I haven't been in the hospital for thirty hours straight in a LONG time. It's horrible, but there's also something kind of great about it. It's sort of like that joke:
Q: "Why are you hitting yourself with a hammer?"
A: "Because it feels so good when I stop."
(I actually looked up this quote so that I could get it right and I found it as a quote from Grey's Anatomy. So clearly I'm not the only one who likens being a doctor to being pummeled with a hammer.)
Anyway, things that are great about spending 30 hours in a row in the hospital:
1) Getting home
2) Turning your pager off
3) Taking that first post-call shower
4) Eating a meal that isn't from the hospital cafeteria
5) Brushing your teeth. With an actual toothbrush and not with your finger.
6) The post-call sleep
Ahh...
It's been a reeeeaaallly long time for me since I've been in the hospital that long. And way back then it was routinely 36 hours, frequently more trying to get out post-call.
ReplyDeleteBut that moment when my head hit the pillow finally? There are few better feelings than that!
Scariest parts? Taking off the 36-hour shoes. Not remembering driving home.
The not remembering driving home was truly scary. Course, one time post call I decided to rest my head for just a minute and woke up 2 hours later in the car. It had got dark, too.
ReplyDeleteI think the post call sleep is the closest thing you can get to being in a coma without actually getting whacked in the head.
ReplyDeleteThe post-call shower is the best!
ReplyDeleteAmen the post-call shower is almost magical! We have showers in our call rooms but I was never brave enough to take one. I was also afraid that they would call a code half way thru and then wonder where the ICU resident was to run the code!
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