Chủ Nhật, 16 tháng 7, 2006

Post-call

Exhausted, slightly disoriented and feeling woozy. We just cooked up a big breakfast and I think now that we're digesting we're slowly falling asleep.

It was cool, two of my friends were on call with me last night so we got to go through it together. It ruined our weekend, in fairness. Saturday call means 9am to 9am on Sunday. You have no vacation between the two work weeks and no day to sleep in and recharge your batteries. Its cool having a friend or two on call with you because when they're done their work or you're done yours, you wander over and help clear each other's boards by doing the menial (and annoying) little tasks of re-charting drugs and taking bloods. It lets the guy working the ward focus on the bigger issues such as working up a patient with chest pain or low blood pressure, or admitting and ordering pre-op tests for a patient coming in for an operation.

Being on call is a totally different experience to normal work. You cover a few wards on your own and depending on your luck it could be a good night or a bad one. I had a good night last night, managed to sleep 4 continuous hours (unheard of!). When I woke up at 6 I thought my pager was busted. I hurried up to take a few bloods meant for 6am and I found out that all the patients had slept quite comfortably through the night. Even that one guy who was de-sating (desaturating, in terms of blood oxygen saturation levels) had had a reasonably quiet night. Lucky me.. still makes me worry that the next one is going to be a bad one. Things tend to work out like that.

What's going on in Lebanon anyway? I've been so wrapped up trying to strike that balance between work and play that I've been cut-off from the world. Hope that shit resolves itself soon, its too complicated and depressing for me to even follow on the news.. that's why I'll just put my head down and keep on working I suppose.

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