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Life as a rural physician Mama in the backwoods of Northwestern Ontario
Writer’s note: the patients in this piece are composites of multiple patient encounters to preserve patient confidentiality. CTAS 3. Suicidal ideation, possible toxic Advil ingestion. Hallway chairs. The metal clipboard clatters onto the desk as I flop into the worn chair in the doctor’s… Continue Reading “The Medicine”
“I think I’m finally ready to start medication.” I don’t notice, but a small pile of fingernails litters the floor at my desk like bones in a long-forgotten graveyard. Unconsciously, I claw at each nail, cuticles raw and bleeding – an anxious habit learned… Continue Reading “”
*Trigger warning – birth trauma* My heart in my throat, I paw at my cellphone in the darkness. The piercing, recognizable ring linked to the hospital is startling. “It’s Dr. Sprague,” I mumble. “Labour room one. Grandmultip. Just arrived. Fully and pushing,” comes the… Continue Reading “Home”
Through my laptop speakers, classical music preludes the series of instructions that follow: ‘Arms up, toes out, and plie!’ directs the instructor. On the screen, I watch her leotard-clad body intently. As she moves, I follow, mirroring her balletic gestures. Her hair is pulled… Continue Reading “For My Daughter”
“I swear you can hear their eyelids open,” Blake joked one morning after I had recounted the tales of the preceding night with two babies under two. As usual, he had slept on soundly through Alice’s nursing sessions and Henry’s night awakenings, protesting the… Continue Reading “Sibling Love”
It’s been almost four months of our little Kootenay family adventure, living in Kimberley, BC. Two weeks ago, as a family of four, we put out our first standard bag of garbage for pick up since we moved in at the end of August,… Continue Reading “Less is More”
Tiptoeing through the house, I quietly gather our small duffle bag and head to the front door of our friend’s Edmonton home. It’s 7am and I am anxious to get on the road. I’m due to drive up to Nelson later that evening to… Continue Reading “Adventuring we will go!”
A month ago, Blake and I packed up our home of seven years, loaded up our kids and headed across the country. We left behind the only house our kids had ever known, our supports, our kids’ friends, my medical community, my job, our… Continue Reading “Wherever you go, there you are”
This week, one of my dearest friends, Megan Bollinger celebrated her birthday and like a good friend, I bought her a… yoke. Yes, a yoke. If you’ve ever portaged a canoe with a non-contoured, standard yoke, no matter what technical carbonfiber material the gunnels… Continue Reading “Carry Me: For Megan”
In the end, it was her eyelashes that broke me. Impossibly long, feathered midnight against pale skin. The tips, crescendoed upwards with perfection. Those eyelashes, masking the horror of what lay beneath. As the solo physician covering our local ER overnight, I was called… Continue Reading “May she be well”
Life on Abram Lake 