Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Last night
Yesterday, somehow I managed to look at my schedule and not see that I was on call that evening. It was worse than not checking my schedule. I checked my schedule. I looked at the wrong week and thought, “No call until this weekend.”
Mind you, this took real talent. It’s not like the schedule was ambiguous.
I was so certain that I wasn’t on call that when the first ER call came, I felt a stab of righteous indignation. Dammit, how could they screw up something so simple as reading our call schedule! So then I set out to find out who really was on call . . . and everyone I spoke with said Yup, you da man.
So, dog tired from the drive home, I got into my car and took the 90 minute drive back to Antioch. In the rain. But what else could I do? As it is, I inconvenienced my department head big time, since he had to handle the phone calls while I got my ass to work.
I hate making dumb mistakes.
D.
Sounds like your subconscious corrupted your conscious memory or something like that. It would have been cool if even though you forgot you were on call, you didn’t get called.
Hey hon. You can delete this post, but I have a comment that’s been awaiting moderation a couple of days now on the burl post.
And I think you’re just tired and distracted, and tired, so you forgot you were on call. {{hugg}}
We all make mistakes…a cliche, but true. Though since you’re 12 years younger than me, I can now feel better about myself when I make a dumb mistake.
Lucie: definitely a subconscious thing. Dratted subconscious!
Tam, thanks. You are no longer in moderation 🙂
Sis, yes, you may rest easy knowing that your little brother has early Old Timer’s Disease (as some of my patients call it).
I’ve done that a couple of times were I absolutely knew something, so didn’t check, and, whoops! missed my flight, blew off a lunch, and other assorted idiocies. It’s the certainty that should be the warning bell somehow! When I’m not sure, I check and am almost right.
Glad that you weren’t in a movie or out hiking or otherwise unavailable when the bad news rang!