...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