Our Schedule

I always get the question: "What are you doing out there?". This is a difficult one to sum up easily, so with Elizabeth's help, I came up with the following. Maybe this will help.

A Day in the Life at Ti Tree

5:46 Phone alarm goes off to the sweet tunes of an ascending ringtone.

5:46:02 Snooze button already battered twice. Recount dreams, stretch, make excuses not to get out of bed. Elizabeth is usually already brushing her teeth and lacing up her tennis shoes.

6:00 Alarm clock goes off for the second time. I hear Elizabeth in the kitchen taking her morning Vit C (she has had nasal drainage since she has been here!) ready to insert the P90X DVD of choice.

6:15 After fumbling around, having some cold water and wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I join Elizabeth for the six minutes of stretching before exercise begins. I try to make Elizabeth start the mornings off with a trot, but she insists on approaching the mornings as a locomotive bound for New York.

7:08 We dump the vinegar out of the electric kettle. Vinegar is used to clean the overwhelming calcium deposits off the coils so we can boil water for our morning coffee. No worries about osteoporosis in the Northern Territory. The water has the highest content of calcium that I have ever ingested.

7:10 Water is boiling.

7:30 Shower, Breakfast and freeze-dried coffee in alternating order. Ti Tree is not a main consumer of Costa Rican beans so we are forced to the local alternative.

7:59:59 Head out the door to clinic. Our door is steps from the clinic. As we walk, we dodge colliding grasshoppers (no, seriously, these grasshoppers are the size of small birds!) we stir up in the grasses. There are also packs of dogs that escort us to clinic. We have our favorites, esp the Pit/ Rat Terrier pup that has one low slung ear and one perky ear.

8:00 Clinic Starts. Elizabeth starts her mornings off with a thorough reading of the previous night’s emails from America. I start with recording the daily temperature of the various frigs in the clinic waiting for the patients to arrive.

This past week I have been splitting my time between seeing patients and helping get the visiting doctor acquainted with her new space. Elizabeth meanders in and out of each of the rooms with no particular favorite. She sits in with me while I flush flies out of kids’ ears and then mingles back in with the DMO to listen to the management of uncontrolled diabetes.

EJH analogy: The day in a remote Aboriginal clinic is like tripping on mushrooms while watching a Planet Earth series of unsuspecting ants being consumed by a beetle.

SJH analogy: The day in a remote Aboriginal clinic is like licking honey off a thorn.

Too many things can happen in a day, so here is a snapshot of our last 2 weeks:

Antenatal checks. STI treatments. Flushing out stones/tree particles from ears. Filling medicine boxes. Rheumatic Heart prophylaxis. Scabies education. Vaccination administration. Centrifuging blood. Facilitating Hearing checks w/ the ENT team. Impetigo identification. Growth charts. ECG lessons. IV fluids. Toothbrushing demonstration. Deworming protocols. Iron injections. Diabetic ulcer dressing changes. Responding to domestic violence assaults. Death. Medicare enrollment. Asthma nebulizers. Insulin injections. Glomerular filtration rates vs. Albumin/Creatinine Ratio. Lancing boils. Pneumonia diagnosing. Loving on kids. Wiping away tears. Getting frustrated with poor parenting. Removing calcium deposits in the hot water kettle. Changing sheets. Checking oxygen tanks. Drug counts. Writing medical certificates. Arranging transport into town. Fracture identification. Pain management. Strongilydosis labs. Giarrhdia samples. Oral Rehydration education. IV lessons.…..Always, always, always learning.

12:00 Lunch

12:10 Naptime! Elizabeth’s favorite part of the day. I usually read.

12:59:59 Back to the clinic for the afternoon session

15:30 Tea Time! Elizabeth always sneaks back a couple of cookies in her bag after lunch to munch on while we drink Bushel’s tea, sugar, and cream.

17:00 Clinic ends. The days are always so busy, time flies!

17:01 Internet time!

18:00 Elizabeth is prepping for the night’s meal. She seems to think that she needs to use all the vegetables and fruit in every meal she cooks, so it takes her a lot of prep time.

18:30 This part of the day depends on what the mood calls for. Sometimes go for another run (if Elizabeth can talk me into it), read, sew, laugh/chat/tell stories (yes, mom, lots of long conversations), listen to music, and teach Elizabeth computer skills.

20:00 Meal time! It has been fantastic having Elizabeth here. She adorns the self-designated title of “master chef.” Somewhere amongst staple traveler’s food supply, Elizabeth designs a creative masterpiece nightly.

20:15 Wind-down time. I clean the dishes while Elizabeth takes a shower which I follow suit not too far behind.

21:00 By this time we are several pages into our books with our eyelids falling slowly. Not too much longer, turn the lights out and quickly fall asleep. (yes, going to bed early is our speed...)