the best kind.

We stayed over night and the next day hit the mall.  In general we don’t like shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas because of insane crowds and impossible parking. Without a checked bag, though, we lacked critical items. I hoped to make up for my lack of a parka with a sweater, and we’ve found trekking poles almost as necessary as cleats when walking on ice.

And the grocery store in our target small town couldn’t hope to match the price or selection of Costco.

We got a great clearance price on a cooler.

Then we drove north on roads clear in the sun and snow packed in the shade, always alert for black ice and moose.

We got our old hotel room back. We unpacked and lunched at the Chinese restaurant, then I strolled to the clinic just before closing.

The laughter, warmth, and high physician morale enveloped me when I walked in. I grinned for a lot of reasons: small town friendly, Canadian polite, great nurses and support staff, and the special magic of this particular group.

 

Holiday rush

Home from the Arctic we set

At the Omaha airport we met

But, Oh! What a drag!

We can’t check a bag!

And we went to Vancouver by jet.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with a return to traveling and adventures in temporary positions in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska. A month in the Arctic followed a month in Iowa followed 3 months in British Columbia.  Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

I finished work 15 hours before our flight’s scheduled departure. We acquired little during our stay, but the task of packing took all of Bethany’s considerable skills.  We cobbled together a supper of edible odds-and-ends.  We played one more Scrabble game but couldn’t fall asleep till 5 hours before we needed to get the taxi to the airport.

The airlines advise 2 hours for security and check in, but here we couldn’t check baggage more than an hour ahead. We slipped our ice cleats into the checked suitcase, gate checked our 2 roller boards, and fell asleep before the plane took off.

We spent the long layover with Les, a friend of 35 years and Anchorage resident for 30. Without the wind we’d faced for the last month, the Anchorage temps while a few degrees colder seemed positively friendly.

Contrast, as always, the essence of meaning, the big-city realities of Anchorage jarred our senses. We faced traffic, stop lights, food prices that don’t take the breath away, and stores the size of hospitals, and did our best not to stop and gape.

We helped move a boat and shop, then after dark found ourselves in an airport decorated with full body mounts of moose, musk ox, polar bear, brown bear, and halibut. We landed in the rain in Seattle.

Because of the very long times and distances involved, the vast majority of Alaska traffic overnights in Seattle and Anchorage, thus the large number of hotels close by.   Less than 18 hours after checking in, we landed in Omaha.

Less than 48 hours of mail, laundry, and friends later, back in the Omaha airport for Thanksgiving travel, Bethany headed to Virginia, and I to upstate New York.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with two brothers, three sisters, a brother-in-law, two nieces, two nephews, a daughter, and a son-in-law. I had to slide my internal clock back across 5 time zones, adjust to outdoor temps above freezing, and accommodate to twice the daylight hours.  I find sleeping in generally difficult but, due to a body clock both shaken and stirred, managed to sleep past 9:00AM.  Coffee in the morning, contrary to usual habit, helped.

Just like that Bethany and I met in the Omaha airport and headed back to Sioux City with 3 days to get ready for the next month in Canada.

The night before departure, Bethany looked carefully at the itinerary and announced we only had an hour layover in Chicago, where we changed airlines. We would not be able to check a bag.

Then followed a furious baggage editing. While we spent thirteen weeks in New Zealand with one roller board and one back pack each, we didn’t have to deal with serious cold.

We decided we could get trekking poles and sweaters in Prince George if needed.

In Vancouver, when asked the purpose of my trip, I replied, “Business.  Would you like to see my work permit?”  The young BC Immigrations man did, and asked me what sort of business I do.  “I’m a doctor,” I said.  “I’ll be working up north for a month.  And, boy, do I like your system.”

He looked up.  “Well thanks for coming! We’ve a shortage of doctors.”

