Week 4: Craft Show and More Snow

Out for a walk

Sunlight count: 2h 59min (Sunrise 12:13 Sunset 15:12)

Temperature: -25 C tonight, -34 C with the windchill.

Keeping warm with my amazing infinity scarf

Medical highlight: Not much. It's been eerily quiet in the emergency room here lately (yes the dreaded 'Q' word). On Friday I saw 4 patients all day. One came to the ER by ambulance for a sore throat. Another had a 20 year history of low back pain, and I went in absolutely expecting to struggle through a drug-seeking visit. Turns out he just wanted to talk, and get some ice for his back. Yup, we are in the arctic buddy, I think we can probably find you some ice.

Musing for the week: Slow shifts have left me some time to catch up on some reading, and poke around on some online news and medical blogs. (For some healthy policy reading I recommend http://healthydebate.ca/ and http://www.kevinmd.com/) While suppressing frustration about the common use of the ER as a walk-in clinic here, I ran across a great article about the public misconception of "Emergencies" and how this results in long waiting times in the ER: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/04/obviousness-long-waiting-times-emergency-department.html

While the department usually isn't busy enough in Inuvik for these non-urgent cases to cause a backlog, it's still frustrating. And in larger centres, the improper use of the ER is truly causing a crisis in timely access to medical care. I think we are overdue for a public awareness campaign like this one recently launched in England.

http://www.nuh.nhs.uk/communications-and-media/news/2012/november/where-should-you-be-emergency-department-campaign/

Ok, enough reading, time for some photos. It's been beautiful here this last week: lots of snow, some clear skies, and sunrises/sunsets (they are now pretty much the same entity) that we can't get enough photos of. We got out for a few walks around the lake, finally checked out the 'Trapper' (the local watering hole), and made it out to the annual Christmas Craft Fair on the weekend!

Snowy hill down to the trail around 'Boot Lake'

On the banks of the Mackenzie River

Winter beauty

Sunday morning Sunrise

Cotton Candy Sky

Sunrise across Boot Lake

Sunset from the 'Midnight Sun Centre' steps, a few hours later

The Craft Fair, held in the community centre gym, was the place to be this weekend. Artists from all over the Territory fly in to sell their art, carvings, furs, and clothing. There were a few tables of moccasins, mukluks and mitts made out of furs (beaver, seal, polar bear) and tanned moosehide, all hand sewn and many with the intricate beadwork that has become traditional for the people here. When I came to the fair as a medical student, I promised myself that if I returned as a resident or locum, I would treat myself to a pair of traditional moccasins. And I found some!

My new moccasins: Beaver, Moosehide and beautiful beading. So much love.

These were made by a mother and daughter from Sachs Harbour, and I talked to the mother for a while at her table. She was also selling polar bear mukluks and mitts, and let me take a photo: