Wildest Night!

I kid. I remember in college that Thursdays were the start of the weekend. This October, my Thursdays have been marked by desperate reading of multiple articles before talks and quizzes on resident academic day. I love academic day. The fact that Friday is marked by a fairly serious commitment to education is pretty sweet. Except when I have loads of articles to read and it's already late. Fortunately, I only have 6 more to read tonight.

Work is going pretty well. I'm paying the price for my two nights of call in early October and my week of leave by being on call almost every day these past two weeks. I've been VERY lucky with the pager although last night I got paged by an ER staff doctor in a snit. I was told that I HAD to come in because MY patient was now in the ER 6 hours after surgery saying that he couldn't breathe. Since this did not quite jive with the surgery he had, I asked what his exam showed. Mmmm, well, I was once again informed that this was MY patient and I had to go in.

Now, this was not exactly my patient. But the ER staff was irritated that this guy came in as a seeming "patient dump" by ENT and she was not going to have it. Sigh. Nevermind that she was there and would get to go home at 7, while I was working the entire next day, But since I was the ENT duty doc and this was a rather insignificant issue to take an awesome!stand! against the ER, I went in. But earlier that evening when I got home, I realized I had left my keys at work. Kelly let me in (thank you!), but now that it was two in the morning, I was 2 miles away and functionally carless. So. I packed my lunch and ran to work at 1:45 in the morning. Blech.

Once I was there, the patient stated that he couldn't breathe when he lay down. So, I had him lay down. He looked up at me and shook his head. I said, "Open your mouth." He did. Shockingly, it worked. [I've spent the last few minutes trying to type something exceptionally scathing about this patient, but I can't. Nothing conveys quite the scathiness I feel, in addition to the complete disbelief in the capacity for some people to be complete and total idiots.] Not that I'm judgin- oh wait, yes I am.

So, I went to bed in the call room and woke up, freezing. But after a day of clinic and a gross amount of notes still left to write, I'm now reveling in a call-free night. I made chili for the Halloween potluck. It tastes pretty good. Never fear, I used a separate, one-time-use spoon to taste not only because I try to cook in a sanitary way, but I also have a huge fear of being that person who brings the dish that makes everyone sick. Now, I'm going to finish my articles and go to bed. And that ends my wildest night ever.