"You can do six of anything..." per Lisa Parks

     Lisa says you can do six of anything.  She was initially refering to our workouts at the gym serveral years ago however adapted the saying to everyday life.  I would always remind her of this at the most opertune times.  I am now reminding myself of the same saying.   I have about 6 months to go.  Thus far I enjoyed the summer season at the South Pole much more than the winter season.  The summer is incredibly busy with always something to do or people to do them with.  The winter season reminds me of a very slow pace life that you might find on a Carribean island when you don't have to work.  Most of you know I have a hard time sitting around for extended periods of time.  (unless it is on the boat) Except of coarse here it is covered in ice rather than sand/water and the tempertures are 80 below zero.  There are 46 other people here at the station.  I can walk the halls on our day off for hours and not run into anybody.  I tend not to be a reclusive person and like to keep busy.  It will be an interesting 6 months.  But as Lisa says you can do six of anything.

     My last blog was quite awhile ago.  As above not much happens during the winter.  From a medical standpoint that is fortunate. We have 2 trauma teams in the winter.  The second team is considered "advanced" even though none of them have any experience.  Currently I am training them how to draw blood and start IVs.  Something I last did about 20 years ago. This is Matt and Shelby practicing.  Anyway... since the last blog Ralf and I continue to operate the store on Friday evenings and have maintained our "theme nights".  The mushrooms and potatoes never took off but the lavender is beginning to grow nicely.  Still playing volleyball, a rare game of Settlers, watching a lot of movies and reading books.

     Our sunset dinner occurred on Saturday, March 20.  As usual the chefs out did themselves.  The menu was designed by Matt, our local artist.   Matt spends a lot of his free time painting and playing video games.  He is trying to teach  me to be a gamer.  So far I have made it to level II of Super Mario.  Dinner, especially desert was fabulous.  Dinner was followed by a party in the pool room, complete with disco lights, dance music...  Our next special dinner will be in June to celebrate "mid winter".  The actual sunset occurred sometime on Tuesday.  We did not get to see a green or blue flash.  A weather front moved in pretty quickly Tuesday and Wednesday so we did not get to see the fabulous colors that are usually present. (pic)  Gradually over the next several weeks it became darker, colder, and windier.  We began to see "yukimarimos".  These are little balls of snow that are blown across the landscape.  They are the size of golf balls but if you try to catch one and pick it up they just fall apart.  With all the drifting that has occurred with the winds it is pretty funny to watch people try to catch them.
     For the astronomy buffs the first 2 stars that were visible were Sirius and Canopus on March 30th.  By April 2cd we could also see Alpha Centauri and Jupiter.  At this time the sky is filled with stars.  It reminds me of sailing with Mindy and Reinhart.  When I was on night watch there were so many stars visible it was difficult to pick out the constellations.  Here at the South Pole most of you know that there is no "South Star".    The southern cross is easily visible.   Based on star maps for some reason a lot of the constellations are triangle based.  They are not quite as interesting as the northern constellation.  The amount of iridium flares down here is amazing.  They are usually every 8-9 minutes with a minus 8-9 magnitude.  We have even seen some prolonged tumbling flares.  The auroras are spectacular.  Our radios have been programed with an "aurora" channel so when one pops up an announcement is made on the aurora channel and you can go check it out.

     On April 13 around 1930 we reached an all time low, minus 100.7!!!! Several people managed to become members of the 300 club and received their commemorative patches.  To become a member of the 300 club you sit in the sauna at 200 degrees and then run outside to the geographical pole marker.  Clothing is optional however usually most people only wear their bunny boots and a gater.  I missed it due to playing volleyball.  Hopefully there will be another -100 plus so that I can earn my patch.
     Easter came up really fast and was uneventful.  Ella and I did paint ping pong balls and hid them throughout the station for people to find.  As of last week they are still turning up.  One of the things that happens as it gets dark is that all the windows are covered/blacked out to avoid light interference with some of the scientific experiments that occur during the winter.  In the galley the windows are about 3 feet by 3 feet.  We took large pieces of cardboard, painted them with various designs to cover the windows.   Matt drew me an outline of Antarctica and I filled it with one of my mazes.  The starting point is the South Pole and ending at McMurdo.   My sister would appreciate the maze as that I drew one, slightly smaller for her in college.
     Some winter over statistics that pertain to PAs/women include:  I am the 4th PA to winter over however it is noted that Heidi Lin had 5 winter seasons here.  The first PA to winter over was in 2002.  I am the 170th woman to winter over since a station was established at the South Pole in 1957.
Check out Cody's blog at www.antarcticcowboy.com  
  

Getting colder...

