Residency is a Killer

Been a loooooonnnngggg time since I hit this blog, got much to say but ain't felt like saying it. It's the damn residency I tell you, but one day I hope to get motivation back and start cranking out more insights and theories. My most qualitative writings depend immensely on what mood I'm in.....lately I've been focusing my utmost concentrations on nuclear physics and atomic weaponry, and I'm also putting the loose ends together on my medical knowledge, internal medicine is starting to make sense to me now and I'm good enough now where I can reasonably know what to do when somebody's sick. But the hours are too much, I got too much to do besides medicine!! J-mart has been in the renaissance period of his life for the past 5 years....but medicine is detracting from all the other scientific and creative areas he could master.
Here's a typical 4-day rotation on a typical medicine service with call---after you see this, you'll understand why this blog hasn't been active lately:


Tuesday, 6 AM: My alarm clock starts blaring in my ears....damn, time for yet another 30-hour shift, does this EVER END?

Tuesday, 7:15 AM: Rollin' into work, already exhausted....look up all the patients, go to morning report at 8 AM, rounds start at 8:30 AM, 14 patients, I'm leading my interns as we go room to room. Luckily everything went well today without a hitch.

Tuesday, 12 Noon: Rounds end, just enough time to roll down for noon lecture at 12:15, grab some grub (actually, just a bottle of water, since my residency decided to go with nuttin' but healthy lunches--wheat bread sandwiches and vegetable wraps--disgusting!!).

Tuesday, 1:15 PM: Noon lecture ends, pretty dope topic on some core medicine, upstairs to wrap up the day's work.

Tuesday, 5 PM: Admissions start rolling in, between my 2 interns, I got 10 new patients to supervise, and around 40-50 old patients to cross-cover on all the 4 medicine teams, luckily my interns are tight and can handle the issues well.

Wednesday, 4 AM: FINALLY finish up the 10th admission, roll up to the call room to crash.

Wednesday, 6:30 AM: The alarm in my call room rings, it's time to get up and start checkin' the computer for labs and vitals and tests on all the patients on my team.

Wednesday, 8 AM: Morning report begins again, I'm beyond exhausted at this point, but still manage to participate some. I think the 2 1/2 hours of sleep I got actually made me feel more tired than if I'd just stayed up all night. I'm in some gross, sweaty scrubs and haven't showered in over 24 hours.

Wednesday, 8:30 AM: Rounds begin again. 16 patients this time around. Let's get through this as fast as we can.

Wednesday, 12 Noon: Rounds are finally over, I'm dragging at this point.

Wednesday 12:30 PM: Grand rounds begin, some lecture about a study on some G-protein receptors. Boring--get me home QUICK!

Wednesday, 1 PM: In the middle of Grand Rounds, I get up to leave, gotta be out of the hospital to comply with the 24 + 6 hour rule. 30 hours are over, but they seem to go by pretty quick, only about 40 more of these 30-hour shifts before I graduate residency!!

Wednesday, 1:15 PM: Open the door to my apartment, exhausted. I plop my a** down on the lazy boy and turn on the TV. Can't get up, even to eat.

Wednesday, 4 PM: Still haven't gotten up from that lazy boy, but I figure I can move over to the bed to go to sleep.

Wednesday, 11 PM: I wake up, restless, I try but I can't get back to sleep for a couple hours.

Thursday, 6 AM: My alarm awakes me again, since the beginning, I've done nothing but work and sleep since Tuesday morning. I'm excited I can finally take a shower, but I'm more exhausted this morning than I was yesterday. I call it the post-post-call depression.

Thursday, 7 AM: Repeat another day of work. I won't re-hash it, similar to what I did Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thursday, 5 PM: The work day is over, patients are tucked in, time to go home.

Thursday, 5:30 PM: Peeps is going out to eat and a movie, I take another shower and change my clothes.

Thursday, 6:15 PM: Roll up to the Westfire grille. Haven't eaten since my Tuesday call night. Really hungry, I order a couple drinks, some appetizer, chow it down quick, movie is starting soon.

Thursday, 7 PM: Walk over to the Cinemagic movie theater. We watch "The Covenant". The movie was OK, nothing special, but at least the main chick was really hot.

Thursday, 9 PM: Get home from the movie, tidy up some things, watch a little TV.

Thursday, 10 PM: Time for bed, tomorrow I will feel a little bit better than today, hopefully.

Friday, 6 AM: Alarm rings again, as usual, I throw my pillow across the room and start screaming--"This never ends!!"

Friday, 7:15 AM: Roll into work again, repeat the day per Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, take your pick.

Friday, 4:30 PM: Finally get out of work again, today I had clinic in the afternoon, and everything went smoothly.

Friday, 6 PM: Just foolin' around, ready to go out tonight, but tomorrow I gotta get up early again for another 30-hour shift, so I gotta keep it early unfortunately.

Friday, 9:30 PM: Stumblin' in, luckily didn't drink too much, so tomorrow hopefully won't be that rough.

Friday, 10 PM: I get to bed, damn, it's time to repeat this entire 4-day cycle all over again!

Saturday, 6 AM: The alarm rings again! Here we go, another 30-hour shift, repeat the same 4-day cycle like I started on Tuesday morning, who knows what tonight will bring. Only gotta do this 5 more times this month. Next month will not be as bad as this one, hopefully.

Adding this up, between Tuesday morning and Saturday morning, the only free time I've had when I'm not working or sleeping was Thursday and Friday evening......