Barge In

I've described previously how dependent we are on the 3x/week mail planes. They transport mail, freight, and especially people to and from our little island, weather permitting. Unfortunately, the weather frequently doesn't permit, which causes problems. Hearing the plane as it comes in for a landing creates excitement. Everyone who can hops on their bike (ATV) and rides to the airport. They all want to see who or what came in on the plane.

Imagine, then, the excitement when the first barge of the season arrives. Barges only come April to November; the water is too ice-clogged the rest of the year. Not that Atka has any harbor ice, but other spots along the route do. I don't know where exactly the barge originates.

Items that are too big or too heavy for the plane arrive by barge. Vehicles. Lumber. Furniture. Stock for the store. People know what items will be there, and they send crews to the dock to unload it. Once it's here, the barge only stays as long as it takes to unload it. The process takes 6-8 hours. Each different recipient sends a crew of helpers.

If I thought people got excited about the plane's arrival, that was nothing next to the reaction when we got word that the barge was coming. We had visitors on the island, and even they were excited. Everyone seemed to be expecting something. The Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) was getting a new bike. The City was getting lumber for 2 new houses to be built this summer. The store had a ton of stuff coming. Everyone was checking the latest news on how far away the barge was.

The barge arrived around 1:00 on Thursday. Two of my students were hired to unload. Another student had to care for her little brother so her mother could put things away at the store; her grandparents own the store. I was left with 3 students. With no advance notice, I didn't have anything planned that half my class could miss. I sent one student to help in the primary classroom as a Reading Buddy. Another student helped the visitors bake cupcakes for a community meeting. The third worked on Math.

It was a generally exciting event, though I had no reason to get excited about it. Still, it's always nice to get a stress-free, lesson-free, half day like that! They can barge in any old time!

No Sight for Sore Eyes

In my last entry, I promised to explain why it had taken so long to tell you about our trip to Dutch Harbor. The explanation begins last August. I learned that I have diabetes 4 days before I was leaving for Alaska. My doctor didn't want to educate me about my condition because she wasn't going to be able to monitor me. That means that I got no instructions about diet, exercise, or blood sugar testing prior to my leaving. There were no medication changes. All I got was "You've got diabetes. Good luck."

I did the best I could in modifying my diet, but the only tool I had was a scale. I have yet to find two scales that agree on my weight. Besides, the significant number would have been glucose levels, but I had no way to measure that. The clinic here in Atka, as I've mentioned, will only provide acute care for non-Alaska Natives. I wasn't eligible for either chronic care/management or wellness care.

Fast forward to March 5, the day after we returned from our Dutch Harbor trip. I woke up with double vision. I called a friend and asked her to come look at my eyes, since I couldn't see them. Nothing was bleeding or swollen, but my left eye was not aligned with the right one. I called the community health aide who runs the clinic and told her what was going on. Coincidentally, the eye doctor was expected to arrive on Monday. The health aide assured me that I would be the first patient the eye doctor would see as soon as she arrived and set up.

The weather was bad on Monday, and no plane arrived, hence no doctor. I tried all afternoon to call the clinic to see what I should do, but the phones were out, probably because of the weather that canceled the plane. I called first thing on Tuesday, and the health aide told me to come in so at least she could examine me. A friend gave me a ride to the clinic; I kept walking into walls, so I didn't think I should drive! she checked me out, told me she suspected an infection, and sent the data to the doctor who supervises her.

A couple of hours later, she called to tell me that a med-evac plane was coming for me, and I should be ready to leave in about 2 hours. The reason was that the doctor wanted to rule out a tumor, aneurysm, or an infection that was filling the space behind my eyeball. Since there had been no planes for 2 days, and storms in the area, the commercial flight was unlikely to be able to get me to Anchorage. Therefore, the med-evac plane was coming.

This was a Tuesday. I was already scheduled to fly to Anchorage on Friday for my spring break trip. The advice I got from everyone was to pack as if I wasn't coming back before going to Portland. That turned out to be good advice!

The trip was somewhat surreal. There was a pilot, a nurse, and a paramedic, just for me. I was having a lot of pain around my eye; in fact, I thought at first the condition was related to sinuses. Lying down was painful, but the only "seat" for me was a gurney. At one point the pilot said that he wanted to climb higher, since he'd be able to make better time. The medical team checked with me, talked it over, and told the pilot to go for it. When the pain got worse, I got really scared that my eyeball was just going to explode all over my face! Of course, nothing like that happened. Upon landing, I was transferred to an ambulance and taken to a hospital.