     Well since my last blog almost everything is shut down for the season.  It is amazing how much there is to do and how just 47 people can get it done.  Six miles of runway flags and markers were removed.  Flag lines to all used outlying buildings were set up so you can find your way outside in the dark of winter. Fuel lines were emptied and removed.  Buildings moved, winterized, and shut down. Heavy equipment winterized and stored.  Massive food pull brought inside and stored.  (They closed down and turned the heat off in the wing where I used to stay for the food storage) The Jamesways Summer Camp (houses about 150 people during the summer season) cleaned and shut down.  This part, although some of the rooms were absolutely disgusting, had some advantages.  There was a lot of water left in the Jamesway's tanks and they could not be drained.  Thus we were told to head out there and take as many and as long of a shower as we wanted until the water was depleted!!!  NICE.  People also left a lot of stuff.  Everything to booze, books, clothes to tvs.  It was a nice opportunity to pick up some free stuff if you needed anything.  All the leftovers went into Skua (kind of a good will).  I anticipate that I will be able to dig up future costumes for Ralf and my Friday theme nights at the store.  But we are almost done.
     Medical is still slow.  That is a good thing especially since there are only 47 of us here.  We are taking this time to reorganize the pharmacy and writing up protocals for different procedures.  We have a brand new trauma team with only 2 returning summer members (me and John).  Training has commenced.  We have already had several training sessions and drills.   Last Saturday our drill had Derek/Shelby on a snowmobile and they ran into the fish.  (The giant fish is left over from our ice sculptures that we did around Christmas)  The snowmobile flipped on top of Shelby resulting in a broken arm and rib fractures. Derek had gotten so excited he passed out.  Our team managed everything effectively given their minimal training thus far.  I found it interesting becaue it was minus 62 degrees with a wind chill of minus 100-the coldest that I have been outside in.  When you come back inside it takes you several minutes to get all your gear off and become re acclimated to the warmth.    Oh because the fish is huge and could cause a hazard this winter by someone walking into it we are holding a raffle to determine who gets to smash it with the D6.  Not sure what that is yet but hopefully it is big, regardless everyone who want to can get to learn how to drive it and then someone will get to smash the fish.  (pic)  I have already attended snowmobile and LMC classes.  The snowmobiles are a bitch-very difficult to start in these temperatures.  Now the LMCs are a lot of fun.  Easy to start, enclosed cabin, will go anywhere.
      I think that Ralf and I bring in the highest cash flow on Friday nights at the store.  It is hard to say if that is because of our enthusiasm with various theme nights or if people are getting an earlier start for Saturday night.  Our third night in the store our theme movie was "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest".  I dressed up as nurse Ratchet and Ralf was in a straightjacket all night.  He had the perfect catatonic look.  (pic)  Last Friday our theme was "Deliverance".  We wore our carthart overalls with bad fake teeth and straw hats accompanied by a banjo.  It was funny trying to get Ralf, who has a German accent, to talk like he was from Georgia.  This past week the theme was Men in Black.   I got to be an alien this time.  Next week-not sure yet.  Send me some ideas.
      After extensive internet research we have had minimal success with our mushroom cultures.  One of six have grown.  We will see what happens with the one and try again.  We are also attempting to grow potatoes.   We are not allowed to grow flowers however Joe found a way around that.  We are growing lavender-herb-in the clinic, and a type of sunflower.   I am learning more and more about hydroponic gardening.  Ella seems to think that is why I like the lettuce/salads because it is not grown from the soil or chemically treated.
      The latest SP incident has been the issues with the poop trap.  Apparently no one has cleaned it like they were supposed to over the last year thus for the last two days I have been walking around with a mask on however it really hasn't helped much.  It got to the point Tuesday that we had to leave the clinic because of the powerful odors and were available on radio if anybody need us.  One trap down, two to go. :(  Many of you that really know me, know that I can't stand certain odors...so it was a difficult afternoon.  (Lisa it actually got to the point that I was gagging-don't read this during lunch)
     I have mentioned food pull before but now in the winter time we also have a "booze pull".  Apparently somewhere outside there is a building full of beer, wine, liquor, and SODA, I figured out where yet.  Well before it gets really, really cold it has to be brought into the station.  There is an all call throught the station for "booze pull".  Everyone dresses in their ECW gear and forms an assembly line from outside, up a couple flights of stairs and into the building.  A piston bully/forklift brings the triwalls full of the various beverages over to the outside stairs where they are unloaded, passed from person to person up the stairs and into the building.  There they are stored in various rooms (that have been shut down) until the store is restocked.   No caffeine free diet pepsi, diet pepsi, but they do have diet coke!!!!  Better than nothing.  I will have to make sure I wear my PEPSI sweatshirt while I am drinking a diet coke.
      Volleyball keeps me occupied 2 nights a week.  However depending on how many people show up it could be a short exhausting night.  I thought playing twos at sea level was challenging, try playing twos at altitude.  I have also started playing a game called "Settlers".  It is a board game where you have to build settlements, cities, roads, bridges, city walls.  In order to do this you have to sell resources: ore, wood, sheep, wheat.....  the game is never the same but takes a long time to play just one game.  I have discovered that I should only play on weekends because they end up staying up to late during the week and I wouldn't get much sleep.
     As the sun sinks lower on the horizon it is getting colder and windier.  Over the last week the cloud cover has been almost 100% with visibility at times 50 ft.  However over the last several days the system has moved on and the shadows and colors are magnificent.  The sun should set early next week.  Hopefully the horizon will remain clear so I will get some good pictures and maybe even see the green flash.  (although down here it is appears blue)  The station has several celebratory dinners throughout the season.  The first is coming up Saturday to celebrate the sunset.
   

