Sunday, November 9, 2008

Dinner at Scott Base


Our Radiology Technician, Air National Guard Aeromedical Evacution Technician, and I were fortunate to receive a dinner invitation to Scott Base last night. The facility is very nice and the food delicious. Our hostess, Sharron, was very gracious. Sharron is the medic on station. When her people need medical or dental care, x-rays, lab work or physical therapy Sharron brings them to us. We were able to get a couple of snapshots while visiting. One of these pictures here is of their sitting room, just of the main dining hall. It is a very nicely appointed room with a working gas fireplace and bookshelves filled with games and reading material. The person with me in the other photo is our hostess, Sharron.

Mount Erebus is visible from Scott Base. It is the southern most active volcano in the world. Inside its crater is a churning cauldron of lava. Occasionally it will spew a lava bomb. There is a website that shows live streaming video from Erebus, including the base of the cauldron where, when the conditions are right, you can see bubbling lava.

Change of Subject: When our patients come to see us, they fill out a little section of paper where they describe the reason for their visit. We get some creative answers. Some of my favorite are:
  • Sick
  • Ill
  • Under the weather
  • Hurt
  • Soar throat [sic]
  • Crud (or sometimes Krud)

I am not criticizing our patient's spelling. I just get a laugh out of the way they describe their reason for visiting the doctor. Maybe this is our fault. I wonder if it would work better to have a check box for the common symptoms. By the way, is Krud (with a capital "K") worse than regular old crud?


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yo Doc Shuwarger! How is life? Anyway, your blog is cool!! Hope you are doing okay in Antarctica!!

eyedoc said...

Do you feel any earthquakes from Mt Erebus?

Polar Doc said...

There is almost no seismic activity in Antarctica, which makes it an excellent place to do geologic and paleontological studies.

ZShuGirl said...

Rick and I still don't see a Luckenbach shirt!! We're waiting for the picture!

It's obviously warmed up some, you don't look like a navel orange in the picture!

We'll miss you at Thanksgiving, but I'm sure we can eat enough to make up for your absence!

Love you.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the frost bite will impact your ability to perform surgery.... maybe robotic surgery is an option....