Night shift

Tonight is my 4th shift at Maimo in the ED, starting at 11pm and going until 7am. I have another night shift tomorrow, 7pm-7am. Over the last couple of days, several non medical friends have asked me how I can do this?? How can I shift from day shifts to nights shifts and then back to days?? Well, its not easy especially when I am the type of person that loves a schedule (to bed at the same time, to rise at the same time). Fortunately, the people that make my schedule are generous....they schedule a few nights and then give me a day off. And, it helps that the place I work at currently is very, very, VERY busy! I know for certain that from the time my shift starts until it ends I will be on my feet doing everything and anything and that always makes the time fly. In fact, its not during my shift that I am tired, its immediately after as I slog to the subway and fall asleep at the station waiting for the train....then snooze on the subway to Atlantic/Pacific where I transfer to the Q....and then snooze some more until my stop :) As long as I am busy, I am perfectly content and awake. If I was working overnights with little/nothing to do, well then I would not be choosing emergency medicine as my future career.

Over the last 3 shifts I have seen many things to numerous to name. So I will just concentrate on one case, which occurred wednesday. An 80+ year gentleman was brought in from the nursing home after falling out of his wheelchair. Unfortunately, he has dementia and it was difficult to obtain any pertinent info as to how the accident happened. A CT scan of the head was ordered to rule out a bleed in the brain. In addition, he had 2 large lacerations, one on his scalp and one on his right forearm....and the best part...I got to do all the suturing and stapling :) The scalp wound was simple, with clean edges which only needed 6 staples. The arm laceration was a different story. It was very complicated, jagged edges, and deep. So, my chief resident suggested placing vertical mattress sutures which I had never attempted before. So, I pulled up the internet, did some reading, watched as my chief put the first suture in, and then, I was on my own to finish. I placed 3 more vertical mat. sutures and then 3 interrupted sub-cutaneous sutures. It took me almost 40 minutes because I was trying desperately to make it look pretty, and anyone that has attempted to suture 80+ year old skin knows how impossible that task is. The best part, both my chief resident and attending looked at my work and said I did a beautiful job!!! In addition to the great compliments that totally went to my head (LOL), I learned a new suturing technique which I know will come in handy in the future!!

As I said, I have many more stories but not enough time or patience to type tonight. I hope on Sunday I will have the energy to type some more. I hope everyone has a great night!!