Yesterday I pulled up to the one gas station in town and asked the young boy to ‘fill it up’ with the cheap stuff. He began his duty and before long looked at me with quizzical eyes and asked, “hey aren’t you that student over there at the clinic? You’re the one that sewed up Bart's finger….”.
And so it goes…
I was warned by other students that when you came to this place your reputation either made it or bit the dust by your personality or the work you did. Well, the personality part is relatively safe, but I’m not sure about the quality of work. Now, I haven’t had any complaints so far….well, scratch that….I had one. I unwittingly put a “gutter splint” cast on wrong side out….and the lady quietly and nicely came back 4 weeks later and showed me the unfortunate reality…she said she didn’t want to miss an ‘educational opportunity’.
Ouch.
But - the talk around town has been more awkward than that - having to do with matters
below the belt. In the last 2 weeks I’ve had a steady stream of middle aged men come through, who all apparently work or chat or loiter at the same water cooler or horse trough. They apparently discuss their recent exams from “that student there” at the clinic. During the visit, each time I asked the patient to drop their drawers and turn and cough, they all started in with, “….yea, old Tommy - he said you did this to him last week….” Or, ”Oh you know old Franky - he told us every detail about what you did to him on Thursday….”
OH MY GOSH. WHAT?
So - I guess it’s fair to say that it’s time to go. There’s a tear in my beer, and all that sappy talk but I’ve had a solid experience and now it’s time to move on. I miss my peeps, as my friend Rachel would say. I miss the bustle of the city streets, the anonymity of grocery stores and the professionalism of HIPPA controlled office settings. Oh, and I do have a husband who I haven’t lived with for 12 weeks. It would be nice to get re-acquainted.
There has been some good excitement lately - you’ve probably all heard by now of the “
Foster Gulch Complex” fire that is burning around us. It’s been quite exciting as we have 800 or so firemen all sleeping around town on various lawns or parks or fair grounds and coming to the clinic for first aid, a shower or bathroom. (No - I will not be giving ANY of them physicals of any kind). We could see the hills burning around us for several nights in a row and it’s actually quite beautiful. The picture to the left was taken from my house. But now the flames and smoke are miles away and burning deeper into 50,000 acres of Hell’s Canyon.
We’ve had to make some super cool ambulance runs into the burning hillsides in recent days and actually burst through plumes of smoke and passed dozens of men in yellow fire gear. See - life isn’t all sleepy eyed here in Halfway. And my one medical boast this week - to make up for the inside out cast - is that I started an IV on my first try on an elderly lady in a moving ambulance! Yup. I learned one skill in school correctly at least.
The folks of Halfway have been gracious, kind, funny and welcoming…among all the other things they’ve been in previous blog entries. And they’ve been extraordinarily willing guinea pigs - for rectal exams, speculum exams, casting and suturing. Thanks everyone for furthering my education. God has been faithful to me here. He has spoken to me, comforted me, guided me, answered my prayers and convicted me about ways that I don’t please Him.
Things I will miss in Halfway…
* The quiet solitude and wondrous natural pine scent of my hillside home…
* The quiet solitude of my TV-less room (I haven’t watched TV in 12 weeks!!)…
* Seeing white tailed dear, over-weight Quail, hawks, cows, horses and prairie dogs every single day…
* Beautiful sunsets, amazing stars and exciting thunderstorms...
* Feeling like I actually have time to do things…
* Spending many hours catching up with old friends on the phone and by email…
* Reading classics, new releases and dozens of magazines, because I could…
* My super fun office staff who welcomed me and taught me a lot in between driving me crazy…
* MIMI’S restaurant…the BEST restaurant in all of Oregon and maybe all of America.
* Riding with the great ambulance volunteer ladies - and giggling on our way from (and sometimes to) the hospital because we’re so gosh darn funny sometimes. (don’t worry - we don’t laugh when people are trying to croak)
Thanks folks, for checking in with me during this the first leg of my year-long rotation adventure. This is week 12 and on Friday my cute bald friend will arrive and off we go to dump my vehicle at my next destination…which is Pediatrics in…
BOISE IDAHO.
…. And for those of you scratching your heads - yes that is basically the NEXT FLIPPING CLOSEST CITY TO HALFWAY OREGON. So things aren’t changing much - just getting buisier and more highly populated.
In a few days I’ll post the much-anticipated Costa Rica pictures (oh and a picture of the Belly Dancing party I went to last weekend) so you’ll have something to look at while Chris and I spend time in Olympic National Forrest and Seattle, Washington.
Stay tuned….
PS: my big fat quail re-appeared yesterday…with at LEAST 15 little tiny mini-me quail running fast behind it!!! Gosh I think I’ll miss this place.
