First Day in Ottawa

Well, today was my first full day being a reabstractor here in Ottawa. I arrived on Sunday afternoon. My girlfriend Lorna picked me up at the airport (funny her husband's flight arrived just 5 minutes before mine). It was great seeing her again - oh yeah that was just last week!!! (HAHA). What a blur my life has been this past week. Finding out that I was heading back to Southern Ontario to take part in this year's reabstracting study. The bathroom renos are FINALLY completed - Marshall had to call in his plumber to help fix the bathtub spout as the copper piping was all warped hence the leaking into the bathtub. I used up the last of my holidays for this year, and took some time off on Friday to head up to Three Hills. Was able to have visit time with my 3 James sisters - Amy, Sara and Amanda. Of course, as I was staying with Sara, I took advantage of getting some cuddle time with Casendra. She is sooooo cute!!! Okay, I'm biased - but she is adorable. Lucky for me, I basically slept the WHOLE way on the flight to Ottawa - so I was able to catch up on my sleep. When we hit some turbalence and thought we must be nearing Sault Ste Marie - funny enough on the map in the seat in front of me showed exactly that - the Soo. I don't know what happens as soon as you hit that corner of the Lake Superior - wind comes.

Lorna dropped me off at the hotel - my room has a little livingroom, a separate bedroom, a small kitchen (even has a dishwasher!!), a washer and dryer. From my balcony on the 16th floor, I can see the Parilament buildings (it was raining today so I will take a photo once it gives sunny outside). I arrived this morning at the Ottawa Civic. I did arrive on time, but learned that there are more than one "main entrance" at the hospital and I choose the wrong one. A volunteer staff member helped me and I found the director of the Health Record Deptwaiting at the main entrance at the other end of the hall. They are in the middle of Phase two in moving Health Records around so I am in a separate building behind the main hospital. The charts were waiting for me and some of them were quite big (one has 6 volumes for just one visit). The staff that I have met so far have been very helpful. Have a nice little set up - using the desktop computer to access the internet and their electronic medical record documents while I do my abstracting on the laptop that CIHI gave me. Once I get to know the assembly order of the chart, I am sure things will become more smoothier and I'll get a rhythm.

Lorna and I are getting together after work tomorrow for a visit at her place (haven't seen it) as well as a visit to the grocery store to get some things like fresh fruit. Later in the week, I will add some photos.