Home Sweet Home

After the storm

I arrived safely home on the evening of the 4^th of July; Cole picked me up at the airport where I dropped off the rental car from Walla Walla, and we had a nice drive home together. I was too tired for the fireworks, and since I got to see the Canada Day fireworks on the ferry at Campbell River, I didn’t feel deprived. Happy birthday America!

I had the next day off and spent it cleaning house, as the dogs had created havoc and chaos and one hell of a lot of dirt and dust that was just too much for my house sitter to combat alone. And way too much for me to put up with. Welcome home, Teresa!

View across the road

Jumped right back into work the next day and have gone like the proverbial bat out of the proverbial hot place since then, and it all seems like kind of blur—and now tomorrow is the first day of August. How does that happen? I started my clinical in orthopedics and then my doc tore his rotator cuff overcoming gravity when he jumped off the cliffs at Laclede into the river and flung his arms up and out to clear the cliff edge (he is built kind of like a 747). So he had to have surgery after I only got two days with him. Ironic—the orthopedic surgeon has to have orthopedic surgery. So I’m taking an incomplete for that clinical and will schedule the rest of the days sometime in October, hopefully.

I start my last big class, Family and Pediatrics, in August, and will be with an NP preceptor at Sandpoint Pediatrics, and do the family portion at my family doc’s clinic here in Priest River. Then I have a Women’s Health clinical scheduled in August, have to do all my literature research and write up my professional paper, and try to schedule three more internship credits for the spring semester (Emergency and Mental Health), present my project and theoretically I’m done and ready to take my boards.

I could have graduated in December, but I realized during my time in Alaska that I really need to have some time in the ER and to get ACLS (advanced cardiac lifesaving) in order to work in the bush in Alaska. Not to mention that I’m rapidly going broke working as few hours as I have been, and if there is any hope of keeping even a shred of sanity (I suppose that implies that I actually started with any…) and of studying for my boards, I need more time. Not to mention that it’s a lot easier to move to Alaska in the summer than the middle of winter. I plan to rent out my house and be working somewhere in Alaska for some tribal organization by this time next summer. The Aleutians were amazing in many ways, but that weather would NOT make the Aleutians my first choice in places in AK to live. I will, however, go wherever I get the best offer.

Poppy


So I’ve been gardening and slowly beginning to run again, using good shoes and arch supports and walking more than running and so far the plantar fasciitis has not reoccurred. Today I entered the fun run at Timber Days and just did the one mile to see how it felt.


Front yard, July edition


Front yard, last day of July



My niece, Samantha, at the Timber Days parade

I ran the first ½ mile, no aches or pains, then walked three short bits on the last ½ mile and it all went well. My time was a blazing 27:64—and I didn’t even place in my age class, but I finished it and didn’t hurt myself, so that’s all I asked for today. But next year I plan to win my age class! Or maybe I’ll tackle the 5 mile run and see how that goes.

This concludes the first chapter of Teresa’s Alaskan Adventure, but the sequel is in the works even now. So long Alaska, I’ll be seeing you next year!