The week was an interesting one in the clinic. The Sexual Health team, Womens Health nurse, and Mental Health Nurse were all here this week. We feel like we need a week or two with no visitors. Seriously, it is a blessing having the other specialist CNCs (clinical nurse consultants) come. Aunty Yoko and her team are brilliant with sex health screening, and able to share so much of their knowledge and wisdom in this field with Jo and I. To have our island mental health patients, met by a specialist CNC in this area is also a great thing. Mental illness (depression, bipolar and schizophrenia) are such an incredible stigma on an island with a small population. Everyone's business is everyone's business. So when Michael comes from the MH team, he can meet with these patients, and really develop a rapport and good therapeutic relationship. The only hassle when other teams come out, is space. Our clinic has 2 consult rooms, and a trauma bay, so when women's health is in one room, and mental health is in another room, it gets a little cosy with Jo and i on top of each other in the Trauma bay seeing everything else. Locals have health care so good here. If they have to wait more than 10 mins, they get bored and leave, or wander off to the beach or the shop. Triage really doesn't happen here. If you are a rip snorting emergency (triage cat 1) you get seen immediately, but if you have had a fungal skin rash since june last year (Triage cat 5) you still get seen immediately (if there is space). So with many rooms full during those times that specialist clinics are running, people get a bit ansy if they have to wait.
Still it makes for an interesting dynamic.
Jo and I work a 8am - 5pm day Mon-Fri. Weekends are on call but if there are patients that we see in the week that need follow up on Sat or Sunday, then we are often required to see these people on Overtime. Makes us good EBay customers, but fatigue encroaches, and then you start the new week not having felt like you had a day off yet. Saturday yesterday and we both did 9 and a half hours of overtime. Jo will write more of that experience that started with a dressing on an elder in the morning, and ended with a night helicopter evacuation at 7pm last night. But today, God willing, We are off call, and heading to the beach for picnic, shell collecting and more fishing and snorkelling.
Here is the Queen to share some of her experience of our week.
I have to start this by saying I wanted to have great photos of our experiences yesterday. But last night was a bit hectic and I was tied up doing other things! So I have some random photos that I will put in, from our fishing at the ramp last week.
Its nice to be able to relax today as yesterday was huge on the back of a busy week. We had a couple of call backs yesterday morning, really just follow ups from Friday, a wound that needed redressing a sick family with colds and a little girls with an ear infection and high temperature. We finished about 10 and were relaxing at home, planning a swim when the phone rang. One of the young women on the island was having a bleed (womens business) and she was worried about the volume. This was a concern as we had been watching her and planned to fly her out on Monday as her haemoglobin was 55 ( normal is 120-150) This is the componant of the blood which carries your oxygen so if this is low it can make you feel very tired. There are many reasons for a depletion but in a young otherwise healthy young woman, it can be a concern. So we headed out to collect her, get her back to the clinic, IV in, monitored her closely and gave her some medication to stop the bleeding. In the middle of all this we remembered that plane was arriving from TI hospital with some important immunisations that needed to be refrigerated straight away. SO I roared off in the car, well as fast as you can on gravel roads with many winds and hills!! This is when I realised that I have re-acclimatised to living here. As I drove back to the clinic, worried about the patient we had, I felt like the airport was a long way away...reality is, its only 4.5km!!!!!!
To cut a long story short, the emergency helicopter was tied up with 2 other emergencies on other islands, and we were third on the list. This is when the isolation becomes scary. There is only so much you can do for people, using basic measures. When blood products, scans, xrays and possible surgery is required, we need a hospital. At 7pm last night we were on the runway, with the box of emergency lights, following a photocopied plan of what lights go where and how to turn them on!!! ( some flash, and some don't) and waiting for the helicopter with our patient in the car. This is when it all feels surreal. You think about all the services in the cities and how each person has a role. Here, its us!!!
Ben and Amy were great yesterday. It must be hard for them when its a weekend and we want to spend time together and we are back at the clinic. Its just next door, but when we have a patient, they know they cannot come in. Today we are going to head out in the car and explore a few beaches.
This is Ben with an epaulette shark. He caught it by hand by the jetty the other night. Its was an odd looking thing but very interesting. We had a good look and then Ben released him back into the water and we watched it slink away.
This is a photo of the sardines jumping! Its an amazing thing to see. Its like a wave that just occurs and fish are leaping everywhere. On dusk it happens every 5 mins or so when the schools are sardines form big bait balls. It usually means something bigger is chasing the sardines!
OK, we are heading out. I might do a double blog today if time permits, more photos and tales of our Torres adventure. Yawo
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