Haaaa! the relief of getting your own clinic back!! Jo and i had the rare experience last week of having the Midwife here for a couple of days, the Mental health team all three people and a strait jacket (note spelling) , a relief nurse that was supposed to give Jo and I some time off with Mum and Dad who are here to visit. We have Heidi here a Graduate RN learning the outer island RAN ropes, and with all the comings and goings, our little clinic was a busy place reminiscent of a baseball field with all bases loaded.
This week, it is just us and Heidi....and today in the clinic was just so peaceful!!! It was noce to get our own rooms back and get on with core business. Our immediate boss is away at present, so the running of the clinic has fallen on our shoulders. I must admit that management is not my thing but we are bummbling along and i feel we are doing a great job in what is becoming a busy pre christmas clinic.
The affirmation you get from elderly (previously non compliant folk) who have not come to the clinic for months. Jo has one such patient...a matriach of the island, who attends the clinic when she deems it necessary, but lately has not missed an appointment with Jo, and is taking all her meds. Wounds that she has had (non-healing) for months, are starting to heal. Whoop whoop!!! Of course I know that it is Jo's excellent wound care, but the rapport that Jo fosters with the most difficult of patients is to be seen to believed. Getting them through the door to the clinic is half the battle.
Mum and Dad continue to experience the Island culture and life style. Mum has been counting fish species that we have had for kaikai (food). Today we got given another two different fish that we haven't tried before. One , called an Errarr (sp) or blackfish, is venomous. Like a happy moments, but apparently delicious cooked in a coconut milk curry, or roasted like chicken. The advice given to me is "be careful if the spines, they be go prick you , you be prapa hurting"!!!
We however remain adventurous in diet as we are in off duty entertainment activities!! Dad and Ben and I went spotlighting in the low tide fish trap last night. You apparently shine a strong torch onto the sand holes, and octopus sit beside their hole mesmerised by the light. Knock them on the head and you have a quick easy dinner...Calamari (of sorts) the fresh easy way!! as it turned out there was no octopus to be seen, but seeing the bright orange eyeshine of shrimps, prawns and crabs made for an interesting night time activity on the reef and I am looking forward to doing it again soon.
The fishing has been a bit off over the last few weeks, which is sad because i promised Dad some awesome fishing,; still he enjoys trying, and it is nice to see him just easing in to the island way of life. Daily they meet locals and discuss the issues that need to be discussed. Mum and Dad are like people magnets, and everywhere they go, people ask them if they are Rob's Mum and Dad.
The EBAY Barge arrived today...we received FRESH friut and veges, FRESH meat, and some grog. It was a good day. The clinic got a good haul too. The new fridge for our pharmacy arrived, along with new air conditioning units. We got clinic supplies that are getting very very low, and the return of some broken medical equipment sent away on the day we came to the Torres. This device is called a Hemocue, and it measures the red pigment in your blood. A measure of iron levels and red blood cells. Well the device went to TI, then got sent to Melbourne, then came back to TI then returned here. I turned it on after excitingly unpacking it, and it blinks once with error code E02 ! so I look up the internet website for Hemocue. I download the manual and errorcode list, and it tells me that error code E02 means thatthere is an electronic fault and the device needs to be returned to the manufacturer!!!! Now this is where I got excited for another reason. You see, I was under the understanding that when some Techy gets a device to fix in the factory, that they actually fix the bloody thing, TEST THE BLOODY THING, and then once they know that the device is working, THEN send it back!!!!! I am really frustrated. This tool allows me to check that a patient's haemoglobin is normal in about 30 sec. Now we are back to take a formal venous blood stab samble, package it, refridgerate it, take it to the airstrip, load it in an esky on the plane, and then it travels 1 hour to Horn Island, it then goes on a Buss to the Horn Island Wharf...it then goes on a Ferry to Thursday Island and then a Bus to pathology to the hospital. Upon reciept of the blood sample, one staff member processes and logs the sample, and another staff member (pathology assistant) takes a drop of blood and sticks in in a Hemocue to test it!!!!! Can you hear my frustration?
All in all , I am happy with our Barge supplies. What I am supposed to do with 2000 glass Vaginal microscope slides elludes me. We just dont have that many vaginas on Darnley, but I suppose I can put them on the storage shelf along side the 80 boxes of 500 condoms. That is a Vaginal slide to condom ratio of 1:20...Clearly we need more penises!!!
Now talking of the birds and the bees...Sally is 37 weeks pregnant. She should have left the island a week ago. She was booked on a plane for TI maternity unit this morning, but didnt get out of bed on time and missed her charter flight!!! Now this would not be such a stress if Sally wasn't a grand multi with 6 other children, every baby has come early via normal delivery, and her last labour was 11 mins!!! Joanne is sleeping in a gown and gloves!!
Well. The sun has started its rapid desent into ocean on the western side of Erub. The tide is on its way out which means that Sally wont deliver for another 6 hours. These women only birth on an incoming tide!! TRUE story!
Time to sign off. I am still living the dream, but some days that dream is a bit of a night mare!! all in all it is all good!
Christmas is just round the corner, Grog came today on the boat, I have a new immunisation fridge and 2000 vaginal slides...what more could a man ask for?
YAWO!!!!
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