Of course, the lows come in too. I am hungry. I am tired. I am stressed. all. the. time. The particular team I'm on has been great at always having the highest census of patients (we're just super lucky on call days) and today's call day was no exception with the group hustling for 16 hrs with no breaks.
The morning started off nuts. NUTS! We were all so frazzled that we never were able to round as a team. Basically when one presented, the others ran to take care of their patients. I helped put on dressings on our ICU T-E-N patient which took an hour with 6 people working on it - a freakishly frightening dz the whole hospital was buzzing about.
and then I got some pretty epic pages.
- Your patient is pulling their IV out and leaving the hospital. This patient mind you, is someone who I am pretty sure is still having a GI bleed and needing blood transfusions daily. :(
- Your patient might be having a heart attack
- We're transferring a patient to you because it's too complicated for the surgery team. To you...the fourth year medical student. LOL! (actually those surgeons are smart - just too many patients on their list to handle)
Wow, what a day. But I survived, and more impressive - my interns/residents made it through...although just barely.
But then somewhere in between all this, there is a moment when one of your patients gets better and hugs you at the end of the day. So worth it.
