Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The night shift

My schedule is a little strange... as anyone who lives near me can attest, you never know when you are going to find me home, at work or sleeping. Last night was one of those much-romaniticized (when thinking of a medical career) 'night shifts.' As I walked in at 10pm, there were 15 people waiting to be seen in addition to the 38 people already in rooms. We didn't have any emply waiting room until 4am, and even then the exam rooms stayed fairly full with people trickling in.

I used to have a litany of funny/dramatic stories from the ER. I still have the oldies and goodies, but I have very little new material. I don't think it has anything to do with a lack of new good stories... I just don't "see" them anymore. It all carries on in the same-ol' same-ol' of any job you do all the time. Chronic pain, chest pain, abdominal pain, toothache, "this BB in my leg from 5 months ago still hurts," kids fevers... I still drive home at 6:30am regardless of what the last 8 hours held, still crawl into bed, still awake ~1:30 feeling a little confused.

I guess its a good thing, from a patient's standpoint, to have an ER doctor that isn't particularly phased by things. One man last night had a bleeding varicose vein that was scaring him to death, and said "You say that with such wonderful confidence!" when I told him I'd have him fixed up within 5 minutes. He was out the door in 10. I guess not stock-piling stories anymore means I've made it to some 'other side' of this crazy career. Now, on to the next 20 years....

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