Melissa, Lars, Sofia, & Espen: 27 hours...

It's mid February and the winter blahs are here...The wind is blowing like it's North Dakota today, but luckily it's about +28 degrees instead of -28, still it is howling away.

Today is my "day off". I worked overnight on Friday into Saturday morning - that's right 27 hours straight, and believe me, it was a busy one. This is what I look like after the fact:

Here is what 27 hours are like:
Friday morning started out busy on the Stroke service with many very sick patients for me to see, continued in the afternoon, evening, and into the wee hours of Saturday morning with a steady stream of new consult patients to see. I didn't sit down or lay down one time aside from 45 minutes at lunch time. I ate on the run in the ER around midnight after that. The only saving grace was that I was done seeing "new patients" (that others asked me to see as consults) around 4 am so I was able to start rounding on my "old patients" and finish up with things in time to meet attendings coming in at 7 am to round and staff the "new patients" with them at that point. I was just as busy, if not busier than other Friday nights I've had in the past, but timing makes all the difference. Then it was out the door by 10 am - we get in serious trouble for being there longer than the 27 hours because of work restrictions... HOWEVER, how can you leave after seeing 9 new consults overnight, rounding quickly in the AM, answering 15 or so clinic calls and be completely disengaged from the whole thing?... My brain does not shut off easily.

So, out to fresh air, the first in 27 hours, for the 6-block walk home. Sofia was happy to see me yelling "Mamma, Mamma, Mamma" and ran to the door when I came in. She was talking 100 MPH about things over the past day and gave me plenty of smooches. What a lovely reward! She and Lars had already eaten "eggies" for breakfast and he had cleaned up the kitchen, was already swiffering the floor and doing a load of laundry. How could I be so lucky? Sofia then shared my bowl of cereal with me chit-chatting away sitting on my lap at the table. After making 1 or 2 calls back to the hospital to check on a couple of things, I was off to bed for a few hours. The sleep was fragmented since Sofia made a couple of visits. Lars was not quick enough to catch her before she snuck in to either say "Hi!" or ask if she could take her nap with me. We were up by 4 or so and Ohhhhh, so groggy. We had a little afternoon coffee, played, then had dinner. Sofia and I were ready for bed by 9pm. We snuggled and read for a while then fell fast asleep together while Pappa watched the Sopranos downstairs.

So there you go - That's how Friday night-overnight calls go for us. Now, I'm not a surgery or OB resident(I think they work even harder most times - and push the "80 hour" workweek limit nearly every week), but call like that is not that fun. The bright side is that I have 1 official Friday night left, (maybe 2 depending on a switch) for my entire residency career! Yippee.

In case you were wondering, This little boy I am lugging along with me on these endeavors does not seem to mind at all!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures: