Just waking up after being post-call yesterday. What a rough night for my first call! As the afternoon was winding down on Thursday, 2 of our patients in the unit started crumping (getting sicker...) and needed various lines and procedures. Now that is the stuff that I love doing, but it's always easier when it's one at a time and better when you're not in charge of the whole unit. Especially when the other patients are no where close to stable and could start circling the drain at any moment.
Everything improved exponentially when we get a call around 10:30 that we're getting an admission from an outside hospital, a "cardiac arrest." I've learned that this can mean anything from someone who has previously had a heart attack and now has chest pain but is pretty stable to someone who is actively arresting (i.e. dying). Unfortunately, this guy turned out to be the later, so I spent the rest of the night at his bedside changing drips and doing procedures, etc. etc. This was all while my upper level was sleeping, suggesting, "Why don't you just call the fellow?" and my fellow giving vague instructions over the phone.
I guess it's time to step up and figure it out, but that doesn't mean I was anywhere near comfortable doing that. Thankfully, the guy (and everyone else for that matter) made it until the morning, but I was just spent. I didn't leave until 11:30 because if rounding and transferring patient's etc. and I actually fell asleep in the shower once I got home. And to think, some folks do this every 4th night for 5 years (those crazy surgeons). I'll take my stinky, drug-seeking, out-of-their-psych-meds, drunk trauma patients any night of the week over that stuff, thank you very much. Once again, it's what we like to call a "Career-affirming rotation." Only 17 more days to go (because of the holiday schedule), but with 4 calls thrown in there, it should be a whirlwind.