Winter begins...

Since my last blog I have been incredibly busy however now that the south pole station has closed it has slowed down considerably and I can catch up.
After the holidays the station was very busy. Everyone was starting to get excited about going home within the next month. Those of us that received and accepted a contract to winter over looked forward to some R & R. Most chose to spend it in New Zealand or Australia. However I was fortunate enough to get to return to the states. Actually Reinhart and I were on the same flights out. When I arrived to New Zealand about 0300 it was quiet, dark and the moon was out. It had been the first time I had seen the night sky since October. Walking from the NZ airport over to the CDC (Clothing Distribution Center) the smells were amazing-fresh greenery and flowers. I didn't need my ECW gear, only a light jacket. Keep in mind it was NZ's summer. I managed to get a couple hours sleep at the Windsor B & B before back to the airport for continued flights. However Reinhart didn't bother to sleep but went out with some others from the ice. (pic)After 6 flights to get back to NC from the South Pole I had lost track of the time zones I crossed, dates/hours that I traveled. I arrived on Saturday evening @0000. Back at the South Pole it was Sunday @ 1800 and I would be eating dinner. Never the less I was wide awake and I somewhat unpacked and eventually forced myself to go to bed. It was so nice to be in my own comfortable bed. I had 24 hours in NC and spent it visiting friends before flying to Philadelphia to visit family for several days . You know the whole time I was in the states it was raining-the first rain I had seen since October. It was great seeing family and friends and eating all my favorite foods, driving, and sleeping in my own bed. I did get to go to the movies once, but still didn't really watch and tv. After spending several days with my family in Delaware is was back to NC to tidy things up as that I would be away for the next 10-11 months. (taxes, bills, shopping-I had to buy some new clothes as that I have lost over 20 lbs). On returning to the South Pole it was a long journey...lost a day, luggage left in Australia, plane delays in New Zealand and also in McMurdo... I finally got back to the SP late Friday evening, the 29th and after a week got to see my luggage on Saturday morning. A shower and complete change of clothes never felt so good. Despite the delays I still have not gotten to spend any quality time in NZ or Australia, hopefully when I get off the ice I will be spending several weeks traveling. Let me know if you want to join me!!
Coming back to the SP was alittle weird. Everyone was moody and on edge with short tempers. Probably in anticipation of the incredible amount of work that still had to be done for station closing and getting to go home. The tension settled down after a few days and it didn't take me long to settle back in. The doc had picked up my boxes that my mom and Tom sent, full of stuff that I would need in anticipation of wintering over. The station got really busy at this point with plans for the station to close on 2/15. After this date there would not be any flights in/out of the South Pole, meaning no mail, fresh food... until some time in October. Ella, the winterover doc arrived, and spent a couple of days with us checking over the clinic with us. Larry, the summer doc, left to meet his wife and travel for several months. He was really anxious to leave. The new doc from McMurdo came up for a day-thought he could come here and do anything because he is in shape and lives at altitude. After my guided tours and hikes he was in the clinic sleeping with oxygen. (pic)
So now I am settling in with a new doc, a new schedule, and I have finally moved into my new bigger room. I have managed to snag a 18" tv and DVD/gameboy for my room. With that, more room and my iPod stereo system I am all set. (Maybe a rerigerator would be nice) The rooms even though they are slightly bigger are still like dorm rooms. Elevated bed, dressers, and a desk. However you can tell I have made it my own. (pic)
