Kipnuk

Kipnuk Clinic

Kipnuk was a whirlwind of exhausting fun!  We arrived at the Era hanger 8:00 am Monday morning. Yes, for those of you caught up on your Alaskan reality TV, Era Alaska is the Flying Wild Alaska airline.  We had to bring our own food, sleeping bags, medicines for the patients, and many of our medical supplies.  Even though we were 

One of many boardwalks

Every home on stilts

working at the Kipnuk clinic, there are no PAs, NPs, or docs there so many of the tests and procedures we needed to be prepared to do we had to bring with us.  One very key component us two PAs did not have with us was a nurse!  Neither of us have drawn blood or started an IV since school.  Neither of us have ordered labs or even gotten vitals on a patient in years.  I know, it's sad, but its true.  Thankfully we had a young girl training to be a health aid that was able to get vitals on many of our patients.  She sped things up for us more than she could know.
Kipnuk is right on the Bering Sea.  It has no real roads, no cars or trucks.  With a population around 1,000 everyone uses the boardwalks to get around.  In the summer you can take your ATV, in the winter snow machines.  As in Bethel all the houses and buildings are built on stilts because of the permafrost.  There is no running water to the houses in Kipnuk, all the water is either collected from the rain or hauled from the washateria.  In the winter people go out onto the ice and chip the ice into buckets that they bring back home to melt down.  It was hard at times to remember that we are still in America. 
We got into Kipnuk around 10:00 am and decided to start seeing patients at 11:00.  It sounds like we should have had plenty of time, but we had to print all of our patients' charts, set up our rooms, unpack our meds and supplies...  In reality we probably shouldn't have started seeing patients till after lunch, but we wanted to make the most of our limited time there.  

Me with our gracious host

After our first clinic a wonderfully nice family invited us to go out berry picking with them.  We jumped at the opportunity!  After a very chilly boat ride we arrived at our berry patch of choice.  It was great, salmonberries everywhere!  In Bethel salmonberries don't grow in great numbers.  I picked almost 3/4 of a gallon that evening, and would have had more if I hadn't eaten so many.

Oh yeah! I totally fell in the mud

Heading out

Salmonberry patch

Happy 30th!!

Day 2 just happened to be my 30th birthday.  We started early printing our patients' charts for the day.  We saw a full schedule of patients as word had begun to spread that two providers were in town.  After a full day of seeing patients both in the clinic and a couple at home, we got such a treat.  The same family that took us berry picking the day before invited us over for a steam.  It was very, very hot, and very awesome.  I will dedicate an entire post to my first steam experience in the near future.  After our steam they invited us into their home and surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake!!  All homemade, and where ingredients cost three times as much as they do in the lower 48 it was one of the most special birthdays I have ever had.  

Whale bones

That's one big vertebra!

                                           







Day 3 was another full day.  Early early start with printing charts (I think I forgot to mention that to print one chart had a 20 minute delay).  Today we started with blood draws an hour before regular patients started.  Thank God we had a float health aid who was staying with us!  We would give one good attempt at the blood draw and if we weren't successful we would pass it off to the much more experienced health aid.  Although I must say, for a couple of PAs who haven't drawn blood in 4+ years, we didn't do too bad.  After clinic and a home visit we were invited to dinner at a patient's house.  That night we feasted on tundra goose and homemade bread.  For dessert we had cake and Eskimo ice cream.  She was so happy that we came to have dinner with her.  She even baked us a loaf of bread to bring back with us to have in the morning.  After dinner she showed us a grass basket she was making and even worked on it a little for us so we could see how it was made.  The grass comes right out of their back yard.  The colored part of the basket she told us is dried seal intestines dyed whatever color they want to use.

First taste of Eskimo ice cream

Day 4 came with another early start and more blood draws.  We only saw morning patients so we could have time to pack up and get to the runway for our flight home.  The family that invited us berry picking and for a steam brought us some haddock they had caught earlier in the season.  All and all is was an unbelievable experience.  I loved my nurses before this trip but now I really really love my nurses.  I look forward to visiting one of my own villages in the near future, but will definitely be bringing a nurse with me!  We saw a total of 80 patients in those 3.5 days.  I know my HealthFirst friends are laughing at that number, but that really is a lot for this kind of trip.  It was good to get home to my family again, and I know Mark was happy to no longer be a single parent.  I can't imagine meeting a nicer, more welcoming group of people.  I'm quite jealous that Kipnuk isn't one of my villages. I hope one day I will be able to return with Anne for another trip.

Me and the other PA, Anne

Kipnuk

Cooler Days

The days are steadily getting shorter and the nights darker and longer.  We are losing about 3 minutes of sunlight everyday.  The sun still doesn't set till about 10:30 but it won't be too long before sunset is much earlier than that.  We had a wonderful heat wave last week.  Temps reached almost 80 degrees!!  People here were down right miserable.  We had enough days in a row without rain that all the roads dried up (yes, most of our road system here is dirt) and the dust was absolutely horrible.  But the rains have returned, the temperature dropped and the winds howl so loud I thought one of the kids toys got left on.  
This week should be a most interesting week.  I leave tomorrow morning for a village on the Bering Sea called Kipnuk.  I will be there till Thursday afternoon.  I'm going with another PA, and the purpose of this trip is to train me to be able to go to my villages in the near future.  I can't wait to tell you all about the trip when I return.  It should be exhausting fun!

Our Church

Most of you probably know that we are Catholic.  While living in Charleston we loved our church, The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, and especially the music.  I sang in one of the most wonderful choirs I've ever heard under one of the most wonderful choir directors.  We loved the music at the Cathedral, the Gregorian chants, the traditional Latin pieces.  We knew that moving to rural Alaska we would not find the same level of church we had become accustomed to, in fact we were pleased to find there was a Catholic church here at all.  

The church here is very quaint.  The priest is very friendly and seems to know everyone by name.  He is however the only priest in this area, so when he is away there is no mass.  

I had wanted to start singing again once we got settled here.  At first I was upset that there really wasn't any music ministry.  No one played the piano, the responsorial psalm was read, there was just one girl who lead some of the hymns and played the flute.  She played well and and had a lovely voice, but unfortunately you can't sing and play the flute at the same time.    So this past weekend the flute player, Ashley, a young lawyer from Boston, Ann, and myself got together and sang.  Ann played some on the piano, Ashley played her flute and we all sang.  Thanks to my dear friend Becky back in Charleston we had music for the mass parts and the responsorial psalm.  There was more singing than I think the church has heard in a long time.  The only thing missing, was the priest.  As nice as the prayer service was, maybe next week we'll have a full mass complete with priest and singing.