Blue Moon over Kaltukutjara
Full moon...last night I had a lovely campfire set up outside the unit so I could sit and contemplate the amazing huge full moon rising overhead...but of course, I was on call...and as soon as I had lit the fire, people turned up wanting to see me: "Sista! Hot baby!"..and indeed it was...poor little mite, a 2 year old with a fever over 39 C...and a nasty history of chronic lung infections, failure to thrive, low iron...
I gave her a shot of antibiotics, some panadol, and went back to my fire...and prayed I had done the right thing in sending her home....evacuations at night are a nightmare....a one hour drive over the WA border to the night airstrip for starters....
Seems my thoughts were heard, cos she made it through the night and came back this morning still breathing. But I decided to no take any more chances, so I've been sitting in the clinic all morning waiting to hear from the Royal Flying Doctor service what time the plane will get to the local airstrip here (the daytime airstrip) so she can be flown out to alice springs before she crashes again this evening.
The kid is in the care of her grandmothers...and one of them is flying with her...which took a bit of phoning back and forth, picking up clothes for them both etc...and now 10mins before we leave, they have just decided they want to go home and get some lunch...
I'm so tired....
Was really hoping to go out bush with some of the old ladies tommorrow to collect bush medicine and see some local sites...but the clinic manager has decided this would be "recreational use" and she won't let me take the car. Delightful. I did point out to her that it is actually Northern Territory government policy to encourage and support the use of traditional healing methods in the clinic...but she says she's never heard of this and basically "not on my watch!". So I'm praying that the local Ranger will be home in the arfternoon instead. He's more than willing to drive us, and thinks its all a wonderful idea, but unluckily this weekend is a big camel muster, so all the boys are away playing with the big animals and trucks....but here's hoping!
Anyway, off to the landing strip now!
I gave her a shot of antibiotics, some panadol, and went back to my fire...and prayed I had done the right thing in sending her home....evacuations at night are a nightmare....a one hour drive over the WA border to the night airstrip for starters....
Seems my thoughts were heard, cos she made it through the night and came back this morning still breathing. But I decided to no take any more chances, so I've been sitting in the clinic all morning waiting to hear from the Royal Flying Doctor service what time the plane will get to the local airstrip here (the daytime airstrip) so she can be flown out to alice springs before she crashes again this evening.
The kid is in the care of her grandmothers...and one of them is flying with her...which took a bit of phoning back and forth, picking up clothes for them both etc...and now 10mins before we leave, they have just decided they want to go home and get some lunch...
I'm so tired....
Was really hoping to go out bush with some of the old ladies tommorrow to collect bush medicine and see some local sites...but the clinic manager has decided this would be "recreational use" and she won't let me take the car. Delightful. I did point out to her that it is actually Northern Territory government policy to encourage and support the use of traditional healing methods in the clinic...but she says she's never heard of this and basically "not on my watch!". So I'm praying that the local Ranger will be home in the arfternoon instead. He's more than willing to drive us, and thinks its all a wonderful idea, but unluckily this weekend is a big camel muster, so all the boys are away playing with the big animals and trucks....but here's hoping!
Anyway, off to the landing strip now!
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