Medicine and meanderings in March and April by Jay

Have not idea what that video thing-a-ma-bob is just above.  Don't know how it got there and don't know how to remove it - Soooooooooooooo,  just ignore it, please!

 I finished Dannevirke clinic in mid-March after 2 months, having exhausted the clinical time and needing some R and R.  The lack of academic and clinical stimulation by colleagues was a disappointment but the time there was useful and the nurses prepared me well in clinical protocols, computers, forms,etc.  Did have opportunity to get to know many patients for extended periods, and learn about their lives, culture, jobs -met my first bee-keeper, abbatoir worker (? spelling- look it up), and many other unusual jobs.  Exposure to Maori people was almost every hour on the north island, but seldom on the south island. 

We enjoyed a two-week tour of the south island before arriving in Rolleston to live for 4 weeks. We had originally been scheduled to stay in the doctor's house while she was on holiday and I worked in her place, but found the house to be on a very steep hillside, with multiple switchbacks, extremely narrow and almost impassable streets.  it is a three story, with entrance at the top floor, steeper steps to the kitchen and parlor on the second floor, then down more steep steps to the third floor bedroom.  Deadly for my knees.

Additionally her house was 45+ minutes from the practice, thru suburban and edge of city stop-and-go traffic at rush hour, including a trip via a one-way tunnel -no other access into the city from her community.  With my poor sense of direction and without my trusty navigator, I felt this was more punishment than I could endure.  The car she left me is stick-shift, and the practice didn't offer alternative accomodation - "if it's good enough for the doctor, it's good enough for the locum" (temporary doc).  Beverley would have been isolated altho there is bus service into the city.

So, with the help of our placement agency, negotiated a bed and breakfast only five minutes on level road to the practice. "Homestay" is where you rent a room and actually become part of the household, and we are "self-catered" so prepare our own meals, only get linen serviced once a week, breakfast is provided, and we are able to share the home.  A lovely modern one-story home in secluded wooded and well-planted gardens and fruit trees, two wonderful cats.  You can check out the B&B on their website: http://www.gardenviewbandbnz.com/.

The couple is late-60's, charming.  He is a professor of agriculture, but also into much more, from literature and music, to biking, gardening, travelled extensively worldwide.  They were in the Canadian equivalent of Peace Corps in multiple countries.  They lived in Antigua for 12 years. She is a retired school teacher who still has several piano students.  She is a knitter and quite experienced, she and Beverley have become chums and toured and been to cinema together.  Beth and John have many stories of adventure, humor, hardship, and have become a delightful addition to our journeys.

They try so hard to please that she still gets up in the morning to be sure the cereal, milk, fruit and yogurt are out.  We share meals, sometimes jointly prepared and sometimes separate menus at table together.  There are other guests from time to time but much of the time we are the only others under roof.   Quiet evenings of reading, listening to music, occasionally television, including one night watching "The Great Race" produced and hosted by one of their sons.  John was actually on one of the programs.

Re: cinemas, there is a theater chain "Gold" which features first-run movies in reclining padded seats with drink rest and food platform beside the seat.  In the lobby you can order snacks, sandwiches made to order, glass or bottle of wine to take into theater, fresh-made coffee (expresso-style) or sodas, premium ice cream.   NO POPCORN ! we so wished there was popcorn available, had to do some microwave pre-packaged popcorn at home.

"It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep was fun and funny, "Precious" was agonizing, Valentine's Day was ok, we have also watched several videos rented from the local library. DVD format is different here, so could not watch several we brought with us.  We saw some other NZ movies, some disturbing by their violence and portraying Maori as un-educating and of volatine tempers and behavior. Another, which has become popular in the US, is Whale Rider, which I mentioned before, and available at Bon Air Library.  It is about aMaori girl who wanted to become a chief.  You can go to Google to find out about other movies filmed in NZ, including Lord of the Rings, and The Last Samauri.

Rolleston medical centre is newly built, properly laid out, efficient, friendly,academically and clinically sharp. My supervising doc meets with me every week at least 30 minutes, has taken me to area medical meetings, had Beverley and me to a staff dinner, is encouraging, constructive feedback and complimentary of my efforts.  He is quite active in political aspects of medicine, governmental issues, and really keeps up on current and mainstream medical issues, journals, etc.  What a delight.

He and the other docs seem to value my input, and we enjoy a very interactive relationship.  No airs, no bigger than thou ("tall poppy") attitudes or posturing.  This is a place I could enjoy coming to practice.  The type patients I see are similar to those at home, not as many Maori as on the north island, and the general education of patients indicates a more white-collar clientele.  Have seen people from Fiji, New Hebrides, many other asian and pacific countries, some seem to bounce back and forth to Australia.

 Rolleston is a suburb of Christchurch, and only 20 minutes from the city.  Flat land, lots of horse farms, very little agriculture as this is scrubland which is not suitable for farming due to poor soil.  This is also why the area was targeted as residential development to preserve the more fertile areas for farming. 
Several decent restaurants, basic services, bank, bakery, super maket, but that is about it since it is so close to the city. 

One pharmacy, their brand of advil and tylenol cost $12-15 for 20, compared to $1 for 50 for our generics. Nasal saline spray is $10+, other over-the-counter meds similar high fees Dimetapp $15-20 instead of our 5+/-.  No drugstores or discount stores.  Clothing is quite expensive, books about twice the cost of comparable US prices.  

The weather has been marvelous for our adventures, only the one gloomy day when we did the Milford Sound but even then it was awesome.  As on the north island, not a lot of traffic.  There are more SUV's  and station wagons and very few pick-up trucks, just lots of "utes" (utility) flatbed trucks on pickup frame, with sidebars for holding in whatever load they carry, from sheep to bales of hay.  The double-trucks with trailers are still scary to me.

We're not seeing lumber trucks on the south island.  I read that the huge trees which covered over a million acres of NZ were harvested for ship masts and spars in the 1800's, now less than 2000 acres of them remain. Vigorous re-planting of forests are a major endeavor, with renewal resources being a major focus.  The kiwis are so eager to preserve their heritage, sustain and maintain their country, and preserve what is so beautiful.

An amazing number of passenger cars have towbars, without evident increased suspension and they pull the little "campervans" their term for pull along camping trailers.  Sometimes the front end of the car looks like the front wheels hardly touch the pavement due to the towing load pulling the backend down. Motorcycles much more abundant on the south island.

Not many pictures to go with this posting - just some musings by Jay.  We have had some problems with  pictures - Beverley dropped her camera and Jay's camera does not have the softeware on the laptop for downloading his pictures.  We have had to get discs from his camera card and need to do that before our next posting.   Not many more postings to go before we are back in the good ole USA!