Saturday, April 08, 2006

A Day in the Life - The Conclusion

Triage (four rooms) was full with two or three in the waiting room. Eventually we had to admit a woman at 11.30 pm for active labor.

The rest of the night consisted of two H/Ps and three deliveries at 1.07 am, 1.37 am (I delivered this baby and the doc I was with told me outstanding job Drew…I’m a pro) and 2.24 am. The 2.24 was gonna be my delivery, but it was a complicated and the baby and to be rushed off for resuscitation (then there were maternal complications, but those were very, very minor).

After that deliver at 2.24, I had another H/P and admit from triage. I didn’t finish this until 4.30 am because there were so many other people calling the resident and me to do different things.

5.30 am rolled around and neither of us had slept and now it was time to round on the patients. I rounded on six of the labor/delivery patients who had delivered on 4/7/06. He got the GYN patients and a couple of post-partum patients done. In total there were 13 patients on which to round.

We were done with rounding at 7.30 am and then updated then sign-out sheet (the sheet with a summary of all the OB/GYN patients). At 8.00 am weekend call started for a new resident and a new student. We all did sign-out together, where we review the summary of all the patients. This lasted until about 8.20 am when the medical student and resident had to go check on a woman we ruptured at 6.00 am (she was close to delivery).

At 8.30 am I was at my locker, got my stuff, went to the cafĂ© and got breakfast (I love free food and chocolate milk) and then came home. As I stepped outside at 8.40 I said, “Damn. It’s mother-f**king cold….Sh*t! I left my windows open at home.” The day before it was 78 degrees in my apartment so I opened a window to cool things down. When I got home at 8.50, it was 56 degrees in my apartment. F**k.

I ate breakfast and fell asleep with a biscuit in my hand. Now my eggs are cold. My body aches, like it would ache if I could run ten miles. I got the worst cramp of my life while I was sleeping and apparently I convulsed enough from it to knock over my chocolate milk that was on my coffee table. I only wanted to sleep for four hours, but I slept from roughly 9.10 am till 4.15 pm. Now my whole cycle will be thrown off.

So overall, in my 26 hour call shift (6.00 am on 4/7/06 – 8.00 am 4/8/06) I did three or four sterile vaginal exams, three or four ultrasounds, six H/P’s, rounded on eight patients total and was involved in eight births of which I assisted in the OR on a c-section and delivered two vaginal births. I didn’t sleep at all, and then I overslept at home. This is what my life will be like in about a year and a half when I’m an intern (as far as call goes). I loved it. I hope my body can recover though.

I guess the Pistons lost. Stupid Pistons.

They’re OR scrubs. Oh are they?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love when you say "rounded on patients." I visualize you jumping in the air and knocking them out with ferocious round-house kicks.

well done Dr. Drew.

you know what I did yesterday? nothing. well done Dr. Drew. I can live vicariously through you.

Anonymous said...

26 hour call shift would be an ok band name. but i like "biscuit in my hand" the most . -c

Anonymous said...

i did nothing yesterday as well. i slpet till 4.30. sat around and watched crappy tv. ate dinner at 9.00. fell asleep at 11.00. now it's 10.00 on sunday.

you're in hollywood. i just grew up on that street, making my porn name jimmy hollywood. you rule.

chris, the band name biscuit in my hand would be awesome. more awesome than rod vision or cosmic toast? not sure.

Anonymous said...

that's awesome! congrats on delivering babies!