Once in the hospital, it was the usual routine of "hurry up and wait." They did MRIs and CTs, which were all thankfully negative. I spent the night in the ER, and was discharged the next morning with referrals to an ophthalmologist and a family physician. The ophthalmologist examined me and told me I have a "partial palsy of the 3rd cranial nerve, without pupil involvement." It should resolve on its own within 3 months.

That Friday, I met my new doctor and then spent a couple of hours while his nurse taught me everything I needed to know to start managing my diabetes. It's not clear that the diabetes was out of control and caused the damage to my eye. It may have been related to my high blood pressure or the interaction of the two conditions. However, it's a vascular injury, and diabetes affects vascular health. I'm now checking my blood glucose levels daily and keeping a food diary, looking for patterns that tell me what I should and shouldn't eat.

I'm wearing a black eye patch. I can see perfectly, 20/20, out of each eye separately, but they won't work together. I sometimes switch the patch to let the left eye get some exercise, but I can't walk like that. Those walls insist on jumping in front of me! And, with my left eye covered most of the time, my left side is covered with bruises from things I walked into that I couldn't see! It's only been 4 weeks, so I'm hopeful the 6 weeks to 3 months duration the ophthalmologist quoted turns out to be correct.

Meanwhile, I'm in the market for a stuffed parrot to wear on my shoulder.

A Trip to Dutch Harbor

(Note: I am a month behind in posting this. March was a busy and difficult month, for reasons unrelated to this post. After I get this one done, I'll post something else that will explain the delay.)

I got a grant from the Aleutian Probilof Island Community Development Association for $12,000. The grant program was specifically intended to promote Alaska fishing and fisheries. I had no interest in that, but I wanted to get my students off the island and somewhere that they could see a museum. There are two museums in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska, as well as an indoor pool at the recreation department. So I wrote the grant for the students to learn swimming and water safety, but in our off-hours, we could go to the museums!

We left Atka on Monday, February 29. Two of the students weren't able to go with us, so our group was 8 altogether: 5 boys, 2 chaperones, and me. We had a great time. The kids were better swimmers than I (and the swim teacher) had expected, and they did very well with the curriculum.

Brenna A

People all over Dutch Harbor bent over backwards to make our stay pleasant and educational. Matt Kell, the Grant Aviation manager in Dutch Harbor, worked very hard to arrange a private visit at the Museum of the Aleutians for us. The museum is currently closed due to staffing problems. In the end, we weren't able to connect with the board member who had offered to give us a tour, but I really appreciate the effort that was made.

We were supposed to tour the Wizard, a fishing boat that is featured on Deadliest Catch. We drove all over the area, to every harbor, looking for the boat. Just imagine the surrealism of rolling down your window to tell a passerby that you're looking for the Wizard. Every time I heard myself say it, I had the urge to click my heels together 3 times.

We didn't find the Wizard, but someone had already made arrangements for us to visit a different Deadliest Catch boat, the Brenna A. I had just pulled a muscle in my leg, which wouldn't support my climbing up the ladder, so I waited with a couple of the crew (telling dirty jokes) while the students and chaperones toured the boat. I have a ton of pictures of the inside of the ship, but I won't post them since I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

As we were leaving the ship, someone pulled into the parking lot and got out with VIP badges for us. The kids were glad to get a tangible reminder of their visit. I was impressed that someone had cared enough to think about us.

We got to visit the WWII Museum, which is part of the National Park Service. I knew that the Aleutians had been affected by WWII. Islanders were sent to internment camps for their "protection." I didn't realize, though, that the Japanese army had attacked the Aleutians. The only WWII battle fought in North America was in the Aleutians. The Army/Navy had bases here. In some places, like Atka, they destroyed all the buildings on the island in order to prevent the Japanese from being able to use them. Many people, especially the Elders, died from the conditions in the camps. When the islanders returned home, they had to start from scratch, albeit with help from the armed forces. The tribes have really never recovered.

The boys turned serious as they went through the exhibits and learned about this part of their people's past. I got permission to take pictures of every exhibit, which is part of my plan for having the students create their own museum.  After all, how can you create exhibits for a Museum of Atka if you've never been to a museum?

Two days later, we returned to the museum for a fun treat: we watched "The Martian" in the museum's 35-seat theater. We were even allowed to have popcorn and water while we watched. The kids spent some of their free time at the rec center, which functions as the local teen hangout. They also hung out in their rooms, watching movies and eating junk food, things that aren't possible in Atka. I think they had fun.

It was a good trip and a great experience for the boys. We left one student behind; his family actually moved to Dutch Harbor during the week we were there. In fact, we left one chaperone behind; he stayed behind hoping to find work. (He succeeded, and now his wife is there, too.) I'm now mulling over ideas for next year's grant.