7:30pm: met the doctor i'll be working w/ this week and he's very kind, personable and seems to be a great teacher. i'm looking forward to it.
9:00pm: not much going on yet. answering calls and writing restraint orders, that kind of thing. getting hungry.
9:40pm: ate my leftovers. only 9 hours to go!
10:19pm: just had to "help" (watch/get in the way while the actual helpful people helped) intubate a patient who was going bad. 89 years old and about 100 pounds and wasting away. and full code. awesome. some other time for that ethics discussion.
12:02am: in negotiations with a very irritated patient who no one can draw blood on but who's potassium is through the roof. she's very savvy. using medical terms like "guide wire" and "contamination." been down this road a few times, i think.
3:10am: and i'm writing from the bathroom. my brain feels like a jello salad w/ bits of fruit hanging around but not offering a whole lot of content. mmm...i want whip cream. but maybe some cake to go under it instead of jello. i'm still off sweets.
3:27am: doc just told me I have good knowledge for only 2 yrs of study. tra-la!
3:35am: did you know that the ny times comes out to its on-line readers at 3am? geez. how much I miss from that which happens in the world after 3. maybe i'll actually read the articles since i'm here anyway and there's so much down time...instead of just skimming the headlines as
I usually do. I should definitely be more informed. man, i'm so pale. I need some sun. i'm practically transparent.
3:43am: getting kind of tired. want to go home and sleep. I wonder if i'd go to jail if I punched my dog like i've been threatening. she kept waking me up this morning whining....well, yesterday morning, i guess. she punches me all the time. when she gets excited, she prances and strikes out her legs. sometimes she hits me. she got me in the middle of my chest w/ a good right hook yesterday...(the day before? i don't know). I wonder what she's doing right now. sigh. i'm in the doctor's lounge in an extremely comfortable chair......i'll just close my eyes for a second.
3:46am: gary busy's crazy.
4:16am: just declared time of death on someone. i wonder if it will ever stop being eerie seeing dead bodies.
5:36am: lying on couch in doctor's lounge watching dawson's creek reruns on giant doctors' tv meant for news programming. i'm awesome.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
maybe it's because i've worked 36 hours in a row but i've never been more convinced that lawyers are ruining the world. we were looking up the code status of a 90 year old pt with cancer EVERYWHERE! who weighed 75 pounds. oh yeah she had dementia and didn't know her name. of course we had to intubate and performic "heroic" measures to keep her alive instead of letting her go. you can imagine the rest of the story.
FYI: 33% of all medicare dollars are spent in the patients last 3 weeks of life. even if some patients do not want heroic measures done to them to keep them alive and have this documented we have to do them if the family requests, otherwise we will be meeting with sam bernstein (insert joke here about that family) sigh
You really are prepping yourself nicely for parenting. Nightime activity definitly matches mine, ok maybe excedes it....a little. You're making me tired just reading this, I think I'll go to bed, knowing you're out there saving the world as my head hits my nice soft pillow. ( That may or may not smell like pee, or sour breastmilk) A good laugh always helps me fall to sleep, maybe I'll read it again.
agreed that we're often saving (painfully prolonging life on) people who have no realistic chance of survival and who would not want all the treatment if really given a choice. and it often seems so obvious to us those in health care what the right call is...but we can't forget what an an awful decision it is to have to make as the family. i sincerely hope that all of my family members are foresighted enough to have living wills and to discuss with us what their wishes are.
a good resource, if you're interested in creating an advance directive/living will/power of attorney: http://www.uslivingwillregistry.com/forms.shtm
also...."sassy"....woman, you are trying to wish me into having kids, aren't you? you better not have a pregnant voodoo doll of me somewhere! :) but you do make a good point. i find the description of sour breast milk smell in your nostrils while you try to sleep very appealing and am eagerly anticipating my turn at it. :)
Post a Comment