northern exposure

so....

3 weeks here and i've finally found some wireless internet....at the hospital. where i work. all day. every day. and now, on my day off, here i am.
it's not so bad when you can show up and not have to think.

otherwise, it's a struggle. for a rural town in northeastern WA/northwestern ID, there sure are a lot of interesting cases. mostly cause people up here do what they want and only get medical care when they really really really need it. which is great for me, bad for them. huge cans of worms lurking around every corner. and people my age who look 50. 50 year olds who look 70. very few 70 year olds....

other than that, it's kinda fun. no surprise here, i love rural medicine. i love that providers choose to be here and are compassionate and not assholes about it. and that they laugh about things that 90% of the population really would not find funny. i love that they love teaching me cool stuff. i love that it's a small community that you could easily integrate right into. i love that i see pts in the ER, follow them to inpatients, through the OR and back out on the other side. i love visiting the folks in long term care and delivering babies in the same day. and i can't beleieve that i haven't seen the same pt twice in the 3 weeks here.

and truth be told, i love assisted living. there would be a gold mine to be made for anyone who wanted to create some sort of post-college age assisted living sitaution i think. it's just so easy. amazing how much time you can spend doing things you like when you're not worried about keeping things neat and clean, or cooking for yourself. for single people, it's pretty much the holy grail of living, i'd say.

i like this town. granted, there's not a whole lot here, and i haven't seen the sun in 3 weeks. but there is a nice safeway. i don't get out much cause i don't have a car, but the surrounding area looks nice. lots of mts, lots of trees, lots of snow. the assisted living place i'm staying is right across from 3 churches and a funeral home. one stop shopping. everytime i venture outside the town smells of pine trees and woodsmoke, not a bad combo. other than that, not much going on. i feel like it may as well be alaska, minus the grizzlies. they've got everything else here...i run into deer around town all the time. fortunatly, none of them have run into me.

i work, i eat, i sleep a little bit inbetween so i can go home a week early. i was adopted for thanksgiving and it was nice. lots of babies to squeeze. my own babies have been busy running amok in seattle and being city kids through and through. i think about bringing them to a place like this and wondering how it would all shake out. would they be outfitted in camo and bringing me home some elk by first grade? would we live on a ranch? have horses and tractors? would they ever be clean again ever?

my slightly humorous note of the day involves a little scenario that went down last wednesday, the day before thanksgiving...we're sort of sandwiched between 2 reservations here, and i had a native american patient who came in that day who wasn't exactly the easiest to talk to but we muddled through the encounter and came to the end and not really thinking about it, i said goodbye. and wished her a happy thanksgiving. and then walked away and tried not to cringe. can you do that? was it bad form? politically incorrect? it was sort of funny in retrospect, though...

gearing up for the big ER x-mas party next weekend. will try not to make an idiot of myself, but can make no promises. in the meantime, i plan to relax for the rest of the day, turn on the TV and pretend like sitting on the couch for the rest of the day uninterrupted with my bag of lucky charms is somehow a luxurious endeavor. and then right back at it tomorrow.

home in a week and a half. i can't wait, even though i'm dreading another move during the holidays....to who knows where....