Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Call again, call again
It’s that magic time again, Weekend Call, and have I pulled a doozy. Between the two hospitals we cover, there are nine patients on our inpatient and/or consult service. Three of them could easily get worse and become OR cases.
I told the Chief of Service: “Well, if I’m busy, the weekend will go faster, right?”
“Your weekend is going to go VERY fast,” he said.
Another doc (the former Chief of Service, another guy who has been around a while) called me to commiserate. “I think this must be some kind of record,” he said.
I don’t mind working hard. Really, I don’t! The main thing that stresses me out is when things are more than I can handle. I can’t do everything, after all, and I can’t be in two places at once. In residency, there were always three of us in house (plus med students, plus a chief you could call in, if necessary) so there was little risk of having to be in two places at once.
My Chief of Service tells me that in the ten years he’s been here, only once has he had to be in two places at once. He called in one of the other guys and they dealt with it. So, yeah, there’s backup if I need it — but everyone here figures this should be RARE.
Let’s hope it is. Stay tuned.
D.
P.S. It’s been a grueling week, by the way, which is why I haven’t been around much. The upside? Once I’m through with this weekend’s call, it’s mostly downhill from here. Not too many bumps in the road between here and Bakersfield.
