Day 8 - The waiting game

I eagerly ran into the clinic this morning hoping that either Sara Fujioka or Jeannie Monk had responded to the first draft of my survey questions but, unfortunately, neither had. This put me into a bit of a waiting pattern, however, I have quickly learned that Dr. Hort is rarely without a small task or interesting project to tackle. I spent the majority of the morning planning my travel schedule to Sitka, Hoonah, and Haines. I had to research flight schedules, ferry fares, and housing. Here's what I came up with...

Hoonah - June 7th, 8th, and 9th. I will be flying into Hoonah via Wings of Alaska. Oftentimes the clinic sends a group of dentists from Juneau to the smaller villages that do not have full time dental staff for a week at a time to see as many patients as possible during that stretch. I will be traveling to Hoonah with Dr. Nascimento and her dental assistant, Cindy. The flight is literally less than twenty minutes and there are about six flights out of Juneau each day. I've been told that the plane has 6 seats and, if you're lucky, you can sit in the co-pilots seat. While in Hoonah I will be staying in a Bed and Breakfast called Sportsman's. The owner, Pat, is apparently well-known around the clinic for her legendary french toast.

Haines, AK - June 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd. I will be taking the ferry to Haines. I will be making this trip on my own to work with Dr. Barnes, a full-time dentist in Haines. This trip will give me an opportunity to take a ferry in Alaska for the first time. The hardest part of my morning was deciphering the ferry schedule. The .pdf was filled with colors, numbers, and letter codes that all corresponded to somewhere or something different. Normally I would be able to handle such a thing, but there did not appear to be any rhyme or reason to the colors or letters. After about 20 minutes of frustration I finally realized the letter codes were referring to the name of the ferry boat and not the name of the city it was traveling to (it made a huge difference!). I am going to be doing a homestay with the hygienist from the Haines clinic. She hosts all of SEARHC's dentists and is supposed to be very friendly and welcoming.

I will also be traveling to Sitka, AK, but was unable to confirm any dates because that trip is more dependent on the survey than the other two trips. The ferry travles to Sitka almost daily so that will be my mode of transportation. I did find out that the hospital in Sitka does offer short term housing for medical personnel so I sent off a few emails to explore that option. Sitka has a large hospital with a huge population of OB patients so I will likely be traveling there two separate times since OB patients are only scheduled on Tuesday.

During lunch I took a nice hike back up to the Salmon Dam with Dr. Newton. As we were walking up the hill Dr. Hort and some others were walking down to return to the clinic. While Dr. Newton and I were coming down I noticed a buzzing in my pocket and saw I had a new voicemail. I thought nothing of it and we continued to converse casually. When I got back to the clinic all the dentists, including Dr. Hort, were more excited than usual to see us. Why the excitement? Apparently Dr. Hort had seen a black bear mother and her cub on the trail right before we walked down it. The voicemail was her calling me to warn me to stay on the trail for a few extra minutes before coming back down. Lucky for me, the bear and cub had disappeared back into the woods long before we reached the point where it was spotted. Dr. Newton told me the first thing he packs on his hiking trips is an extra pair of underwear - just in case he happens to come across a bear.

Today was another beautiful day - sunny and rain free. Dr. Hort literally ordered me out of the office to enjoy this gorgeous day. She says I should not feel bad about working shorter hours during the month of May because, come June, the rain will arrive and I will be stuck inside. I spent the afternoon on the UAS campus reading some articles and studies about varying dental topics.

One of my goals for this week is to narrow in on a topic or series of topics that will be the focus of my dental curriculum. The general focus will be on preventative dentistry and nutrition, but Dr. Hort and I both think it would be a much more meaningful guide if it were pointed towards a specialized topic within that general focus. My other goal is to utilize comments from Jeannie and Sara to tighten up my survey questions. After this week the technical, administrative aspect of the project should be over and I will be able to begin administering the survey and interacting with patients on a more consistent basis.

That's about it from here...

On a separate note, a special happy birthday to my Paw Paw, who turns 77 today! I'll be sure to do an extra three hours of celebrating for you to make sure your birthday lasts as long as possible.