As a Chicago girl I don't often let the wind push me inside, but here in Gallup when the wind blows this hard you get sand blasted. They even shut the Flea Market early today. Just as I was arriving, of course. I hope the Arts Walk still happens tonight. Been looking forward to it all week.
Me and Otis took a drive around today to revisit Gallup. This town has doubled in size since I was here 28 yrs ago. Lots of "trading posts" (the new age word for places to buy some good and some cheap replicas of traditional American Indian crafts). You used to see small mom and pop stands selling items they and their families made. No more. AND there are 3, yes 3, Sonic Drive Ins here. I just may have to experience that for the first time while I am here. Not too many real restaurants, though, which I find interesting, given that they are clearly marketing Gallup as the place to come for all things Indian.
This is interesting. When I was here last, the Navajo and other tribes we served at the hospital were referred to as Native Americans. Now it is clear the preference is for American Indian. Not sure when that happened.
So I spent 2 days in Tohatchi this week. The clinic is amazingly nice. Houses a full lab with real lab techs, dental, eye, medical, occasionally some PT, limited X-ray, and a pharmacy. The waiting area is designed to be like a hogan with beautiful paintings on the walls about the history of the Dine`(the accent mark is wrong but this is what the Navajo people call themselves). Everyone I have met has been very nice and helpful. I am so used to being independent (aka understaffed) that I feel totally spoiled, which is not what I was expecting. I have a "tech" to room my patients, and there are 2 RNs that help everyone. I don't have to draw my own blood, spin and prep it for transfer. If I ask for something it magically appears. The EHR is pretty intuitive and I was able to get pretty good with it in just one day.
The patients have been very nice overall. They are, unfortunately, used to waiting forever to be seen. Often times they just check in, have a seat in the beautiful lobby, and wait for hours to be seen. It is clear they are tired of seeing different doctors all the time. One patient, who had recently had a heart attack, was clearly upset that he was going to have to tell his story all over again, but after a while he settled down and we ended up having a real nice talk about his fears and anxiety regarding the likelihood this might happen again. We also talked about how his faith (or faiths) have helped him through this. Lots of folks here embrace a number of belief systems, traditional and Christian, as well as traditional vs modern medical care. A lot of the staff are locals that got training elsewhere and returned home to serve their community.
There are 3 family medicine docs in Tohatchi; me, a permanent doc (he has been there 2 yrs) and another locums doc from Puerto Rico. A pediatrician recently joined the clinic after spending 20 yrs in Gallup. The other locums leaves in 2 weeks, leaving just me and Greg unless we get someone else to help out. I have not had a chance to check out the "town" of Tohatchi but am going to try to do that this week.
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