Home Visits With The Elders #5

I've been on two home visits so far. Both have been to tribal elders who were too sick to come to the clinic. Actually I think both could have made it, but hey, they are tribal elders....

I really enjoyed both trips. The first was to a lady who was having some specific health problems but other than that couldn't seem to find what was wrong with her. She has had all the diagnostic studies, and all have come up negative. Some time ago she was very sick, and had to be flown to Anchorage to be evaluated. She had lost a lot of weight, down to about 85lbs, and was suffering from what we call "failure to thrive" which is not a good call for old folks. Pretty much indicates they are on their way out most often. They did put her on an anti-depressant, and she started to bounce back. When we went to visit her, she was in good spirits, was able to walk around a little, was regaining strength, and had gotten her weight up to 112. She had been on a lot of medications, and while in Anchorage they stopped most of them. I think she was just over medicated. This is not uncommon in elderly people. Too often they don't have their medications reviewed. They start on a medication, doctors add more as they go and forget to tell the old folks to stop taking the others so they take everything given to them. They don't know what the medications are they just know they take this one for their liver, this one for their heart, etc. I think this was the case with this elder, and when the medicines got stopped she started coming back. She is married to an old French trapper, and they both have quite a story to tell. On the wall was a picture of her holding a moose's head up that she had shot with a 22. Her husband spends his time making Ulu's which is a kind of Alaskan knife that all the natives use. He makes them out of old saw blades and antlers.

The next visit was to an old elder, who has heart problems, and he just needed a check-up, and his meds refilled. We go by once a week to check his weight, heart and lungs, and to fill his med-pac which is one of those daily pill reminder things that has the days of the week on it and also different times so that they take their medicine on schedule. We find that if we go by and do this they do real well at taking their meds and consequently do much better than left on their own. He and his wife, Ted and Alice were a delight. Alice is about 3 feet 8 inches tall, and loves to laugh. Most of the people I have met here are pretty stoic, and though they like to have a good time don't kid around a lot. Not Alice, she likes to play and so does her husband. They were a lot of fun and we kind of hit it off. Most around here are not sure just how to take me yet, but it takes time for fungus to grow on you. Anyway Ted and Alice were talking about their Eskimo names, and the NP (nurse practitioner) I worked with said that if I was around long enough I would probably get one too. At that point Alice looked at me and said "Domon". Sounded like Dough-mon, with the accent on mon. When she said this both she and Ted broke out laughing. I thought OK, let's make fun of the newbie. The NP asked them what it meant. They said it didn't mean anything, it was just a name. I asked why it was so funny, and they told me it was the name of a friend of theirs who was kinda fat, liked to laugh and was funny, and I reminded them of him. They said they could not think of him without laughing and that they thought I was pretty funny too...and fat. I don't get it...
They are so cute, and I will get to see them every Friday while I'm here and look forward to how that relationship develops.

I borrowed Jeremy's (the NP) four wheeler this evening and got to drive around some. It is very pretty here. I guess you have to have a taste for it. It's like Santa Fe, if you don't like adobe, the town can be pretty monotonous. Here everything is snow covered, but to me it's beautiful. I've always had a thing for snow covered mountains, and we have those, and a lot more. They say there is more snow here than they have seen in over twenty years...I guess that would be more evidence of global warming. Unalakleet is on a peninsula, which is bordered on one side by the Bering Sea, and on the other side by a big river. I haven't found the name for it yet. The side that has the river is backed by mountains in the distance, and the other direction is the frozen sea and on a clear day you can see forever. It must be to the west because that is where the sun sets, and today it was spectacular. Because of the deep snow and ice, everything has a kind of blue tint like you would see in the cracks of a glassier, and as the sun sets it casts a pink shadow on the clouds. All the colors are very soft and pleasant.

The people in this village are for the most part very kind and hospitable. They have been very nice to share their heritage, and tell stories about the way they live now, and in the past. During the coldest part of the year, they don't do much but try to stay warm. If you didn't know about the rest of the year you would think they are lazy. They do love basketball, snow machines, and 4-wheelers. When you look a little closer, you realize they are incredibly hard working people. They are always hunting, and today I saw a guy cutting up a Caribou on a band saw in his front yard. The limit on Caribou for the natives is 4 a day!!! Not many of them try to get anywhere near that amount, but they do make sure the freezer is full of meat all the time, and I mean lots of it. They also do a lot of drying to make like a jerky. When it warms up and the water starts to thaw they will start fishing, and this is the time that they really bust it. They fish almost every day, and clean and dry the fish not only for themselves to eat, but this is what they feed their dogs. Guess that is where the term "lucky dog" comes from. I tried some of the dried salmon tonight, and it was a treat. What I had was brined, smoked, and dried. They also have some that is like teriaki, and a couple of other flavors. They also bake, grill and poach it like you would have in the lower states. Not only do they do all this, but they also have other jobs too. The fact is that they are hard working honest people, and very tolerant of my silly ways.

Last thought for the evening...the satellite dishes. In the lower states, you always see the dishes pointing up into the sky, out into heaven and it would seem right. Here the satellites seem to aim parallel to the ground. Like they are aiming into their neighbors house!

Ya know? Maybe they are....

rto