Long Month

Day 17 of adult medicine rotation. January is a very long month. I'm two-thirds of the way through and definitely feeling the pains of sleep deprivation, lack of personal time, brain overload...

Please excuse my lack of correspondence. Here's what my last week looked like:

Wednesday 1/12: 14 hour day on "day call" meaning I admit patients who come to the hospital. I had a friend in town who was interviewing for the residency program. She came and hung out with me in the afternoon and watched me drown under four admits at the same time. We went out for dinner after work and didn't get to bed till after 10 PM.

Thursday 1/23: 30 shift starting at 6 AM. Busy night - not much sleep at all. Delivered a baby (one of my clinic patients), which was fun.

Friday: post-call - rounded and left at 1 PM.

Saturday: rouding from 6 AM to 4 PM. Took me a long time because 6/9 patients were new to me and rather complicated.

Sunday: 30-hour call shift. Rounded starting at 6 AM. Got a call at 8:15 AM that another clinic patient had come in 8 cm dilated. Delivered baby at 8:45 AM. Returned to rounding. Did circumcision of baby delivered on Thurday. Finished rounding. Started admitting patients. Didn't stop till 4:30 AM. Slept till 5:30 AM.

Monday: post-call. Rounded from 6 AM to 1 PM. Went home to sleep. Got called on complicated patient and spent 1.5 hours on that. Slept 3 hours. Got up to work on discharge summaries. Went back to bed at 10 PM to get up at 4:30 AM.

Tuesday (today): 13 hour work day. Rounded and was on day call again. Had one patient to admit at 4:30 (supposed to get off at 5 PM). Didn't finish till 7:30 PM. Why not? I'm inefficient and sleep deprived. I got distracted talking to the patient and nurses. I had to look some stuff up on how to treat the patient's condition. And I had to call a consult. Home at 8:15. Fixed dinner. Checked my clinic schedule for tomorrow. Checked some patient labs. Now to bed....

I have no idea how many hours that is in one week, but my eyes are drooping closed as I type. So, dear friends, thanks for understanding why I can't email, write or call more often. Until next time...