I was rostered to ‘travel’ on Monday so had an extra day to venture about doing some overdue errands like haircuts, my “Working With Children” application and a visit with the Senior Medical Officer at the hospital for a quick intro to my new job as District Medical Officer in the emergency. I have to admit I have been a bit nervous about the job up until now as I wasn’t sure how busy and intense the Emergency would be in Broome. I’m experienced in most presentations but being a referral centre wasn’t sure the intensity of the acuity we would be seeing and what sort of support I would have to manage these cases. As it turned out, all the docs working in A+E are GP proceduralists like me so we come from a similar experience and mindset. I was dizzy by the end of my visit with the SMO – she’s juggling about 10 things at a time it seems but is genuinely friendly and accommodating. I was also able to finally catch up with our mail which had fortunately arrived at the hospital after narrowly missing us in Exmouth. We only get mail every 2-3 weeks or so and it is always keenly sought as we’re still waiting for birthday presents and other deliveries to arrive. All of us were in dire need of a haircut to relinquish some of the shagginess we’ve managed to grow over the past few months. It was liberating to shed some locks even though I seem to be getting less and less to donate. We were still behind on the schoolwork front so had to spend a good portion of the afternoon back at home getting caught up. We were finally able to venture to the adjacent park and kick the footie around a bit in the afternoon and I have to say I’m impressed with both Cole and Aidan’s spiral throws and improving kicking ability – seems they might have a bit of sportiness in them after all! We had a couple of kangaroo roasts for dinner – high protein, low fat sort of thing and tuckered out early in anticipation of my first big day back at work in the AM.
I cycled in well in advance of the start of my shift and before I could get formerly oriented was already handed a patient to see. The barrage of information and maze of hallways and turns was a bit mind-boggling but I think I had my head mostly around where I needed to go and how the A+E was meant to run. There were 3 of us holding down the fort and for the most part the day was steady and not overly busy. We were essentially anchored to our posts at the whim of our nurse manager who would triage and retrieve patients for us from the waiting room – it made me squirmy as I like to keep the ball moving and it drives me a bit nutty when I can’t push it along – will take some getting used to. While I was occupied in the A+E for 10 hrs, the kids and Jen managed to get some schoolwork done, visit the local croc and reptile centre, and see the Japanese and Chinese cemeteries. It seems a bit odd to visit such a morbid place but the fact that many of the tombstones are made from flat uneven sandstone blocks and engraved with Japanese and Chinese characters gives it more of an appealing, almost artistic bent. It almost overshadows the fact that any bodies are actually buried there at all and gives an impression more of a gallery than a mortuary. The older graves are from the early pearlers who came to Broome during the Pearl boom – when Broome was the Pearl Capital of the World. We’ll hopefully get to one of the pearling tours while here and learn a bit more about the history and present day world of pearling. We haven’t sat down to watch tele for ages so tonite might enjoy a bit of Top Gear before tucking in – always good for a bit of a chuckle.
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