The click of a linguistic show-off

That language didn’t come quick

And my accent is still a bit thick

It might sound like a crow cough

But I am a show off

And used my Naa Dene click.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. After three years working with a Community Health Center, I went back to traveling and adventures in temporary positions. Assignments in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska have followed.  I finished my most recent assignment in Clarinda on May 18.  Right now I’m in northern British Columbia, getting a first-hand look at the Canadian system. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

I spoke a lot of Spanish in my quarter-century working in Sioux City. Eventually, my accent settled into the developing Spanish accent of the area.  On taking care of a Hispanic patient for the first time, I frequently got the question, “Where are you from?”  And I’d reply that I’m American.

The query, “Yes, but what is your nationality?” invariably followed.

(Regretfully, people of Asian descent in both Canada and the US face the same question; the questioner usually implies that a person with a particular appearance must be from somewhere else.)

Sometimes I use the word Gabacho (a derogatory term for white Americans, heard mostly in the Midwest). Sometimes I’ll talk about my grandparents being from Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   And sometimes I shrug and say I’m a linguistic showoff, because I am.

If they ask me why I speak Spanish, I just say it’s good business.

Many but not all the Natives from the Bands close to here come from the Naa Dene linguistic tradition. So I greeted one of my patients today with, “Daa natch’eyaa,”  meaning, “How are you?”

“Sa’atch’ee,” came the reply, meaning, I’m fine. As I prepared the injection, he asked, “What kind of white man are you that you speak our language?”

“Aalk’iidaan,” I replied, “Shi naalnish Toohaajaalehidi. A long time ago I worked with the Canoncito Band of Navajo.”

Navajo language belongs in the same group as Naa Dene, with some important differences.

Being a linguistic showoff, though, I couldn’t stop there. I asked the Naa Dene word for goat.

It took me three weeks to learn the first consonant in that Navajo word. The linguists use the ! to represent the click, to the best of my knowledge, the only click outside of Africa.

My patient didn’t want to look surprised when I repeated it accurately, but he did.

 

 

Why I Came, and Can I Fix the American System When I Get Back?

My reasons? I’ve got quite a few

I didn’t want to say I withdrew

My application

But my rationalization

Got me to work with the right crew.

Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. After three years working with a Community Health Center, I went back to traveling and adventures in temporary positions. Assignments in Alaska, rural Iowa, suburban Pennsylvania and western Nebraska have followed.  I finished my most recent assignment in Clarinda on May 18.  Right now I’m in northern British Columbia, getting a first-hand look at the Canadian system. Any identifiable patient information has been included with permission.

The patient (who gave me permission to write a good deal more about her than I have) asked why I came to British Columbia.

A lot of people ask me that question, and I truncate the truth, too complex for brevity. In no particular order:  I have a thick stubborn streak.  I had a tiger by the tail: see the project through or have to say that I’d withdrawn an application for licensure.  I wanted to spend more of my time taking care of patients and less time at meaningless but marginally lucrative mouse clicking.  I have a sense of adventure.  I wanted to know the truth behind what US doctors vilify and US liberals champion but neither have any experience or knowledge about.

There are more.

So I just said, “I wanted to know find out about the Canadian system.”

As I opened the door she asked, “So, when you get home, are you going to fix the American system?” I said, “No, but the first step is educating the American docs. And I’m not sure they’ll believe me.”

Actually, I don’t think the liberals will believe me, either.

+=+=+=

Last night the smoke from the forest fires drifted into town. The dramatic evening sky progressed from intriguing to eerie.  Finally, darkness fell, thick and hard, two hours early.  The smell of smoke kept me from falling asleep.  This morning we watched the news for two hours to see how close the fires are.

We don’t want the fires to come this way. Too close and the town dies from lack of wood.  Much too close and the whole city goes up in flames.  I wouldn’t want to have to evacuate, and I don’t know which way we would go.

We’re seeing an increase respiratory problems from the smoke. Some people have come in from BC’s largest city, Prince George, because of air quality.

=+=+=+=

Last time I was on call, I saw 14 patients, and 3 diagnoses accounted for 13 of them: back pain, abdominal pain, and left facial pain. The only one not covered by those three complaints came in before the others, and left, cured.