River Walk

Oscarville

One of the really nice things about working at an Indian Health Service facility is several paid holidays off, certainly more than I am used to.  The most recent paid day off was President's Day.  Usually when I have a day off that Mark and the kids don't, I just roam about the house picking things up, doing the laundry, watch a movie... nothing too exciting.  But this day off would be different!  A good friend texted me Sunday night and asked if I would be up for a hike.  I said "sure!", getting out of the house and getting some exercise sounded like a great idea.  She followed up her text with another saying "I'm thinking of going kinda far... sure you're up for it?"  Well, now that just made it sound adventerous, and that much more appealing.  "Absolutely!" I texted back. We planned to meet for lunch at a local sushi restaurant (yes, we actually have a few restaurants here that serve sushi) and then walk to the next village up, Oscarville.  Oh, and did I mention, there was a wind advisory for that day, the temp would be about -35 degrees, and we were going to be walking on the frozen river!
We met the next day for an early lunch.  Once fueled up on sushi rolls we headed for the river.  The walk up wasn't bad, the wind was at our backs, in fact we both got a little warm and had to open our jackets.  Nearly every truck that passed us stopped and asked if we would like a ride.  They all looked rather confused when we declined and kept walking.  Even 2 state troopers stopped us and asked if everything was ok.  They too offered us a ride and seemed a little concerned when we declined.  I'm pretty sure they were thinking they'd get a report later that day for 2 missing white girls who were last seen walking on the river.  It's hard to get lost though when you only have the choice of 2 directions, forward or back.

We made it to Oscarville in exactly 2 hours.  We snapped a couple of quick pictures and then turned to head home.  Once we turned the wind promtly reminded us it had been there all along.  The precieved change in temperature was amazing!  Up went my face mask, which had unfortunately froze while walking to Oscarville.  Apparently, the moisture from my breath as I exhaled really built up on my face mask and created quite a bit of ice.  The googles that had been on my head on the way up had a sheet of ice on the inside.  This made visibility difficult, but again, it's hard to get lost when you only have one way to go.  (For those of you who are thinking "but what if you wander off the road?", the road has been plowed so there is a wall of snow on both sides.  To wonder off the road you would have to climb over the bank.  It was pretty easy to tell when you were on the road and when you had wandered away.) 
As we walked, we did manage to stay pretty warm.  The wind was brutel at times, we pretty much walked the whole way back with our hoods up and our heads down.  Despite my googles, my eyelashes still managed to get ice crystals on them.  As my eyes watered the water froze and the crystals kept getting bigger and bigger till my eyelashes fell from the weight of the ice.  I'd have to pick the crystals off and then the whole process would start again. 
It took us exactly 4 hours to walk the 11 miles to Oscarville and back.  Most people thought we were nuts, and maybe we were a little bit, but we had a great time.  I think we both felt about 100 years old that night, and I had a blister the size of a quarter on my heel, but I'd still do it again!

Hectic Couple of Weeks!

These last 2 weeks have been exhausting!  The hospital I work for has undergone one of the biggest (if not the biggest) changes in its history.  We transitioned from paper charts to electronic charts.  I have worked with electronic records before, but I have never been apart of the switch from paper to computer.  For the most part, the switch was a smooth one.  The system never crashed, and patients have been fairly understanding as we muddle along reading a computer screen.  To try and aide the transition we significantly reduced the number of patients we see in one day.  With our old paper system we saw patients in 20 minute appointment slots with three overbooks allowed.  This gave us a grand total of about 16-18 patients each provider a day.  Currently with the new electronic system we see patients in 40 minute appointment slots and no overbooks.  This gives us a grand total of only 8-9 patients per provider a day!  Despite the dramatic decrease in number of patients seen each day, we have all been exhausted with learning each little crevice of this new system (and trust me, there are thousands of little crevices to learn).  Each night I go home feeling more tired than I ever felt seeing twice the number of patients I currently see.  I usually go to bed shortly after the kids go down.  When I wake up the next morning I can remember all the strange dreams I had that night!  I don't know if that means I am sleeping harder or softer. 
One of the most exciting and frustrating parts of doing everything electronic is the radio medical traffic.  I've written about RMT before.  It's where the village clinics send the Bethel based provider an account of a patient they just saw and request a plan for this patient.  What's nice about the electronic system is that when a patient comes in from a village, I can see what was already done.  Before with the paper system, the patient's village chart was separate from their Bethel chart.  Ideally, information got sent back and forth, but this was rarely the reality.  Now it's all one chart!  The frustrating part is that computers rely on electricity, and electricity is very fickle in the villages.  Our email inboxes are ever flowing with up-dates on which village is currently down and reverting back to the old paper system. 
All in all its a good change.  No more misinterpreting something because of bad handwriting.  No more searching for paper notes you know should be in the chart.  No more searching for whole charts!  With time I will hopefully get faster and feel less exhausted by the end of the day.  Who knows, maybe soon I will be able to stay up past 8:30!