Roscoe howling on Stonewall Jackson Lake!

My pup howling on Stonewall Jackson Lake!

HELLO ALL! I know it’s been awhile since I posted a blog. I suck at blogging….obviously. Things have been relatively quiet around Anchorage. I was realllly busy last week with diabetes clinic so I didn’t have much time for blogging/picture taking and such. However, do not think for two seconds I haven’t seen, heard and experienced some amazing things.

First, I love diabetes. Okay…not the disease itself per se, but I love the interaction I get in clinic. The stories and people make it worth while. I used to wonder aimlessly as to why I was in this profession but my eyes have been opened so fully to not only how much I love what I do but how much I love people. Mother, you are to blame for this ;) I also love working as part of a TEAM, physicians,PAs, nutritionists, pharmacists….It’s a thing of beauty when we come together and make a beautiful picture for our patients. I love this practice setting. I am sold my friends. I think I belong in the USPHS as an officer. I am a firm believer that when you find what you love you just know it. My place is with the Corp. NOW comes the fun part of figuring out what part of the country I want to live :)

Second, I am in LOVE with Alaska and it’s beautiful culture. The people of Alaska have such strong core values that I hold near and dear to my own heart. Each tribe (there are over 200 in the state) has their own special and unique values. However many are common threads that weave them together. They have such a respect for hard work, dedication, family, and LIFE. They are so thankful, humble, meek and proud all at the same time. At culture orientation I had an amazing opportunity to listen to a few people’s stories about their lives. What an amazing journey some people have! A woman lived in a small village called Shaktoolik, AK where she grew up with her father (native Alaksan) and mother (pale face from wisconsin). There she said that in winters, it would get so cold that she would sleep with a screwdriver. At night her blanket would frost/freeze to the side of the house so she had to pick at the ice in order to turn her blankets over in the middle of the night! INTENSE. I also heard about how the women in the small village of Savoonga, AK (near Russia on a small island) in the older days had tattoos on their arms and faces. The more tattoos the young girl had the more beautiful she was deemed. The young girls when they reached maturity and were ready to be married would go through a ritual to get their tattoos. Their mothers would pick fine hairs off the girls heads, thread them through a BONE needle, wet the hair and soak it in ash. The mother would then preceed to SEW the tattoo into the girl’s face. To top it all off, the girl was to show no pain. This was a great honor and right of passage for this child. Again…INTENSE. I whined about the tattoo on my foot burning when they reached the bony areas!

Traditional healing was GREAT! We didn’t get to see any healings because we aren’t Alaska Native :( buuuuttt….We had the unique experience of meeting the first male Alaska Native physician…EVER! Dr. Mala was one of the most sincere, loving, caring people I have ever met. Everyone around campus who saw him instantly lit up. He just has this air about him that is just so fantastic! He showed us all around campus and spoke to us about their healing garden. We even got to eat a mint leaf from the garden. Awesome! After showing us around the wellness center we stopped off at the massage center where Dr. Mala needed to buy a gift certificate for a friend. He asked us, “Have you ladies ever had a massage?” I responded, “No. I’ve never really had the opportunity.” He INSISTED he buy me a massage certificate. I refused but he wouldn’t let it go! He told me that “angels have a way of working themselves into our lives and watching over us. The hardest part about giving is learning to receive and just simply be thankful.” Needless to say I was incredibly thankful and now I have to find a time to get my first massage EVER in my 23 years in before I leave AK! He truly is an inspirational person with many stories to tell and I am thankful to have met him.

This trip has opened my eyes. Not only to new experiences and the beauty of this world, but to the beauty of people. I think it’s hard sometimes in day to day life to remember to stop and have a legitimate conversation/connection with another human being. I think it’s also difficult in “this day and age” (my god I sound like you daddy!) to remember that there are still good people out there. Sometimes you just have to be open and receptive to new ideas and ways of communicating to find them :)

On a final note…I am happy and for this I am grateful. Love to my family and friends, without you I would be nothing! You are the “angels in my life” (yes, I am chessy and yes, you LOVE IT!)

Hello all! Welcome to my crazy little world currently playing from the great state of Alaska. Today was a fabulous day. Sometimes I can’t believe this life is mine! I am so truly blessed. I hope everyone down home in the “lower 48” is doing fantastic. As much as I am loving it here, I’m starting to miss home. Especially those nearest and dearest to me (love you daddy!)

Today was great. I’m really starting to love diabetes clinic. I’m kinda sad tomorrow is my last day with Judy and her team. I am however happy that I will not need to be at the hospital at 7:30 anymore. I’m learning so much everyday. I can only hope it sticks with me! Today in clinic I met a man who used to be a heckhand on a crab boat in the Bering Sea! He however did his stent about 30 years ago…before Discovery Channel made crab fishing so cool! I also met a pharmacist who exactly one month ago got attacked by a bear on his way to work while biking! CRAZY STUFF! He showed us where the sow’s canines went into his left ankle and calf muscle. INTENSE! He was biking and came upon her suddenly with her cub. He said it was his fault so at least he wasn’t angry at her. She just meant to neutralize him, not kill him. He said she was about 450 lbs (small for brown bear standards) and knocked Shawn around for about 2 minutes. Wow, these are things I see on TV! I actually met someone who survived a brown bear attack.

