Ran a great code today! I know it is not cool to enjoy one's work too much, but God damn I have a good job! I was on with T tonight, the first time we've worked together since we were residents. It was great--we're both worker bees and we were each trying to outdo the other. The poor guy is on the night shift so he's still there neck deep in it while I'm home blogging. At about 22:45 the ICU called a code to us in the ED. We run all the hospital codes at night so they just phone us instead of calling it overhead and waking all the patients up. T was with a patient so I responded to the call. I love running through the hospital hallways at night--it has the appeal of breaking taboos. I got to the bedside in a hurry--probably under a minute. Full code with compressions and bagging. I introduced myself, pro forma asked who was running the code and then announced "I'm running the code." I love that feeling, of having the ball in my hands and knowing the shot clock is running out fast. She was brady and pulseless so it was just cookbook. I ran us through the numbers and I'll be damned it it didn't work. That epi hit her heart and she snapped out of it for us. Racing heart, thudding pulse. Very satisfying. I hung Dopamine and Lido and did the paperwork. One of the nurses said "Thank you for saving her life." I was a little taken aback, but said "Sure, of course, she was lucky..." She replied "I was really worried we would lose her. Her son was so upset when we caled him." That felt great. I have a job where I just kept some man's mother alive. I brought her back to life and he can visit her tomorrow in her hospital bed. That is a damn good job! posted by janssenbaby at 1:14 AM 0 comments Tuesday, September 13, 2005 I just finished day 6 of a 7 day enduro-shift. Somehow my juggling of shifts at the Yard and St.D's left me with a marathon of 7 shifts in a row. This last weekend was ridiculous, all the more so because it just ended....early Tuesday morning. After three shifts at the Yard I went in for a St. D's couplet of weekend nights. Spent Saturday afternoon dreading the pain of a 12 hour night shift and even then it was worse than I expected. The day guy had left me 5 patients to start with--so I started at 6pm already 5 down. That lazy sack of shit even had a resident with him--WHO HAD BEEN CALLED IN EARLY! I'm not so offended that the resident was called in early (to help this lazy jerk work a soft Saturday morning), so much as that meant he was sent hom early, leaving me solo from 8pm on for rough Saturday night. This old guy is one of the old guard that almost destroyed the ED--I'm just sickened by his laziness. Spent the night hungry, tired, with patients dying, and always being two or three down....just a miserable shift. But the chickenshit factor is low so I can accept the pain and just endure it. Pain I can handle. It's frustration that un-man's me. Ended the shift and went to Stater Brothers for Newcastle Brown Ale and Baker's for burritos (beer good, burritos bad). Ate and slept in the call room and woke up at 2pm feeling decent after 6 hours of sleep. Watched football and got ready for the next night shift--it was painless. I then went to a St.D's meeting (mainly to learn from the site director who is a young savant) and drove to the Yard. I was in bed in the Yard well lighter noisy call room at 11am and up at 3 for my 4 o'clock curtain call. A little woozy to start the shift, but miraculously the PA was sick and the spot had been filled by...Pableo, the other new doc. He works like a stevedore and made for a nice night. In a few minutes I'm going to climb into the bed I last saw 72 hours ago. I was telling Pableo about my 7 day stretch. He pointed out that in these seven days I'll make as much money as I made in three months as a resident. It's a nice perspective to sleep on. U-561