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Monday . June 30 . 2003 . 9:09pm post-call Being on call is like going to the worst slumber party ever. Sure, there are people staying up all night, running around in pajamas, ordering take-out, but it's just not any fun. People keep asking me if it feels different to be a resident rather than a medical student, but I have to say, it really doesn't. I still don't know what the hell is going on, I still can't write prescriptions (my malpractice insurance doesn't kick in until tomorrow), and I still don't have my keys to the resident call room. I managed to catch an hour and a half of sleep last night, but I had to do it propped up on the couch in the back of the patient playroom. I'm pretty sure this is not the glamorous image that the hospital wants to project, with housestaff passed out in the back next to the Radio Flyer wagon and Lincoln Logs. The best part about call, though, is being post-call. Leaving the hospital before noon, taking a shower when you get home, climbing into bed all clean and drowsy in the middle of the day. Best feeling ever. This was only enhanced by the fact that my sister finally lent me the new Harry Potter, which I got a chance to read for a while this afternoon before I passed out. And sure, I have to wake up at 4:00am again tomorrow, but for now, life is sweet. Joe starts his residency at [East Side Hospital] tomorrow. He starts on two weeks of the night float shift, working 7pm-10am, which means that after tonight, I probably won't even see him at all until Friday at noon, when I'll be post-call. And he has to work every day except Saturday, which pretty much means that even when we do see each other, both of us will be asleep. Joe's going to start to look an awful lot like the inside of my eyelids. Strange to live in the same house with someone yet never see them. We're going to have to start communicating by a note system. * * * Joe and I were playing Scrabble today on the new Deluxe set that Maria and Rob brought over for my birthday. (Thanks, guys!) Now we are truly Crazy Scrabble people, because we have three versions of the game. One travel version, one version for the Pocket PC, and the aforementioned Deluxe, which I highly, highly recommend. The board is huge, and its on a little spinny platform so that you don't have to keep shifting the board back and forth as you take your respective turns. And it has the ultra-classy mahogany tiles, which I have always coveted from afar. Also, I won the first game we played on the board, which must mean something good. I am the champion, no time for losers. (To be fair, I had all the good letters. But still, since Joe is a better Scrabble player than I, that's just like playing with a golf handicap.) * * * Back to being on call--when you're on call over the weekend, you have to cover the entire team by yourself. And I just could not for the life of me keep track of all my patients. Some of them I'd never met before or heard of. I would just look at my patient census and think, who the hell is this kid? Nurses were coming up to me all day and ask, "Are you covering Smith? Are you covering Rodriguez?" and I would just be like, "No...oh wait...yes I am." Because I had no idea who they were talking about. Even when did I get the chance to see all of the patients fairly late in the day, that was just to check if they were still alive, not to sit down and spend time getting to know them as we all idealistically thought we would have time to do in med school. Right now, Joe is ironing his white coat for tomorrow. He's IRONING his COAT. JOE Well, I don't want people to look at me and think, "new doctor." MICHELLE Yeah, I'm sure all the senior residents must have impeccably ironed spotless white coats. JOE No, I mean you can see the creases where it was folded. I just want to get those out. MICHELLE Don't play it off all casual, you ironed your graduation gown in college, you neatnik. A toast to the neatest man I know. xo Michelle |
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