After work, we came home and decided we needed some things from the store. So I decided I would bike down and get them since it’s less than 3 miles away. Good idea in theory. Bad idea in practice. Groceries on my shoulders and in my backpack made for a hell of a ride on some Anchorage hills. I regretfully say I had to get off and push my bike once. That hill was just too intense for grocery lugging. I found a neat little mall though that sells native jewelry and they were right there making it! So cool. It was an interesting adventure b/c I kinda sorta got lost but I called Stepahnie back at UAA and she used her iPhone to get me to where I was going! yay! I’m loving my adventures here and enjoying the little things. It’s hard to believe 2 weeks is already up.

Well I’m going to get packing for our camping trip to the Kenai river with Judy, Brittany and their families. We will get to experience a true salmon run! This is going to be so cool! Pictures to come. Hopefully Saturday night I will be eating FRESHLY caught salmon on the banks of a river in southern Alaska. Can life really get any better than that friends? Love and miss you all!

Hello everyone! Just a quick post to let everyone know what’ going on in Anchorage. Nothing too crazy happened today expect I had to be at the pharmacy early to work up 8 patients before 9 am! Not so bad except for the fact that when it was time for clinic to start….the power went out :( Since we couldn’t get anybodies labs done we just sat around and discussed a few things. Judy is great. She is soo smart and she is teaching me lots about oral diabetic meds that I used to know hardly anything about. My comfort level with diabetes is coming along smoothly.

In our discussion, I discovered that Anchorage and Alaska in generaly is very tectonically active. Southern Alaska actually sits on the ring of fire that basically makes a huge circle along many tetonic plates that collide with pacific oceanic plate. This makes for the sweet volcanoes in Hawaii and major earthquakes in this part of the world as well as in parts of Asia. Judy said earthquakes and tremors happen often. Apparently one happened the other night and we just didn’t feel it! Crazy!

Anyway after we walked home from work in the rain (we were drenched), Stephanie and I decided it was time to cuddle up in our PJs, make some dinner and watch a movie. We ended up watching Mona Lisa Smile! One of my absolute favorties :) Afterwards, we geard up for a quick run. Steph ran on the treadmill and I decided to make my way up to Alaska Pacific University’s campus again. Damn, what a view. Hopefully tomorrow Stephanie and I will be compiling all of our reserach, printing it and get the ball rolling on our proposed protocol! Also we might take our new bikes down to Russian Jack Park and do some running down there if the weather holds up.

Having a blast and missing you all!

YAY!

Hello guys! Sorry it’s been a few days since a post on here. This weekend was INSANE. I’m working on getting a video post up but surprise surprise I’m having technical difficulties. I repel technology. We are not friends sometimes. Anyway…today started out kinda stressful. I woke up a lil’ late and was busy hole punching things when I realized I was late! We hurried there and got there just in time. Judy Thompson (a WVU alumnus herself) and local pharmacist diabetes guru got me started on today’s patients! I had to work up about 6 patients and I loved doing it! I can so picture myself in this setting. Looking at the full clinical picture and working alongside a physician to make the best possible decision for the patient. AWESOME. Besides getting to see some patients I randomly got very ill today :( I’m hoping I can see a specialist when I go home to figure out what is wrong with my tummy because let me tell ya everyone….it HURTS bad sometime. Hopefully it will all be okay and I won’t have another episode like that again for sometime.

Another awesome thing happened today! Patty Johnson from Colony Drug and Dr. Art Jacknowitz from WVU Clinical Pharmacy came to visit. They were up here for a vacation with their spouses all around the great state of Alaska! They stopped by to see Stephanie and I was well as some of the other WVU alumnus that work at the ANMC. WVU graduates love it up here. Hopefully they will be willing to accept a new member in the future :)

Well I’m working on a SOAP note right now and eating a grilled cheese and tomato soup since my stomach was so hard on me today. Hopefully Stephanie and I will make it out for a run/bike ride. Life is still wonderful here but I’m really missing everyone. Love y’all!

Hello all! Tonight will be a short post because I have to get to sleep ASAP. Stephanie and I got the final details on what our weekends will be looking like for the rest of our time in Alaska and we decided that this weekend would be best to go to Seward to do our whale watching tour around the Kenai Fjord! We are heading out on a train at 6 am from Anchorage to Seward. From there we will hop on a boat for a 6 hour tour of the Kenaji National Park. It’s so surreal to think I will be in an inlet tomorrow that has been carved by awesome glacial activity!

Today was great at the pharmacy. Spent some more time under Michelle and answered a lot more questions than I though I would know the answer to! It’s nice to have a bit of self confidence because sometime I don’t feel I know what I am doing :(

Today was so clear in Anchorage that you could actually see Mt. McKinley from the city…it’s over 240 miles away. Unbelievable. Tomorrow there will be tons of pictures and videos so look for them! I will also video blog tomorrow as well :) 4:30 comes early lovelies so it’s off to bed for me. Love you all! Goodnight from Anchorage.