The Arctic Post

Life Adventures in the Canadian Arctic

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Northern Medicine

Etienne and I were talking today and he was saying that lately I’ve seemed angry and unhappy. This really made me take a time out and really think about how I’ve been feeling lately. Once I took a second and really thought about it, I realized that I have felt a little “unsettled” Overall I love it here and feel “settled” in our home. I am welcoming this time to de-stress from the crazy life we were living in the south. It felt that one of us was always on the go. Driving here and there to do this and that. We had been renovating the house we were living in for the past year. We both worked shift work and it seemed that we rarely had days off. Sometimes we saw each other more in passing at work than we did at home. When we did actually have a day off together there was always a long list of things that we needed to do. Once we got word that we were moving up here, it only became more hectic. Trying to organize our lives, say good-bye to the south and prepare for the north.

I think the biggest thing for me right now is my career. I’m missing my job more than I ever thought I would. I’ve been working in EMS for the past 10 years and I was feeling a little “burnt out”. I was welcoming this break and I knew it would give me time to evaluate my job and whether or not I want to continue it once we move back down south. I guess I have my answer. I can’t wait to get back into an Ambulance! I miss it terribly. What made me really think about it was tonight. Etienne was called out, and just for a quick second I almost got up and got ready to go once I heard the nature of the call. Once I realized where we were, I sat back down and said good-bye to him. In the south I was so used to one of us being called out and the other one preparing to go, just in case. A number of times one of us would be called out in the middle of the night only for the other one to be called out shortly after, and we would end up seeing each other on the same scene. I kind of miss that.

Etienne stopped at home for a brief moment tonight and told me that there were northern lights tonight. This is something I’ve been patiently waiting for since we got here. I know there may have been nights that we missed it. When we first moved here, we diligently looked outside nightly to see if we could catch a glimpse of them. We had no luck until tonight. I have been so jealous reading other posts of northern lights and seeing great pictures. I am happy to finally have experienced them. I bundled up, got the dog and headed out. Once outside the dog was so happy!! She ran around crazy and excited. I just stood there and watched the northern lights dance around. Tonight was a rare night, the wind was almost non-existent. It was so peaceful. This made me really take a moment and realize how lucky we are to be able to live up here and live this adventure. I need to experience this adventure 100% and I know I will be able to pick up my career once we move back down south. It’s amazing how something so small can have such a huge emotional impact.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 09:18 and is filed under The Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

11 Responses to “Northern Medicine”

  1. October 26th, 2009 at 18:53

    jen says:

    I can totally relate, I felt a lot of these feelings the first few months to a year we were up. It took a while to find my own groove, because it’s all about “their” work lol. You might want to try guarding, you’ll get to cross paths again at work. Anyways reading this post just brought back a lot of memories of our first time up (I think I may even have made hint of feeling blue on a few of my first posts), it also doesn’t help that your heading into the dark season. Do you have a sun lamp? It doesn’t work for everyone, but it fixed me right up. Best of luck, glad you saw the lights, they are amazing.

  2. October 26th, 2009 at 19:40

    Pat says:

    I’m sure it must be hard. You’ll have to get involved in something even if it is volunteering. Maybe something at the school. Look into the air ambulance possibilities. How are they going to handle the immunization program up there? Maybe you can get involved in that. I have a friend who was called out of retirement for that.

  3. October 26th, 2009 at 20:16

    Indigo says:

    Jen is preety right. Guarding will give you the opportunity to see the same 10% of the community over and over that your partner does. It will also mean he can sleep. I found it boring, hot, long and underpaid (my partner did also) and usually he only accepted on the nights someone went to cells that I would otherwise have had to keep in the health centre.
    My partner found his groove, 1) volunteering: at the school, library, rink, pool, badminton, whatever recreational opportunities there were; 2)reading, napping, walking the dog and most importantly 3) taking care of me.
    The first turn of the year is the hardest.
    Encourage your family or friends to visit you there.
    Find someone local to do things with.
    Keep blogging.

  4. October 26th, 2009 at 20:51

    Lindsay says:

    Sorry to hear about you feeling ‘unsettled’…I must say that I probably wasn’t the happiest person around when we first moved there, so the house is used to it:) You do get used to it though, and that is what becomes the norm…with us looking at only about a year left up here, i’m actually feeling a bit anxious about living down south and how I will feel about that. I hope you find your ‘groove’ soon and things start to look up!

  5. October 26th, 2009 at 21:13

    Morena says:

    I envy you for having a job that you love. If they could only pay me to sew and scrapbook which are my hobbies of the moment. I’m loving not working up here so I have more time them. I still aspire to find a career rather than a job but I’m milking this oportunity for all it’s worth. I hope you find something to focus your energy on. Good luck.

  6. October 27th, 2009 at 20:55

    Rhonda says:

    Hang in there.

  7. October 27th, 2009 at 21:36

    Melissa says:

    It’ll get slightly easier, the not working, but you’ll still miss it, I know I do. Enjoy the time “off” because you’ll be back at it before you know it. :) Miss you.

  8. October 29th, 2009 at 17:00

    lou says:

    Less sunshine in the day may be making a difference in the mood and energy. litebook elite from shoppers drug mart worked for me…I did not think I would need the extra sushine, but it made a big difference.

  9. October 31st, 2009 at 16:38

    Kim says:

    I think it might help you to know that back here in Alberta for ambulance work isn’t all peaches latetly. The whole H1N1 thing really has people freaked out. Working out of Grande Prairie I have noticed volume increase of 3-4 call each day, on top of all the regular calls. HINI has it’s own dispatch determinatie now. Card 36. So now every time we get called out for card 36 or anything else that involves runnny nose,cough,sneeze, fever, ect. We go in with the works. Gowns, N95 masks, googles and isolation precautions at the hospitals, it’s nuts. Fear is running rampit, especially since that younge boy died. It acctually got to the point where the nurses in Emerg at the QE11 went into the waiting room and Said if you have flu like symptoms go home, the doctor will not see you. They also had this whole pandemic planning for all the EMS in Alberta. Some things I was not so happy with. If it gets as bad as they say, we can be mandated to work 6 days on 2 days off and float use anywhere in the province to help with staff shortages. Oh well I guess. Miss you Carly.

  10. October 31st, 2009 at 19:53

    Carly says:

    Thanks Kim!! I miss you too. Your comments made me feel better :) . I can only imagine the havoc that H1N1 is having on EMS. I don’t even want to think about the hospitals.

  11. November 2nd, 2009 at 16:30

    Curtis and Anj says:

    Ah Carly the H1N1, I wish I was up there instead of dealing with this, as well as our new dispatch system. So many holes so few fixes willing to be made. I’d never thought I would say it but the Medi-care dispatch as frusterating as it was at times was much easier to work with. Any ways keep up the blogs and we’ll talk to ya soon.

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