Liz sees on average 20 patients a week. She travels all over the reserervation to check on these people.
I was the first that got to go out on the field with Liz! I went to see an elderly couple. The woman hates taking her medications. She purposely doesn't take her evening medications and picks out certain medications that she specifically doesn't like to take. The man refuses to go to the clinic. He hates waiting for more than 10 minutes to be seen. Unfortunately, at the clinic, it is usual to wait at least about 30 minutes to be seen, even if you have an appointment. This is why Liz comes out to see them.
On the way to their house, I was warned about their dog that they have. This dog was awesome! He is known for rolling around in the mud/dirt and then jumping up on people. Liz stocks her van with dog treats so the dog won't jump up on her. She gave me one just in case I coudln't get to the door before being attacked by this dog. I think I'm a dog whisperer becasue that dog would just lay on my feet. He didn't once try and jump up on me, but he was really dirty and my shoes/feet were covered in mud by the time I got back to the clinic. Then, when I entered their house, I was abruptly introduced to their bird, Bird. Bird flew all around that house. Once, he landed right behind my head and stood on the back on my chair. Let me remind you, I have been pooped on twice by birds, so I wasn't going to let that happen again! I kept my eye on that poop machine the whole time I was there. Also, during this visit, I refilled the patient's pill box and used my motivational interviewing skills to work!
On Tuesdays, she goes to the Senior Center for lunch to check up on some of the elderly patients. On one special Tuesday, Maraget got to go with Liz to the Senior Center. It was Margaret's lucky day! They were serving salmon, Margaret's favorite! But....something fishy happened. There was about a million little bones all over that filet and it was so dry and unedible. Being nice, Margaret picked through the bones and ate some of the free food she was offered. On this particular Tuesday, there were only two seniors there. One man sat in silence and the other powered through the salmon and was continuously picking bones out of his teeth. I guess he was desperate for a free meal! Another senior walked in, realized that it was fish day (which is usually on Fridays) and walked out. Later, we ran into him at the Trading Post and remembered seeing Margaret and Jim replied, "I didn't realize that it was fish day. I hate fish day."
It was my turn again! This time I was told that we were going to the West End. Apparenlty the community doesn't like the poeple that live on the West End. I guess it's some kind of fued amongst the different tribes in the community. The drive out was amazing. The weather was perfect. The sun was shinning and the temperature was in the high 50's! It's about a 30 minute drive out to the West End, but man was is pretty. Luckily, Liz stopped at a few places along the way so I could take some pictures.
Me and Liz, the Public Health Nurse
The Spokane River
The view from one of the patient's house. The left river is the Spokane and the right river is the Columbia. I could definitely have that as my view from my front porch!
The Two Rivers Casino
A man-made lake with geese!
Another Tuesday rolled around and Margaret got to go on another home visit. After seeing three patients, her and Liz hit up the Senior Center! Woot! This time, they were serving pizza, if you can call it pizza. It consisted of a piece of bread, tomato sauce, canadian bacon and canned mushrooms and pineapple. Definitley more edible than the salmon, but still not the best meal she has ever eaten! This time there were more than two seniors present, at least they enjoyed the free pizza-ish lunch. Near the end of the lunch, one of the seniors packaged up some left over granola treats and fruit and gave them to Margaret for us to have. Once the granolas, and Margaret, returned to the clinic, the granola was swiftly removed from the pharmacy. We were extremely confused, especially since they were given specifically to us, the students. Then we realized that it was so our pharmacist woudln't eat them all. The entire clinic has a severe addiction to sweet, well, any food at that matter. Later, after having the fruit in the apartment for a week, it turned into juice. So we didn't get to eat those either! The Senior Center let us down agian!
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