Hot date night at our most frequented pizzeria
Unfortunately, I think all of the rest and relaxation from my vacation last week has been quickly erased. I actually wasn’t dreading coming back to work as much as I usually am. But I also wasn’t expecting to be on call all week again.
I’m getting to the point in my residency where taking call generally isn’t a big deal any more. For the most part I don’t mind it and at least I have the perks of the “trauma diet.” But this has been a grating week. I think part of it has to do with just coming off a full month of trauma. And maybe taking a few days of both first and second call (being the only resident on call instead of two). But I think a lot more of it has to do with Abe’s busy schedule. I rely on him a lot more than I even realize and not seeing him much at all this week and knowing he will probably be this busy at least the next few months is kind of lonely. I went to bed last night without him, only to toss and turn for hours, angry at the doctor gods for keeping him awake and away for so long and on the OTO INTERN DIET, which unlike my “trauma diet” which consists of eating whatever I want, means not getting a chance to eat anything. His lips are visibly chapped (from dehydration), he is getting a little scruffy (which really isn’t like him), and I think pretty skinny.
He is just starting his two months of the ENT team for his first year of residency (He has mostly been working with General Surgery teams). So far this month his hours have been crazy. Yesterday he was gone from about 5 am- 11:30 pm (and he wasn’t on call), only to be back at 4:00 am the next morning. I stayed after work for two or three hours hoping to catch him for dinner. We had a romantic date in the cafeteria eating pizza. (See Mom and Dad, keeping up the Friday Pizza Day tradition—not on purpose, though.) Just as I walked in the door to write about the stress of my long and busy week, I got paged about an “emergency tooth extraction” I will need to go to the OR to help another team out with tonight. This will be my first middle of the night tooth extraction, at least performed in the OR! And on a day I was so looking forward to some sleep.
And it’s now past 10:30 and still haven’t seen Abe walk in the door. I hope to catch a glimpse of him before he comes home to bed and leaves in the morning for another (I’m anticipating) 16 hours of work.
3 comments:
The oto intern diet sounds a lot like the campaign staffer diet. Hang in there guys!
Oh, yes. I feel your pain!! Much like your call has gotten better with time, Abe's schedule will, too. Paul also gets pretty skinny on H&N rotations. Sometimes I wonder why he decided to sub specialize in that-- He just really loves those cases, so I'm glad he'll be doing what he loves. I think I'd die of starvation or a headache if I had to consistently go that long with out eating/drinking/sleeping. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. Hope you get some R&R today!
You'll both look back on this someday and be proud of yourselves for surviving it. What an accomplishment. The average human being just couldn't do it.
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