Laundry and beer all in one place!

There is a place called Mark's Soap N Suds, Bar and Grill. Who comes up with this stuff. Doing laundry has to be so much more fun if you are drinking! Of course here between 2 beers and 2 loads of laundry, it may cost you $100!

First day!

Today was my first day of work. Actually felt like a real doctor today. I had no one to precept with, just saw patients. Paper charts only. I admitted my first patient today for LLL PNA, had to write my orders by hand...ACD Van What? Where are the order sets? I drained a buttocks abscess..hopefully I did it right? He'll be fine. I gave him Bactrim as well.

Also learned today that the TB rate in Nome is the highest in North America, 40/100,000...please let me know if I'm coughing when I get home.

Thursday I'm on call. I will cover the entire hospital. 2 ER beds, 15 inpatient, OB, and any trauma's that come in. Wait, when did I have trauma training??? I'm very nervous. I also cover the villages, if they have anyone they need to fly in. AHHH!!! This is true FP.

Thars gold in those hills!

Checked out the field where they have all the old gold digger supplies. No gold left, but lots of rusted machinery, kind of neat.

You'll notice the fire hydrants..the ground is permafrost here so you can't dig foundations, basements or into the ground for fire hydrants. Everything is on stilts and cinderblocks. People have to re-level their houses yearly because sides start to sink and houses fall over.

Found out today a patient of mine today sells sealskin slippers (sorry Kristin), I think I may get a pair!

Liquor here is super pricey as well, although alcoholism and teenage pregnancy are still a huge issue. Almost died to see that smirnoff vodka was $42 a bottle. I doubt that Smirnoff is worth that!

Went for a 2 hour walk yesterday. I put my feet in the Bearing Sea (felt like Maine water). I looked out and thought, what odd little boats. In fact, they were dredging for gold. I walked along the sea and collected sea glass. A little girl, around 8 y/o looking for her shoes and crying. She said her grandmother was in the car ready to leave without her if she didn't find them. We found them and she offered me a piece of her sea glass for helping her find her shoes. It was so sweet! Apparently they don't teach STRANGER DANGER here!

Took my first trip to the grocery store...OMG! Gas $4.49, Milk...any guesses, $9 a gallon, $6 on sale (what a steal), 12pack of diet pepsi, $11....guess I will be drinking only water.

Went to dinner for the first time with some new friends from work (I passed 4 people I work with on the 7 minute walk home...I will know everyone in town in the next 7 days). We went to a place called Husky's...the menu included rubens, burgers, korean BBQ and sushi..haha, what a mix.

After dinner we went to a few of the local shops where they sell native crafts including walrus tusk carvings and walrus whisker earrings as well as gifts from russia..(PS, I can't currently see it from my window!!) However, there are satellites on the mountain top where they used to monitor Russia during the Cold War.

Oh, and I looked at a map in the hospital today that still had USSR on it..it made me laugh.

Also, I finally live on 5th Ave...sure it's in Nome and not NYC, but really isn't it all the same!

You will also note in Nome that there are broken down cars and snowmobiles everywhere. It takes a lot of money to ship out cars so after they are driven around for a few years and people move, they just leave them here. Apparently, there are people down in "shanty-town" who live in a broken down bus. I was told that a doctor did a home visit last winter down there where there was 5 inches of frozen urine at the door of the bus and a man inside who needed 3 fingers and 3 toes removed from frostbite...there is no heat in the bus apparently! Someone is found dead there yearly during the winter, so sad!

Orientation: day 1

Today started at 8am for orientation. Lots of paperwork, OSHA discussions and of course I had to pee in a cup for a drug test and fingerprinting...finally someone has caught on to me! Everyone was very friendly and I already have an offer from Nancy in mammography to stay in her house in Anchor point, AK when Denise comes in August.

They let us out at 2pm and I'm off to explore "downtown" and the ocean!

Mostly the town folk drive around ATV's because it's expensive to import cars and the roads outside Nome are all dirt and only go for 60 miles outside of town and then stop.

(the picture with the sun above was taken at 11pm last night!)

Please note the ATV parked in patient parking...

NOME, friendly, dusty and muddy! All at the same time!

My Alaskan adventure started by getting up at 4:30am on 7/25/10. I left at 6:33am from Albany airport.

Albany to Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis, MN to Portland, OR

Portland, OR to Anchorage, AK

Anchorage, AK to Kotzebue, AK

Kotzebue, AK to NOME, AK

Above you will see a picture of the Columbia river as well as Mount St. Helen's and Mount Rainier.

On the plane ride from Portland to Anchorage I had two ten year old seated next to me, traveling by themselves. The girl cried and wanted to hold my hand for take-off because she missed her sister and the little boy threw up after we landed...poor peanut.

Next, I found out that I wasn't going to Nome, but instead stopping in Kotzebue first. We went on a combi plane which carries packages and mail in the front and people in the back. I felt like livestock! MOO! I finally arrived in Nome at 8:15pm (12:15 NY time, 20 hours after I woke up..it was like being on call!!)

I was picked up by on the the doctors who showed me around town and asked if I wouldn't mind going on an errand with her. We went to get sheep skin that she was buying from someone in town. The people invited us in (they happened to work at the hospital) and offered me salmon which they caught earlier. I ate it because I didn't want to be rude and it was delicious. No one in Ct would ever invite you for dinner...am I right?

Lastly, I came to my new home and surprised my roommate (she didn't know she was getting a roommate). She is traveling from Pennsylvania as a X-ray tech. The sun finally went down at 1:30am and people sleep with aluminum foil to keep out the sun.

This should be an interesting rotation to say the least!!

And they're off!

As most of you know I have a deep love for Alaska and take any chance I can to get out of Connecticut. I leave on Sunday July 25th for 5 weeks to the "Last Frontier." I will be working in Nome (you can see Russia from my window!) for 4 weeks of a rural medicine rotation. I will then be meeting my friend Denise for a fun-filled week of adventure and travel.

Statistics:

Nome Population: 3,500

Location: Nome lies along the Bering Sea, on the south coast of the Seward Peninsula, facing Norton Sound. It is 539 air miles northwest of Anchorage, a 75-minute flight. It lies 102 miles south of the Arctic Circle and 161 miles east of Russia.

Accommodations: Three hotels, eight bed and breakfasts and apartments, nine restaurants.

I will attempt to blog daily with pictures and stories of my Eskimo adventures!