Thursday, April 19, 2012

watch me unravel

Seriously, you guys, how do people do night shifts? I've now done five weeks total over the course of internship. But again, in my sixth week right now, I just want to melt into a puddle of goo. It astounds me that there are people in this world who work night shifts as a standard part of their entire career! How?!? How are they not insane? I'm only on my fourth night of the week, and I have been getting crankier and more sleep-addled by the moment.

These nights have not been quiet either. For some reason, people seem to have a proclivity towards having cardiac events at night. Endless, endless elevated cardiac markers. Because of how busy it is on this service, so far the only thing I've learned about cardiology are things I already knew- alcohol, methamphetamines and cocaine are bad for your heart. So is smoking. Also, if you walk into the hospital with chest pain, you will have to put up quite a blockade to prevent a cardiologist from catheterizing your coronary arteries.

I don't usually do countdowns when I am on a rotation but I am starting to X off the days to getting off this service, and not living like a vampire anymore.

1 comment:

Rahul said...

Not that it might matter to you, but I enjoy reading your blog. I admire your determination to write, and your ability to do so thoughtfully, even with the killing hours of a medical resident.

(From an occasional commenter from many years ago)