Local health

Today I met "Jean".  Her back hurt, especially after travelling to Wadeye yesterday over the bumpy, corrugated roads.  She has a disc problem in the lower back, hard enough to treat in mainstream healthcare.

She's in her 70's.  Her place is 2 hours drive from here.  She comes here because this is her husband's country.  She looked at me out of the corners of her eyes.  "Do you wanna see my country?"  I wasn't sure what was coming next, but she pulled out her mobile phone.  We looked at more than 70 photos of a beautiful costal bush, deserted beaches and pristine waterholes.  "See the pig in that picture?"  I asked whether she caught it.  "Nah, all we had was stones.  We gave it a fright though!"  One photo was a big rocky cliff.  "See the heads?  There's the man and there's the woman."  She said with a look of disgust that her ancestors never told them how they got there.  Another photo was a grassy spur pointing out to the beach.  "What do you reckon that is?"  I didn't know but thought it looked like a crocodile.  "Nah, it's a swordfish".  She then told me the story about how the fish got tired and lay down to sleep and never woke up.  There was something quite incredible about hearing some ancient wisdom and story via a fluorescent orange Nokia.

"Bruce" is 61.  He's very dignified, with a bushy crop of grey hair.  He shares a common problem here.  He had rheumatic fever as a child, has diabetes and kidney disease.  He came in late a few days ago with chest pains.  The tests were normal.  He came in with his wife this morning, still not feeling great.  I asked about drinking.  That set off a lot of animated conversation in the Murrinh-Patha.  He smiled a bit ruefully.  "She said to be honest".  We jigged his tablets and he'll come in tomorrow (hopefully).  I've just had a phone call from pathology in Darwin (it's 8pm) to say that the blood sent today on the plane shows that he actually did have a heart attack.  What to do?  To send someone to Darwin for care often means that the temptation to abscond and look for grog is strong.  I don't even know how I would find him at night.

We're slowly finding out that there is more and more that we don't know.  The medical challenges are ... challenging!  Today a wound culture came back with diphtheria growing.  I didn't know that diphtheria caused skin infections.  Placed over the layer of cultural differences, we find ourselves wishing that there were answers in the back of the book.  There are frustrations when we arrange for a young girl with a fragile twin pregnancy to go to Darwin, and she disappears just before the flight is due to go.  But there are frustrations also when a 2 year old with a stone in her ear canal leaves on the plane with her young mother, and then a fax comes from the hospital in Darwin saying that the plans have changed and could she come next week please...!

Our role here is supportive of the incredibly competent nurses, as well as dealing with acute problems and also trying to get chronic health plans up to date.  I can't get my head around the last bit, so Joy does that.  It's good to be here together.