First week

I can't believe we've only been here a week. It feels like longer, it's been such a full week.

Work has started in earnest. The clinic has been going really well. The staff are lovely. They have 2 or 3 doctors and 2-3 nurses on at once. The computerized medical record has been a challenge to learn, but the hardest thing by far is the drugs: not only do they all have different names, but the government funds totally different ones. I'm going to get to know the pharmacists very well!

Last night was my first night on call. All the calls go through a nursing triage phone centre in Aukland, then they'll call me if needed. If I need to see a patient, I can arrange to see them at the clinic. Fortunately for me, it's about a 2 minute walk from our place. If they're too sick for me to deal with, I can get them to call an ambulance to take them to the hospital in Thames, but it's about an hour and a half away. I have to do lots of things myself which I'm not used to doing (IVs, giving medications etc) which at home the ER nurses would do. On the other hand, I can't do a lot of the things I'm used to doing - we have no labs or xrays or hospital bed. I did a bit of suturing in the evening, then no calls after that. I'm sure that call karma won't last long!

The weather is specatular. We had a couple of days of clouds/misty rain/sunshine, but still very warm. Today it's back to hot and sunny and breezy. Kate and Phil are back so we've been spending time with all the cousins together - they've had no problems settling in with each other again. Last night we went to an early Burns Supper - Jacquie and Richard, you would have loved it! We had haggis piped in by Phil, an abridged Ode to Robbie Burns, whisky, and then a toast to the Laddies and Lassies after pudding. The hosts are from Glasgow, the husband is another locum in my clinic. They tried to teach us some dancing afterwards - even Stewart got out there doing a reel! (he says he didn't get enough whisky first!). They have four boys (!!!) so James and Sam have made some friends.

We'll post more pictures soon!

Andrea