I have gotten away from lots of medical blogging lately, not for any particular reason beyond the fact that I didn't have anything all that exciting to say. But I know sometimes people want to know how that side of my career is going, and not just my humble philosophies on life. So here is a reminder of the life of a resident:
I am currently on call 13 hours per day, Monday to Thursday, and about 8 hours on Friday. Yes I have nights and weekends off, but sometimes I would give anything for a quiet evening at home without the incessant beeping of my horrid pager. The last couple of weeks have been particularly bad where I have been back at the hospital most evenings, and often until 10 or 11pm to get all the issues cleared up. My feet are sore. My back is bothering me. My shoulders are permanently crunched up like a stressed out student who sits at a desk all day. In general - I just really want a hot bath and a nap. And to add on to that I just started on a new rotation so I'm learning the ropes all over again. Oh and there is that pesky licencing exam in 23 days.
Yesterday I had a very long, very busy day entirely on my feet with next to no sitting. I was able to come home and make dinner, but then called back in again. Got home around 8:30pm and was thankful that call finishes at 9pm. I was grumpy and foul and announced to my roommate that I have decided to become an alcoholic! So at 9pm I cracked open a bottle of wine, poured myself a big mug, and headed off for a hot shower calling to Amanda jokingly as I went - "If anyone pages me - tell them to F- off".
I hop in my nice hot shower at 9:20pm, barely get wet when Amanda calls through the door - "Your pager just went off, want me to call them back and tell them to F- off?"........*silent horror*....*realization this might be a cruel joke*....."Are you serious?" I say...."Yes"......*large stream of expletives about how its past 9pm and I hate the hospital and I am quitting this job and I don't care if I owe a million dollars I don't want to play doctor anymore!!!!!*........ So I got back out of the shower, back into my work clothes, put the wine back in the fridge, found gum to cover the two sips of wine, head back out in the cold snowy weather, back down the road to the hospital all to see a patient with a broken finger that the surgeon didn't even intend on taking to the operating room that night! I got out of the shower for a not-emergency emergency!!!! And then....THEN....he has the gall to leave me a pile of work that is usually done by other people, but he wants done right now tonight, at 11pm, and left on the main desk at the operating room. GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
And so I remind you all - this both is, and isn't, exactly like Grey's anatomy. All the sucky parts - true. All the hot and sexy parts - false. And to my dear sweet patient man - I hope you still love me when you come home and discover I'm fat and sickly from coffee and hospital food.
Lots of love
Pamela
p.s. Tonight I showered while Amanda was out so no one could tell me if the damn hospital paged or not. hahaha.
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