Rumor Mill

Well, the rumors are true.  I'm back in Bethel, Alaska for another brief stint of inpatient medicine in the remote tundra.  This time around I decided to make a crazy experience crazier by bringing little man J (and a very very good friend who offered to come take care of him while I work).  I was last here 18 months ago with J in utero.  It was much easier to travel with him way back then, though I did end up with rip roaring pnuemonia and an apartment without heat for a night during the dead of winter (40 below).  The weather is improved from that harrowing experience, though I have to say it's still less than scenic than I had hoped (40 degrees with driving wind and rain greeted us on the tarmac last night).

Initial observations:
- Many things are still the same (difficulty remember myriad passwords and access codes to get me into all the data systems, the people, the severity of illness).
- Some differences greeted me this morning on my first day in (half the inpatient ward is inaccessible due to construction to tear up the floors.. something about riding asbestos, and the promise that we're actually better protected against it now despite the contruction zone and plastic tarps everywhere).
- The sun sets at 11:30 pm making it really difficult to sleep (No black out curtains? Really?), despite feeling exhausted.
- Thank goodness for the olympics and the exhaustive evening coverage on NBC, making it much easier to stay up until sunset.
- Travel with a 13 month old to a remote part of the country is perhaps less than advisable, but certainly has proven to be an adventure worth retelling.
- It is never good when the cab driver taking us from the airport to our place here in bethel says "That place is an old abandoned house" after providing her with the address (apparently it recently made the switch from uninhabitable to habitable).
- Seattle weather never looked so good.

Stay tuned as I try to carve out some time each day to keep you all posted of my life and times as tundra doc and mama.