Worst Blogger Ever

     I am officially the worst blogger ever.  It's true.  The worst, nearly 1 year since my last post. :)  Facebook is just too easy sometimes, but it can also limit the volume of information and those of you that know me can attest tat I generally have alot to say.  So my "1/4-of-the-year-is-over-resolution" is to update this weekly. Even if just to throw out a brief note.  I've got alot to

     As you can imagine, alot has happened over the course of a year.  At the hospital we made the transition to electronic medicl records in October and with the exception of a few bumps and bruises everyone has survived.  However, we seem to use more paper now that we ever did before.  I've seen alot of really interesting patients at work and just got news today from Dr. Clawson, our hand surgeon, that I'm headed to Bethel and Metlakatla sometime in the next 6-8 weeks for field clinics.  Bethel is about 350 miles west of Anchorage on the Kuskokwim River and it's the hub for te 56 villages inthe Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.  So as you can imagine, it's an impressively large and cosmopolitan metropolis.  A whopping 7000 folks live there...and it's "dry."  And I don't mean that theres no plumbing.  It's one of several alcohol free communitie in the state (theoretically...).  They are known for hosting the Kuskokwim 300.  It's a middle distance dogsled race that is held in January. They also have a Native dance festival every March.  Many of the residents do live in dry cabins/homes meaning they don't have running water.  Alot of our patients bath in steam houses and at communty washeterias.  For this reason, Bethel is also known for one other thing:
http://www.anthc.org/cs/dehe/envhlth/ehcoordination/mrsa-in-alaska.cfm
     Metlekatla is a much smaller village, about 1500 people. It's at the very southern tip of te Southeast panhandle of the state.  You can't see Russia from here, but you can see Canada. You can get there via the Alaska Marine Ferry which is neat, but pricey and time consuming so we fly in on a teeny little plane.  Since living here I've gotten quite used to small aircraft...anything from a 3-4 seater up.  My preferred way to fly is actually floatplane.  I think it's pretty smooth, but I digress.  The Alaska Natives from this area of the state are from the Tlinget, Haida and Tsimshian tribes.  When we go to these smaller towns and villages, patients from the surrounding villages come in to get their medical care.  It can save them a more costly and time consuming trip to Anchorage if we can help the non-surgically.  I'm pretty psyched to get out into some of the villages and see the different ways of life. 

     The longer that I live here, the less impressed I am with certain aspects of "civilization."  I can definately see the allure to packing up, throwing the pups in the truck and heading "out."  There's something to be said for being self sufficient and making do with "less" than we think we need.  If there's one thing that I can take away from Alaska as a whole, it's utilitarianism.  If it needs to be done, Alaskans do it and if they don't know how, they figure it out.  Kind of awesome.

     More catching up later...thanks for reading!