On Thursday the 11th we were informed that the station was going to close early, on Saturday the 13th instead of the 15th. OMG everyone was in a state because work wasn't completed, people weren't packed... I managed to see several friends/planes off over the next couple of days. It was very sad to see them leave and maybe it was a good thing that we didn't have more time. Saturday night Ella woke me up around 0145 for the last plane. The last 10 summer people left the station, we were now numbering 47 for the nest 10 plus months and on our own. (pics)The last several C-130's did some great really low fly bys... After the last plane left about a quarter of the station ended up in the galley with the music cranked and champange flowing. Over the next several days everyone appeared to be exhausted. Since the last plane left we have gradually settled into new routines and have begun making new friends.

The clinic is much much slower than the summer. I have created some winter projects for myself in the clinic once things have completely settled down. Right now to keep myself busy I have volunteered for many other jobs... The first is running the store with Ralf on Friday nights. He is a lot of fun and is willing to go along with my crazy ideas. I am carding the people who try to buy alcohol, listening to the people's lungs if they want cigerettes (also giving them a hard time), and will have theme nights in the store. The first night was too busy learning the system to plan a theme however this Friday our theme is "Animal House". The movie will be playing in the background and Ralf and I will be wearing togas. Ralf being from Germany, one of two of the Ice Cube people left on station, has not seen Animal House or knew what a toga was. Greenhouse Joe and I are trying to clone and cultivate mushrooms so hopefully we will have them throughout the winter. (pics) I have also started assisting in the greenhouse harvesting and planting new stock. Believe it or not I have started eating salads. Part of the job of the winter crew is to clean the station. During the summmer about 150 people reside in the Jamesways-tent like structures outside. Apparently they don't clean them when they leave and we have to. Pretty discusting. We start that next week. We also have to do their wash all the bed linen from the Jamesways. Ella and I have been doing that. Imagine in three days washing the linen from 150 beds and repacking it for redistribution next summer. Not fun but have found some intesting sheets from "hello kitty and batman" to some awful looking plaids... The dishpit is somewhat boring but the music that you can crank up makes it go by easier. I have learned when chefs do not have to do their own dishes they dirty a lot more than necessary. Other things I hope to do over winter include exercise./volleyball, plan my travels for post ice, study for boards, read, movies, sleep, learn southern hemisphere astronomy, spanish and photography.... and hopefully keep this up to date based on satellite availabilty. I am sure with my imagination I will find lots of other things to keep me occupied through the winter as well.
Around March 21st, the sun will begin to set and we will have several days of twilight and then eventually darkness. I anticipate amazing aurora's and stars... In fact the IT guys program our radios with an "aurora" channel so that when one is visible it is announced to everyone. I guess one of the reasons they do this is that all the windows are blocked to prevent station light from going outside and interfering with the various experiments.  By the way since returning to the ice the temperatures have been steadily dropping. When I returned it was around - 30F. Today it is -51.2 F with a wind chill of -81F. The wind is at 11. knots and the barameter is 683 mb making our altitude 10504 ft. For some reason I am having a problems with pictures-I will have to figure this out.

