Tales From Residency: Trying to sleep

One night during my residency, I was on home call and ending up having a busy night at the hospital. By the time I was done taking care of my patients, it was 3AM and I had to round at 7AM the next morning. So I figured there was no point in going home. (Ah, the joys of home call.)

I asked a nurse if I could sleep in an empty patient's room, since the ward wasn't that full. I figured I could get in about four hours and feel at least somewhat rested. I thought maybe I'd even sleep better at the hospital, since there was no baby.

Uh, wrong.

First off, I had one of those pressure-control beds. So every time I shifted, the mattress would whir to life and start inflating in different areas. Very distracting. I finally had to look for the controls and shut the damn thing off.

Then I noticed there was this loud rhythmic noise in the room, like a dripping noise. I tried to sleep through it, but I couldn't. I got some toilet paper from the bathroom and stuffed my ears and put the blanket over my head, but no luck.

Finally, I went to investigate the noise. I went over to the sink to see if it was leaking. It wasn't. But I noticed there was a large clock on the wall over the sink that was ticking. I grabbed a chair and pulled the clock off the wall, hoping to find an "off" switch. No off switch, but I managed to yank out the battery.

I expected quiet after that, but lo and behold, there was a SECOND clock in the room! I had to deactivate that one as well. Finally, silence!

Except for this damn bird that kept chirping right outside the window. I almost felt like someone was playing a joke on me, putting me in this room.

Luckily, I had another patient code at about 5AM, so I had to get up again anyway.