| OK. I guess it's time for my quarterly entry. So I had an interesting day on monday. I started my ICU rotation, and of course with my luck, I was on call. It always stinks to start a rotation and be on call right away. This actually was my first overnight call, since our general floor months are covered by night float. One of my fears about overnight call, is that I will sleep through my pager, since I am a very deep sleeper. Like in the movies when soldiers set up camp, I would be the one who is easily killed in his sleep. So here's how the story goes. I decided to take a nap for the eventual flood of admissions during the night. The next thing I know, the phone in my call room is ringing. I look at my watch and realize I fell asleep for 2 hrs! So who would be calling the intern room? I pick up the phone and on the other end is one of the attending cardiologists. Man, big trouble. The conversation went something like this:
attending: are you covering my patient so and so?
Me: uhh, (... never heard of this patient - check patient list quickly to see if the patient is on my list... stall, stall, while I scan my list... not on the list) I don't think so.
attending: what do you mean you don't THINK so?!?
Me: uhh, (crap, crap, wait, what is this... missed page on my pager... crap crap crap crap crap! was I suppose to evaluate a new patient?) I didn't hear anything about this patient. (which is true)
attending: are you the MEDICINE intern?
Me: uhh, yes (please let this patient be on the CCU team instead of the ICU, please, please, please), but no one told me about a new patient to cover.
attending: (silence, grumble) okay, maybe it's the telemetry or ccu team. (click)
Me: whew. Wait, who paged me? Please tell me it's not my resident telling me about the patient I was just asked about. Crap. Time to feign ignorance? What, another page, same number. Called the number, and it's my resident. New patient?! Oh, not the one the cardiologist was asking about. Whew. That was a close one.
Anyway, anyone who has dealt with cardiogists know that typcially they view themselves as towards the top of the pecking order of doctors, and if you are not on top of things, they are not shy about letting you know. So that was my stressful event of the day, related to me sleeping through my first page of the night. As anyone who knows me will tell you, this is why I need 2 alarm clocks, the auto-on TV, and my mom calling me in the morning to wake me up. This is why I'm always late too, as I have actually slept through this cacophony of noise in the morning.
On another note, I went to vote on Tuesday, and in typical fashion I arrived at 6:45, right before the polls closed. When I went to check in, the polling lady asked me if it was my first time voting. Despite all the stress prematurely aging me, I guess she actually thought I looked in the vicinity of 18 yrs old. I know my international playboy lifestyle on weekends keeps me looking young, but this still was pretty surprising. Luckily, there was no line to vote, and I was out and in my car at 6:53. 7 minutes to spare, just the way I like it. Anyway, this is the most I've ever written, aren't you all proud that I actually put an entry in? |
