Upon Arival

Written 10/13/09

So after many days of travel and over 2800 miles I finally made it to Chinle yesterday around 2pm. After checking in at the hospital I got the keys to my trailer and spent the day getting things moved in and set up. Its called a trailer, but it is an actual building split in half width wise with a 2 bedroom apartment on each side. I have my side all to myself, but apparently there is a family living just across the living room. While not exactly the Ritz it will suit my purpose, there are the 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, and a dining/living room. While there is a TV with a DVD play there is neither cable or anyplace in town to rent DVDs cheaply and easily (I miss you RedBox). There is an extensive collection of medical books, so after I breeze through the 5 books I brought with me I will dive into learning new medical info, or simply reviewing things which I had learned before. I wish that the APhA review book came sooner so I could start focusing on the NAPLEX. Its hard to believe that this is the first time I have ever had a place to myself. During college I always had between 2 and 5 roommates which was eventful, good, fun, aggravating, and horrible all at the same time. Even while staying at camp for that rotation last summer there were always people coming in for the weekend so I never really had the place to myself. It is a good feeling to see nothing in the fridge but my stuff, but at the same time it is kind of depressing to come home knowing that you wont speak to anyone until the next day at work. Hopefully the isolation wont get to me too much.

The scenery out my window is just empty desert. Its so foreign to me to look out and see that. During my 10 weeks in Middlebury I was secluded, but it wasnt empty. I also had a lot of support from Yonna and Ken, where here I am all alone. Beyond that the town is nice, but small with only a market, 2 gas stations, a pizza place, chinese place (yeah I was surprised about that one too) a couple hotels and a burger king. Apparently the burger king has wi-fi so I will hopefully upload this document from there sometime in the next few days. The town feels a lot like Willsboro does, where everybody knows everything about everybody else. While the landscapes are night and day there is still something comforting about having that particular feeling, even though nobody here knows anything about me. The people at the hospital all seem nice and friendly. My preceptor (Julie) is on vacation so I am subbing in working with another pharmacist (John). John is a pretty cool guy from Oklahoma who has only been here for a few months. He did a residency and is all about learning so he will hopefully be a good influence on me. The rest of the staff were either contractor pharmacists or mostly Navajo workers. The hospital itself is pretty big compared to Porter Hospital in Middlebury, its a whopping 60 beds. The biggest draw is that they have everything health related under one roof. People come in from hours away to see their docotor, dentist, optometrist, dietitian, obgyn, everything. It is pretty cool to see this one stop shopping healthmart. It may be something that can lay the groundwork for interdisciplinary communication and health care for the future. With so few doctors choosing family practice there has been a crisis in the medical field which has resulted in less time being spent with more patients which has really ruined the doctor patient connection. Having a setup like this relieves the doctor of some of the financial and time burden while increasing access to specialists when needed. Just think of all the productivity which would be gained by patients not having to take 3 days off from work to go to 3 different appointments, but instead knocking everything out in one day. With the current problems posed by our health care system and the piece of garbage health care bill being shoved down our throats having this health care setup could potentially help our nation both economically and get us back to where we belong health care wise. Its only been one day and I have 21 more to go at this rotation. Since my preceptor is gone until next week I am not 100% sure what I am going to be spending most of my time on, but im sure that I will keep busy for this week. I have to go to rounds every morning at 8 to hear about any interesting admits so I will hopefully see some interesting cases. I will also be spending a few days in the outside clinic in Pinon, about 30 miles away, so I should be able to see a little bit of Navajoland.

This weekend I am going to stay pretty close to Chinle because frankly I am sick and tired of driving. If you ever go cross country bring someone with you so you can have something to do besides think. Now I have nothing left to think about. I will probably go check out Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) just down the road. I dont know if I am going to hike it, but I at least want to check it out. On Sunday I may go down and check out the Hubbel Trading Post which is a national landmark and apparently a pretty cool place. I may swing down to Window Rock and actually check out the Window Rock that it is named after, I tried to find it when I was there on Monday, but after visiting the historical center I wound up just heading on to Chinle. Over the course of the next 2 weekends I plan on going to Monument Valley/Shiprock/the Four Corners, The Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, and probably Flagstaff. If you have any ideas of places I should go or things I should do (Besides drive route 666 to Fort Defiance) please let me know. I am out of work by 5pm Mountain (7pm Eastern) and am basically just sitting around reading so feel free to call me. I can get on the internet at work for email, but email/internet doesnt work on my phone. I still get pretty good service and can send/recieve texts so feel free to contact me at any time.

-O