THE FIRST WEEK

It’s my first Monday…the winds are blowing a constant 46 km/h and the temp is -34 Celsius (about

The sunrise before 8 a.m. with a clear sky on Wednesday

-29F). The sun has tried to rise this morning, just before 8, but the cloud cover has some thickening and refuses to let the light through without impairment. Across the frozen water, the snow/ice combination glistens as it reflects the light towards your eyes. The haze of the sunshine is quite beautiful against the blue tinges that the landscape portrays.

My week has started. Breakfast was a Jimmy Dean special …sausage and egg sandwiched between two small pancakes and was quite tasty along with juice, fruit cocktail and multiple coffees….wow, I just realized that I had a blueberry muffin as well. That should hold me until coffee at ten. The staff at the Health Centre, take their coffee at 10 and 3 unless our patients get in the way (LOL)...truly amazing how some things remain the same after all these years. That’s why Marie and I almost missed those delicious chocolate muffins on Friday.

I’m drinking a lot more coffee here and unlike when I’m at work in the store back at home...I’m drinking it hot. People have asked “How can you stand the cold?” Well, we do have heat indoors…and outside, you simply dress for it. This takes time, but if you are all bundled up you can go for a nice walk, even on the wildest days…you simply walk a shorter distance and try not to go directly into the wind. You take your time but you are definitely working up a sweat and burning up calories. I find when I get back home, here in Rankin Inlet, I have to change and let my clothes dry out. The layered look is definitely the way to go.

The beauty of the North on a sunny bright noon hour.

Even my boots, after the hockey game on Friday night, required the linings to be pulled and the inside of the boots needed to be dried out. As I pulled the one liner out, there, tucked neatly, between the liner and the outside rubber of one Sorel boot was my personal business card, one that I had laminated at home. The purpose of which, was to identify me in the rare instance that something should happen to me and I would be found later “out on the land”. This is the north….you just have to be prepared. My years of sailing have taught me well. Take nothing for granted…Mother Nature does not forgive.

On Sunday, I went out for a jaunt. It was a balmy -24C here while at home in Niagara Falls it was

Sun starting to set about 4:00

–21C on my backyard weather station. I took just a quick trip to the Northern to get some items that I had not listed for my Friday shopping blitz after work. I will post some photos of some of the goods and their costs at a later time. I try not to seem shocked at the prices but there is no getting around the costs and unavailability that the north imposes. I try to take some photos discretely. I’m very conscious of my role here and want to establish a good working relationship with the staff here at the Centre & with the community. I met two of the GRC-RCMP officers and introduced myself, knowing full-well our paths will cross in the near future.

The Polar Bear and North Star logo of the Territory

At the hockey game on Friday night, there were 20-30 people in attendance. It had been quite exciting as it was senior men’s playoffs, game 3 of the best of 5 series…the next game was Sunday ( I had completely forgotten about it so I can’t tell when the finals will be starting). As I was enjoying a warm hot chocolate, between the second and third periods, a lady approached and asked if I was enjoying the game. She recognized me (but I not her) and told me about the huge tournament this coming weekend. 

She went on to explain that her husband would be doing the announcing this weekend. It's the Polar
Plate tourney of 14-20 year olds with full body contact…all trying to impress…scouts, families and their girlfriends…and I’m on call. There'll be 8 teams from all across Kivalliq region in for the games here at our arena. Due to the possibility of bad weather, several teams flew in last night...2 teams are from Rankin Inlet as we have the largest population. The other six communities registered are Chesterfield Inlet, Arviat, Repulse Bay, Whale Cove, Iqualuit, and possibly Baker Lake, Coral Harbour or Cambridge Bay.

Quite a logistical nightmare with food, shelter and the like…apparently the small communities fund raise to offset costs. Billeting occurs with cousins, friends and the like. There’s another tournament here starting March 11 and finishing up on the 20^th. I’ll bet Marie has booked me for call that week as well (LOL).

For these two tournaments, there won’t be any coverage for you to watch, I’m afraid. But rest assured some of those players will soon be in other leagues across Canada…hockey is that strong here. I’ve seen them playing on the snow covered roads and in our rink.

