On Call

Back by popular demand, a breakdown of a "typical" day on call.

SATURDAY

• 5:30AM - Feeding Griffin
• 6:30AM - Owen's up
• 7:30AM - Finishing charts from yesterday's clinic (Hate, Hate, HATE our electronic charts!)
• 8:30AM - Laundry
• 9:30AM - Showering and donning scrubs for being on call on a Saturday
• 10:30AM - Jason out replacing our stolen car stereo
• 11:30AM - Page from the ER for an admission (my call isn't supposed to start until noon, mind you)
• 12:30PM - At the hospital for the admission
• 1:30PM - Back at home
• 2:30PM - Answering a steady stream of pages, but at least I'm home.
• 3:30PM - Surprise tour of our house for Grandma.  Too bad I refused to do my usual Saturday clean because I'm on call.
• 4:30PM - Diagnosing & treating a nonverbal nursing home patient with a past medical history a mile long over the phone with a care taker who constantly reminds me that she has been gone for the last week so she doesn't know the answer to my questions.  Why did you call again?  Then asking myself why their primary doctor asked them to call the on call doctor (lucky me) today with an update.  What do you expect?
• 5:30PM - Back to the hospital.  Someone decided today would make a good birthday.
• 6:30PM - Wishing I spoke Spanish to speed up this H&P.
• 7:30PM - Made it back in time for kick-off.
• 8:30PM - Refreshing my knot tying skills using the shoestrings of my mom's tennis shoes between football plays.
• 9:30PM - Back at Labor & Delivery.  No, my patient wasn't ready yet.  I'm needed to assist with another patient's C-section.
• 10:30PM - Done in time to catch the last two minutes of the "you-didn't-miss-much" game.
• 11:30PM - Back again.  My laboring patient is almost ready, and I can tell the baby's heart rate is making the nurse nervous by the hurried tone her voice.

SUNDAY

• 12:30AM - Healthy baby boy!  (& no tears = no repair = done faster)
• 1:30AM - New patient in the Emergency Room needing to be admitted.
• 2:30AM -  Suggesting constipation treatments to a clinic patient.  (Yes, constipation at 2:30 in the morning.)
• 3:30AM - Emergency Room phone number is back on my pager for yet another admission.
• 4:30AM - Wishing again I spoke Spanish.  And wondering why it takes 5 minutes to answer "on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is your pain?"
• 5:30AM - Rounding on my other patients.
• 6:30AM - Still trying to get used to a new hospital system.
• 7:30AM - Came home to a smiling Owen in our bed next to a sacked out Daddy.  Jason must have been having as much fun as me in these early morning hours.
• 8:30AM - Ahh... call over = time to sleep.
• 9:30AM - Feeding Griffin.
• 10:30AM - Staring at the back of my eye lids
• 11:30AM - Slept right through church even though I had full intentions of going.
• 12:30PM - Up
• 1:30PM - Typing this blog.  :)