#32 - Got him!!!

#32 - Got him

What does that mean?  "Got him" ?  Tonight it is probably 4 meanings. 

They say that if you come to the Torres for a look, it gets you, and there is a desire to return.  Well I would be lying if I said that I will leave the islands in a week and a half, and not be back.  I will.  This place has got me.  Today perched in my own consult room, seeing person  after person, I had a sense of belonging.  Without knowing it an older man of the community made my day today, when he specifically asked to see me, over and above all other health workers and the other nurse.   Initially I assumed it was a Men's issue, but as he started discussing generic symptoms of his presentation, it was a nice complex medical case.  I was touched that he specifically asked for me.  I feel like I am slowly making headway with some of the older locals here.

As I knocked off this afternoon, I wandered out onto the reef where Chris and I were fishing on Monday.  The spot where I had a massive fish snaffle my lure.  Chris was there, having been fishing for about 40 minutes, and held up a big potato cod.   "Got him", Chris said, sure that this was the blighter that snapped my line on Monday!  It was a beautiful big fish.  We brought it over to the clinic yard and filleted it.  It was every bit of 10kg.  Just as he started to cut up the fish, a lady was dropped off at the clinic by some random.  She had a huge dog bite from one of the poorly managed dogs on the Island.  It opened up her calf about 9 cm.  This poor girl in her early 30s will have nasty scaring from that dog for the rest of it's life.  It is the second person that I know of that has been bitten by it.  There is no animal control officer here like there is on Saibai.  Even there a dog had to bite 8 people before I was able to put it down.  I really believe that there should be a dog death row.  Annie the permanent RAN told me that last year a vet from Mainland Australia came out and culled half of the dogs on Darnley.  I really think that it is time to do another trip.

Another young bloke came in today with grit in his eyes.  I did an inspection and irrigated his eyes, but he was still troubled.  Sometimes people get a foreign body in their eye, their eye waters, and the particle is gone, but a scratch on their cornea feels like there is something still in their eye.  We have a special eyedrop called florescene which is bright orange.  You pop it in someone's eyes, irrigate to excess out with salty water, and switch of the lights.  Then under a blue light view the eyes, and the orange stain is attracted to damage to the cornea.  It glows bright green under the blue light.  Sometimes when there is still a foreign body in the eye, but too smalll to see, the speck will take up the stain, and declare its presence.  "Got him" I said, to my patient after seeing the Flouro stained shell grit on his right eye.  Removing it was now easy, as I had a target.  A whisp of cotton wool, and a steady hand, and he was on his way home to watch tonight's state of origin League match.  He was happy.  As I opened the door to let him out, a bug flew onto my shirt.  Quicker than lightening, my patient slapped me hard killing the bug, saying "Got him"  and winking with his good eye.

So as the kick of to this historic football game is about to commence, I pause again to reflect on my day, and my time living the Island life.  And as I bite into beautiful reef fish that was still kicking just 2 hours ago, is think to myself....." yep...Torres Strait...youv'e Got me"