Acclimatization

I know I haven't posted in a week so I'll cobble together what has happened so far.

I'm taking my time settling in and also reverting to old (bad) habits. I'm definitely a creature of habit so even though I'm falling into the same old routines it has resulted in a fairly easy transition so far.

The packing/moving company was super-efficient with my things. So much so that for a day or two I thought I was missing some relatively valuable items -- my computer LCD display and 2 large audio speakers. It turns out that they had stuffed them into a bookshelf which was subsequently wrapped up in cardboard. As they say, the last place anybody thinks to look is right under their nose...

Unpacking is much more painful than packing. So much so that 10 days after arriving I still have open boxes lying around. Well, I better stop being lazy and try to finish the move-in this weekend. Otherwise, I'm fairly happy with my new digs. Some of the other docs wrinkled their noses or grimaced when I told them I was staying at the "Orphanage". My boss in particular is encouraging me to live it up since I'm on staff now. Little do they know that this 2-bedroom is for me quite luxurious and I'll probably not be using the other rooms very much at all.

As for my first week at work, well, this slower pace is definitely going to take some getting used to. I think I've learned to be impatient after 6 years of residency in Toronto. Whenever there's a delay it bothers me for a brief moment until I realize that there'll be plenty of time for coffee breaks, lunch, and much chit chat with my colleagues and the OR staff. Oh, and I will also be finished around 2pm. Working without time pressure is something I haven't experienced for a long time so this is something to savour.

The downside is that should I ever return to a more hectic, community hospital I will have lost some efficiency and time management skills. A bigger concern of mine is whether I can stay sharp at this slower pace. I have been assured that I will see all manner of things here in St. Anthony: trauma, burns, myotonic dystrophy, etc. As the old cliche goes: if you stay long enough in one place, the world will come to your door. Nonetheless, we were just told that a 4th anesthetist will be arriving later this week. We were puzzling over this decision since we are now clearly surgeon-limited and with only 2 ORs per day max (some days only one OR) there doesn't seem to be enough work for everybody. Apparently, the decision was made at the regional level and the idea is to have an extra anesthetist who can back up the remote communities should they lose their anesthetist (which is fairly common). While I worry that I'll be twiddling my thumbs far too much for my own good, I've also been assured that once summer is over this place can get awful busy awful fast.

I am also becoming acquainted with the other docs and I've even been invited out to a few dinners. Everybody has been nice and supportive so far and the camaraderie here is definitely higher than what you might find at a large academic hospital. It's us versus the harsh reality of working in a remote area in a small province. I was briefly reminded of that reality last week when I had a mildly hypoxic lady in emerg and I realized that our old CT scanner wasn't able to detect pulmonary embolisms. (We ultimately had to send her to St. John's). But, fortunately, St. Anthony is a tertiary referral center for Labrador and northern Newfoundland and things are slowly changing. The CT scanner will be upgraded later this year, we're expecting one of our ancient Excel anesthesia machines to be replaced (its gas analyzer is intermittently failing), and we'll be getting a GlideScope. Woo hoo!

The only thing I really haven't done yet is to really get to know the community. In fact, I haven't wandered far beyond the hospital or my apartment just yet. The hospital VP commented that the doctors coming through here generally fall into two groups: those who keep to themselves and only work in the hospital to those who are completely involved with the community. I know I tend toward the former but I'll try to move towards the latter. It's definitely going to be quite a shock shifting from the anonymity of living in Toronto to the if-you-sneeze-everyone-will-know feel of the small town.

A family doc told me this story and I'm not sure whether to laugh or to be afraid. He drove down to Corner Brook which was 5 hours away and bought a microwave at Wal-Mart. No sooner had he arrived back in town than people started asking him how his microwave was working! (Apparently, a St. Anthonian saw him loading his microwave into his car in the parking lot and the news just spread....)

Well, I'm not on call this weekend and I think I'll take advantage of it by doing one of many drives down to Corner Brook. Even though I could be thrifty and watch TV through my computer monitor I think I'll splurge a little bit and get a proper flat screen TV. On the other hand, since there's a good chance I'll be moving again in a year I'm not going to go crazy with a huge one either. I'll probably get a 32" model that I can easily transport back to Ontario. In addition to watching a movie I'll probaby be on the hunt for some restaurants. The Chinese restaurant in town leaves much to be desired although it will (barely) satisfy me after a week of eating hospital food. Corner Brook has two Chinese restaurants I think so I'll be checking them out (hopefully one of them has dim sum).

Sorry, still no photos! We're expecting a cruise ship next week and, if the weather is nice, I'll try to snap some pictures of it and the town. I'll also try to hike the trails up the hills surrounding the town as well. The weather so far is typical St. Anthony -- cloudy, somewhat wet, and cool with temperatures in the teens. I'm not a huge fan of hot sticky summers so I don't mind wearing long clothes but I would like to see more sunshine.

Almost Settled and Ready for Work

Just a brief update for today. My stuff arrived in a tractor trailer today! It was in the same truck that was delivering supplies to the hospital. Interestingly, it looked half empty and my things easily accounted for 75% of the total weight of the cargo. I had some guys from the hospital help me move stuff off the truck. The expression "many hands make light work" is so true -- I could not believe how long it took me to pack by myself and yet unloading the truck with 4 guys (myself included) took less than half an hour.

It's also interesting how quickly basic services can be arranged in a small town. I had my phone line set up the same day (which I think is still faster than Toronto) and I'll have my internet ready by the end of the week (definitely faster than Toronto).

So, I'm hoping nothing was damaged during the trip and I'll be spending all night unpacking.

Tomorrow: My first real day at work!

Getting Settled

I've been running around meeting people, filling out paperwork, and completing errands for the first 2 days here. Good thing I'm salaried...

I've also had some good news: I will have an apartment sooner than expected! Back in June things were looking pretty grim and I faced the possibility of living in a hospital apartment. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with that but all the docs out there can see the irony of finishing residency but only to live in a hospital. (For the non-medical types out there, the term resident historically referred to the fact that trainees once lived in the hospitals they were learning at). The Housekeeper told me the good news and showed me the apartment that was available. The building is named "The Old Orphanage Apartments". As you can see from the picture below, it has the classic Charles Dickens bunker-style architecture.It's actually not that big (another doctor with a family turned it down because it was too small) and may actually be comparable to a 2-bedroom condo in Toronto (~800-900 sq ft?). The other downside is that it has a relatively small living/dining room which isn't a dealbreaker since I'm not expecting to have large numbers of guests over. It was also recently renovated and everything inside was in pretty good shape. Since I'm upgrading from a bachelor and I'm having my rent cut in half (only $430/month with utilities included) this is quite an improvement. When I was told that this was a pretty quiet building I took it on the spot. With my worldly possessions arriving tomorrow, this means everything can be immediately moved inside and I'll have plenty of help to do it.
The previous Tenant left behind a Queen sized bed, a dresser, and a wooden table. Most excellent! (Although I'll have to really check out the bed and make sure it's clean). I'm still living like a student with the mismatched furniture but I'll only splurge when I'm sure I'm staying put. There's a furniture leasing store in town and I think I'll at least lease a decent 3-seat sofa. I'll also look into getting a flat screen TV with satellite HDTV. Do you guys have any suggestions for which brand I should go for?