Today I did the math. Since I work 24 hour shifts, it often seems like I have more time off. But 10-24 hour periods is 240 hours a month. If there are thirty days in a month then I have worked a total of 8 hours for every 24. Having figured this out I now wish I had left well enough alone.
Frequently I get a nap, so it is not as bad as it sounds. Usually a couple of hours in the mid afternoon. I have learned to take them. Nights can be long and trying. I operated on three patients last night. All had been sent out of smaller emergency rooms. The first was told she had "gastroenteritis." Her ovary of the size of a small cantaloupe, necrotic or dead from twisting on it's blood supply. The amazing thing to me was that touching this woman's abdomen, since she only weighed about 100 pounds, almost anyone could feel the rock hard tender mass.
The second patient had been bleeding for two months. Her pregnancy test was positive and she was told she was "miscarrying." The pregnancy hormone levels in her blood were the second highest I have ever seen and she had a molar pregnancy. No baby was ever present in this condition that contains on hydroptic or fluid filled placenta tissue. It can metastasize to the lungs and the brain.
The third woman had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. She was also told she was miscarrying a week ago when she went to another emergency room with bleeding. This time she had a lot of pain and a good deal of blood in her pelvis.
All of these patient are fine and I will be also. This does not include the woman who arrived with twins, both breech, dilated to five centimeters. A hospital down the road sent her home. She was glad she made it to ours for her emergency Cesarean section. Several other patients just came in and delivered. Most of them want to do that. I think we are nicer about it than other places.
I have to agree. We are nice to all of these people and to each other. It is the only way to survive while we take care of all these patients who by virtue of their diseases end up for a stay in the big house with us.
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