Anniversary and the ICU

I am gearing up for my big push through 12 straight days of work, including 3 calls, one of which is whole house. So let me explain that. Normally there are three residents that cover the hospital. Typically its two first years and a second year. One of the first years and the second year cover the hospital. So any patients of our clinic, of other FMS clinics around the area, and any patients without doctors or who are from out of town are taken care of overnight by those two. The other first year (or sometimes a second year) covers the OB department by him/herself.

Now, I prefer FMS call. I am just not an Obstetrics kind of guy. Not my thing. And I think that FMS call is usually paced a little better. You get called more often, but its more consistent, and even though you have to run about through the hospital, you don't feel terribly hurried most of the time.

OB call however, there is oftentimes way more work to do than one person can do in a night, and its a common occurrence for certain things not to get done, in favor of C-Sections and Deliveries (you know, the important stuff).

Well, on a whole house call night, its just the two FMS covering residents, and there is no OB resident. Which means that two have to do the work of 3. As well, that extra one that we are covering is often too much work for one.

Basically, it sucks. And I have to do it on Thanksgiving. The nice part is we only have to do one of these an academic year, typically. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, 4 retreats, and a few random days. At most we do three in our 2 years doing in house call.

On top of this, I am on ICU. Which means before and after call I have to round on my patients. So I will be covering the whole hospital for 24 hours, likely without sleep, only to have to go and try and fix the sickest patients in the hospital. Don't tell me I'm not a badass ;)

And I am not necessarily complaining, just sharing. I knew I signed up for this. This isn't really a surprise. But its not fun either. I will be missing turkey and pumpkin pie this year :( But thats the way it goes sometime. Hopefully this is the last time.

On a much more fun note, Mandi and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary tomorrow. I can't believe it has been 2 years already. Time sure does fly. She's the love of my life, she is God's joy for me incarnate. And she is my greatest earthly blessing. I love my wife. A lot.

So happy anniversary to us.