The New Year....

Well, since 12/20/09 it has been incredibly busy. Not necessarily medical. The day after my incredible long walk we had a "mass casualty incident"-not a real one but another drill. I got to help with some of the makeup. (pics)The setting was Laura who was operating a snowmobile passed out crashing into scaffolding, knocking it down with 2 people on it, and setting fire to the recyclables. A firefighter in his rush to "help" also fell down the outside stairs. Our trauma team assembled as usual at the clinic and then proceeded outside to the incident where after assigning members of the team to various patients I got to "tag" patients. Green, yellow, red, or black. Green indicates someone that is fairly stable and can wait for treatment. Yellow and red are patients that need treatment soon and now, respectively. Black is fairly obvious... We made Laura a red even though with greater than 60% burns to her face, chest, back and arms the likelihood of survival was not very high. The drill took up pretty much the whole morning but was fun. I would like to be the one writing up the scenarios.
Over the next two days Danielle and I held 2 CPR/AED classes resulting in 19 certifications. The resci Annie arms kept falling off so we left them off. Later for the race around the world doc simulated a buried body in the snow on the race course with the Annie arms partially uncovered. He has such a great sense of humor. Everyone had 12/25/09, christmas day, off. It was a lazy day with an exceptional dinner of lobster and beef wellington, real potatoes, and I am not sure what other vegetables. Most people were somewhat dressed up-my favorite was Storm in a baby blue ruffled shirt with a matching polyester suit-reminesenst of the prom. However he kept spilling beer down the front of him every time he tried to take a picture. Spiderman (doc) made his usual appearance. (pics)Very relaxing evening with Saturday off as well. The race Around the World was held Saturday morning, the 26th and it was a beautiful day. The motor vehicles were adorned it all kinds of stuff: gladiator chariot, weather balloon, "belly up to the bar"....one vehicle was towing a platform with a stationary bike and rider behind it. (pics)I got to see some of the vehicles used in the traverse-HUGE and can haul butt. There were multiple cross country skiers, runners, and walkers (me). The winner of the race gets a "boondoggle" to McMurdo to participate in the marathon toward the end of January. Curtis won with a time of 17:17:43 on a 2.4 mile course.
Because of the christmas holidays and upcoming New Year we worked on Sunday. We scheduled blood draws and XR's to assist with testing to physically qualify people to stay the winter. I haven't taken my own XR or drawn blood in 20 years. Well that day I regained all my previous expertise. In the previous weeks our clinic had received new XR equipment with which we experimented with a cornish game hen from the kitchen. "Peter Penguin" films were sent to denver for interpretation to the amusement of the radiologists. (pic)Even though our New Year's day was on Friday we worked in anticipation of having Sat and Sun off with a "Near Years" party Sat night, the 2cd. The gym was fantastically decorated. The first band had at least a dozen members with a wide range of instruments. They played mostly folk tunes. The Violent Phlegms were next with their version of, yes you guessed it the Violent Fems. Eli (who runs the greenhouse) started out in a very nice suit but for some reason ended up stripping down to various other clothes on stage including a dress and ended up in shorts. I think I am missing something here. Between sets there was a fashion show of "wearable art". (pics) My favorite was the rope dress. Pretty cool that all the clothes were made out of stuff lying around. The third bad "Security in Noise" was the best with rock. Nevertheless, as usual I was in bed pretty early for our New Year's.
Tourists continue to visit the station. We had a group of 7 women ski from the coast arrive on the 31st. Their sponsors showed up yesterday. However so much for a relaxing weekend. One of the sponsors did not declare a prior cardiac condition. So yesterday around 1400 as he arrived in the station for his tour he became very SOB (short of breath) and dizzy. His pulse ox was about 80 (normal at sea level is @ 98-100%, new arrivals to the pole 85-90%). On exam his heart-rate was @165. EKG revealed atrial fibrillation. I was so excited. My territory!!!!! After treatment his HR slowed however his BP also dropped significantly.... requiring attempted cardioversion (shocked his heart)... A very eventful day and night. He was finally medavaced to New Zealand on the afternoon of the 2cd (just in time for our party).
With everything that happened over those few days I missed the annual event of moving the geographical South Pole. Every year on 1/1 the geographical pole is moved and replaced with a new emblem designed by the previous year's winter-over personnel. Hopefully I will get some more info and pictures of this from someone in the next couple of days. January seems to starting off with a bang. (pics)