Intense action in Third Period on last Friday Men's Senior Semi-Finals and yes that is 1/2"of frost on all the glass at that end

On Friday, when I was introduced to many of the Inuk staff, the second question out of their mouths

was “Leaf fan or Canadiens”? It was ironic then, that the casual conversations later in the day were about the upcoming LEAF vs. HAB game this past Saturday night. A match made in Arctic heaven, as it were. For, in Rankin Inlet, it seems that there are only two teams in the entire NHL…and they are both CANADIAN, eh?

Next up: 30 DAYS

...AND...THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOES TO...

Now that our flag celebrations have concluded. We move on to more awards. The Grammy's and the Golden Globes have all been announced. The Oscars are but a few days away. Locally, here at the

KIVALLIQ REGIONAL CENTRE, we have an award of a different kind. It's touching and, really, ever so sweet.

On my tour of the Health Centre, last thursday afternoon, I met many of the staff as I was toured by Barb, the full time ultrasonographer. On my first visit 7 years ago, Barb was a part-time employee, who flew in from Winnipeg once a week or so for a couple of days, if needed. Like imaging changes everywhere, Medical Ultrasound examinations continue to have both diagnostic and cost benefits from those first images, Terry Collins and I, saw at Henderson General Hospital in Hamilton in the early 70's.

Barb's state of the art (yes even here!) equipment is linked by PACS to Iqaluit, the capital of

The newest image device in Rankin Inlet

NUNAVUT across to the north east of Hudson Bay...(can our xray unit be far behind?). From there, her images are relayed to Ottawa for reporting. On the other hand, our xray hard copy images are transported to the local airport here (remember YTR?) and the film bag is sent to Winnipeg (YWG), for reporting, and then they are returned to be filed in our storage room, once placed in their master. Of course, any previous images relating to the same anatomic area are also forwarded and all are returned together.

Marie showed me how the films are bundled, prepped, and on friday, at four, the films were wisked away by Cyrus for the flight south. They'll be back in about a week. My handiwork is headed south...I remain, frozen in time and space.

My tour of the second floor of the health centre, shows much change from my orientation in 2008. We can have some inpatients, now. Mostly for observation, as we have no surgical suite. We, also, have a pediatrics area. The midwives use a section as they did before. The elevator seems to get more use now...the staff is older, yes, but we now are required travel up for portables from the main floor. There are two flights of twelve steps each and a landing. It would be hard to get the portable up the steps...but much easier taking it down. We'll use the elevator if we need to.

The elevator, here at the Health Centre when it was build in 2005, was the only elevator, at the time, on the west coast of Hudson Bay in NUNAVUT TERRITORY. I expect that still to be true. I will be asking the local mounties, when they check in over the next few weeks, if they have an elevator in the new HEALING CENTRE, located off towards the airport. It's a massive structure, long overdue. It saves prisoners from having to be transported to Iqaluit or Thomson, Manitoba. The native focus is very much evident here and is the entire “raison d'etre” for Nunavut. Our local HEALING CENTRE, in the south, would be known as a jail.

I cannot see Russia from my window...just some amazing sunrises

When I entered the coffee room, nothing had changed much. Same chairs and tables along with a large tube-type TV hanging on its rack which is still firmly bolted to the wall. It was too early for break, but the game show network (GSN) was on. Looking out the window “onto the land”, the sky was a bright robins-egg blue, with sunshine dancing across the drifts, left from past blizzards. Further down the corridor, I met Edward the biomedical engineer. I had met him when I had inadvertently interrupted the Health and Safety meeting on the previous afternoon, in the conference room.

My tour concluded at the last room, here-to-fore, not visited. I was introduced to Connie in the kitchen. It was not until the next day, however, that I was able to sample her sweet delights. You see, Connie is the cook at the Health Centre...and when I met her, the mixmaster was fully engaged. This was on Thursday. She was busy making goodies for friday afternoon's coffee break. Here, at the

There were only a few left by the time I got there on Friday

KIVALLIQ HEALTH CENTRE, like many retirement homes, we celebrate the birthdays of anyone celebrating their birth date in the current month. The chocolate muffins were moist, had a great chocolate taste and were decorated beautifully, several different icing options, including candles, all unlit, of course. The sour cream icing was a treat to eat.

The only down side is, that unless I get snowed in for twenty days, I'll miss my own personal muffin celebration. You see, my own birthday is in April.

Next Up: MY FIRST WEEK