night float

My week of night float ended 10 days ago, but I feel like it took me this entire week to recover.  Going into it, I was concerned.  16+-hour shifts don’t sound so bad, but factoring in an hour on each end for commuting, getting a max of six hours of sleep (if I ate in the car both ways) times five days seemed a little daunting given my recent need for more sleep–building organs is tough stuff!  Looking back, though, it was one of my best weeks of med school.

Every night I saw and participated in the most awesome medicine and surgeries.  I was on my feet virtually non-stop, hence these as a result.  I felt like an active participant in the trauma team and in the care of the patients.  Several of our patients made the news.  And we actually successfully resuscitated someone who coded and was brought in with EMS performing chest compressions (for the record, if you require CPR, your chances of making it are only about 4%).  On my last night, we  got so many traumas that we had to close the bay.  Pretty fantastic for me, less so for the poor senior resident on call.  I’m a black cloud.

Also, a bit of a surprise: I like surgery more than internal medicine…kind of by a long shot.  Who would have seen that coming?  Of course, my experience in both is so limited (and I should definitely factor in that the first trimester might have affected my first pass on the wards).  On Monday I start Emergency, and I’m so curious to see how I like it…