I have walked around the world and it is beautiful....

     It has been a busy and hectic couple of weeks.  However this morning (12/20/09) I took the time to walk around the world and it was quiet and beautiful.  The temperature was about 20 below zero without much wind or clouds in the sky.  The sun in the south west about 23 degrees above the horizon. The were a couple people out running and cross country skiing.  Every year at the South Pole a "race around the world" is held on the day after Christmas.  This year the coarse is set 2.4 miles and starts at the geographical South Pole.  You are encouraged to dress extravagently but warm.  You can walk, run, cross country, bike, drive.....once you complete the coarse you get a T-shirt.  Naturally I have signed up but I plan to walk.  I would consider cross country skiing however there aren't any cross country ski tracks and I have am not very adept at it yet.
     Our Christmas day will be like everyone else on this Friday, 12/25/09, in contrast to our Thanksgiving which was held on the weekend after.  This week instead of our usual Sunday off we get Friday and Saturday off but work on sunday.  Our extravagent Christmas dinner will be held on Friday evening-I have heard through the grapevine it will be Beef Wellington.  I hope to spend a very quiet weekend given the past couple of weeks.
     The last couple of weeks have run together with all the visitors.  Our lead physician from Denver and McMurdo joined us for several days.  During this time we adm over 200 H1N1 vacinations 8 gall bladder ultrasounds to physically qualify the people wintering over, another 2 kidney stone medavacs that luckily I didn't have to return to McMurdo.  Our lab tech guy also joined us for a week to check, calibrate all our equipment, install new xr epuipment and computers, as well as our dentist for a few days.  Incredibly busy with all these people.  I have held some CPR/AED review classes as well as our trauma team training sessions.  In addition to the company visitors we had "tourists" from all over.  Canada, Japan, China, England, Russia....  they usually flew in from Patriot Base and might spend a day or two.  The "tourists" have to camp out near their plane and provide their own bathroom facilities and food.  They are allowed to come into the station for a tour and a visit to the company store.  We are instructed that we can't feed the tourists or offer them the use of our facilities.  However if they have a medical emergancy we are allowed to assist them.  Like last night.... a plane arrived yesturday with 9 tourists.  3 of which were planning on parachuting.  This hasn't been done at the South Pole since around 1997 when 4 of the 5 parachutists died (not sure about the # of deaths).  At the South Pole it is difficult to have ground perception when you are jumping and apparently their altimeter equipment was not working properly.  Anyway the 3 jumpers on Saturday did fine.  However one of the pilots was not-possibly acute appendisitis.  They left in the middle of the night after buying fuel from us and  the pilot receiving treatment from me and doc. 
     This past week we also had a C17 do a food drop.  The plane drops down to about a 1000 ft and lets lose cargo pallets attached to parachutes.  Each pallet weighs @ 1000 lbs.  This year was uneventfull however last year apparently some of the chutes didn't open.  The pallets created about 4 foot craters and had to be dug out.  Several were broken and contained flour and potato chips.  According to the Antarctic treaty all spills have to be cleaned up.  I can't imagine trying to clean up a flour spill in Antarctica. 
            Tomorrow is our summer solstice and the sun will be at it's highest @ 24 degrees above the horizon.  The sun circles us 24 hours a day and will gradually decline in height until sunset sometime in March.  Within the last 2 weeks I have completed the paperwork and signed the contract to stay through the winter season.  Temperatures can reach 100 below.  Should be interesting.  Discovering the southern constellations, southern lights..... I will need to re-watch the old movie "The Thing".