Robs Blog #6 - Vampire Day

Vampire Day.

Wednesday, and it is all hands on deck as they come in droves for fasting blood tests.  These are blood tests that look at things like blood fats (cholesterol, triglycerides), and blood sugar.  They must be taken after at least 8 hours of no food, so the usual time for fasting bloods is at 8am when the clinic opens and of course, before people have their breakfast.  Few people know what happens to a blood test once it has been taken.  Let me enlighten you.   The blood in a big city pathology service, gets labeled and transported to the Laboratory, where a lab technician enters it into a data base and squirts the blood into a huge machine that does the test.

In a remote area such as the islands, the blood has to be separated before it is flown to the lab in TI.  To separate the blood, we have to wait 10-15 minutes for the blood to clot in the tube, then put it in a really cool centrifuge which spins the test tube at 3000 rpm for 10 mins to separate the serum from the cells.  Some blood tests require us to pipette the serum (clear watery part of the blood) and separate it into a separate container and freeze it.  From here it gets packed in a purpose built esky and is flown to TI for processing.  When there is a morning like we had today, when three rooms at the clinic are all simultaneously taking blood tests, there is often a queue at the centrifuge, and a back up of the bloods.  It is a surreal sight to see tube upon tube all lined up like planes at Heathrow in a holding pattern , awaiting their turn in the spinner.

By 10 am, it was all over but for the shouting…as it turns out there are needle phobics on the islands too!, but for the most part it is a pleasure taking blood from islanders, because their veins are fantastic.   Now you are probably thinking that this all sound very macabre, but it is a nurse thing.  We appreciate a good set of veins when we see them.

I had a brave 10 year old boy in this morning with a nasty boil/abscess on his thigh.  It had come to a point and was time to lance it. I grabbed Jo in to help comfort him, set up my procedure tray and did the deed, by slicing the abscess open and draining what liked like 15 ml of ‘Buggar’ (pus) from the site.  He yelps, and I felt really bad for the poor boy but both he and Jo were very brave, and some times you just need to dissociate from the emotion and be cruel to be kind.  Still, it leaves you with an uneasy feeling, cutting into someone with a scalpel, especially when that person is a child.

After lunch, I had a fairly quiet afternoon.  There is a painful computer system that is in use in the islands called “Ferret” which is a data base that records when community members health checks, blood tests, immunizations etc are due.  We (the nurses) hate this program.  It is slow, archaic and doesn’t play nice with other health department software.  So painful is this computer software, that when I failed at my 4^th attempt to log in, I rang the Information support division, who said that they can help me because they don’t support this soft ware!!!  Drives me crazy.  After many many phone calls, I found someone in ??? India who was able to help me log in.  I finally logged into the system and when I pulled up our waiting room list of patients, it was Darnley Clinic!!!!!  Not Yorke Island.

I gave up and knocked off early to go fishing….as you do.

When I went back to the unit, our family of two kids had multiplied to 7.  The excited Creole filled the lounge room as we prepared the fishing gear and took off to the boat ramp.  Two in the front, three in the back, and four in the Ute tray, with the snorkeling and fishing gear.  We followed the local copper down to the jetty where I was just waiting for a lecture about unrestrained children in the ute back, but Uncle Ned the Policeman /Anglican minister / reef pilot operator / seafood monger /Minimart owner, was just there with his massive smile and bigger than life laugh, negotiating a ride out to a trawler, to buy some bulk prawns.

Uncle Pensio took Ben out to a reef to catch Crayfish today, and a few days ago gave us a big bag of sea mullet.  I filleted these for Dinner tonight which was awesome after Jo marinated them in lime and ginger .  But the fish frames were kept so I could try to catch more sharks.  And they loved the bait.  In seconds I had a big one on the line, and all the kids came over before I could even stary to wind him in, and told me that I have caught an “Eeai”  prounounced  E.I the initials.   This was their word for blind shark, and I was informed that if I caught it and landed it, I would have to let it go because it cant be eaten.  I was to learn later that blind sharks are very big, full of mercury and ammonia, and so not good to eat.  It is perhaps not such a bad thing that this shark snapped my 90 lb line .  It was, none the less, a great work out for 10 mins.  These kids are amazing, they know, intimately the sea, the waves, the wind, and by reading subtle changes and vibrations of the water, can tell you what is on your fishing line before you even bring it in to the beach.  The have been taught since very very young, the language of the ocean, and seem so spiritually connected to this place that it is eerie.

Ben came home with Coral trout, and crayfish, and reports similar experiences and observations after his 6 hour reef experience with Uncle Pensio.  He tells us that he learned more in just one day, than all has reading on marine biology.  He developed a knowledge and skill in safe capture of marine life and humane killing of food species.  He has developed  a deeper understanding of how these locals live, their lifestyle and their way.  I think he will reflect on today for a long time.

Our flights for the next chapter of the adventure, Erub (Darnley Island) were booked today.  The count down towards our departure from Robyn’s paradise, has begun, and after the last few days, I am sure that I will have that same old “I don’t want to go” feeling about this place , as I have had on the other islands.  This place gets under your skin in a good way, and for me to see my family grow, and share and experience this culture, and this place, is …well….Paradise.