The On Call day From Hell

The last blog entry said that we were waiting through another blizzard, and what a blizzard it was. I was on call, and the day was quite busy. The phone rang pretty consistently and I went in to the clinic to see patients about 6 times during the day. What made the day so bad, was that the roads were not plowed, and I could barely see anything due to the whiteouts. I really thought that that was the worst on call day I could have, until........

This Friday I was also on call. There was a nursing get together, a club sandwich night, yummy!! I made it through the evening without a call (amazing). At 20:30 I went in to see one patient. Then at 22:00 the police called, and I went in again for 30 minutes. I made it home and was in bed at 23:00, until the phone rang at 00:35. I was told that there was a skidoo accident, and that I needed to come into the clinic. When I got to the clinic, I had 2 patients with head trauma, and a third patient walked in with a open fracture of the arm. After a quick 2 minute panic session, I called in my second on call. I was in luck though, the local doctor was also on call that night, so I gave him a wake up call as well. It turned out that after we stabilized the patients, they should have been evacuated by air to the hospital. Of course, with my luck, I discovered that the pilots were grounded until 8am for having too many flight hours already. So, the second nurse and the doctor went home, and I stayed with the 3 patients until 10 am, when the plane came to medivac them and the next nurse became on call.

24 hours of working is just too much. I complained in Montreal that doing a double was tough, but this night was just plain stupid. I slept the next day from 10 am to 6pm. The whole day was shot. I missed the only time that the local store was open for the entire weekend, so I could not buy any milk or necessities. I started to feel sorry for myself, and also think that now I understand why nurses do not last up north for long. But after seeing the nursing team today, they reassured me that it is rare to spend the night at the clinic, maybe once in 6 months. I am still nervous for my next night on call, which is tomorrow, but I only have 3 nights left on call to do before I go home, which is very doable.

Today was really cold, and I can tell that the temperature is dropping a little each day. The sun rises at 9:30 am now, and is gone by 2:30. The town is preparing for Christmas. There are a couple of houses with Christmas lights. The clinic has a Christmas tree. We are having a staff Christmas party with the interpreters, nurses, mid wives and social services this Friday. Everyone tells me that there are alot of competitions and games during the week of Christmas. I guess the fishing competitions are something to see, if not participate in.

Today I did vaccinations for Hepatitis B at the elementary school. I was quite nervous about it, and lost a little sleep over it last night. But in the end it went very well. I vaccinated 31 grade 4 students, and they were all really sweat and funny. It was good to get out of the clinic for the morning and do something different. I got to see the school and talk with the students. For some reason, they seemed to find me very funny, because they kept laughing when I said things, but never answered my questions!

Well, its 8 days to Christmas. i am sure that all of you are busy shopping and having Christmas parties. I had thought it was nice to fell free of the Xmas rush and stresses, but I miss a lot of it too. It made me feel better when I received a care package from a friend of mine, Denise, today. Some goodies and wine. I cried when I opened it! Comfort food and something to piss away my home sickness with, what could be better than that!! Thanks Denise, you are the best! XXOO