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home/weekend call
okay, i have to say thus far home/weekend call has not been nearly as bad as i had expected! yesterday i was only at the hospital from 8:30 – 12:30. and this was with the attending that tends to take the longest on weekend rounds, and we did have an inpatient on our team (he’s home now!). i had been anticipating (not dreading, but just sort of expecting) an all-day affair, so i was pleasantly surprised at having the afternoon to myself.

furthermore, the pager has been (amazingly, wonderfully) quiet at night. during business hours, it rings quite frequently, so i didn’t know what this would mean for my sleep while on call, which is 24/7 for a week at a time. i’ve also never taken call from home before! for the first 24 hours, i couldn’t relax at all, knowing that i could be beeped at any moment. but i’ve already calmed down a lot.

now, in the medical field there is a HUGE superstition about saying something like the “q-word” above, or (horrors!) putting it in writing, for fear that admitting that things are peaceful will somehow invoke the spirits to bring on the worst-case scenario. while working in the ER, i used to dread the inevitable school bus accident*, but now i suppose i have to come up with very specific endocrine disasters to worry about. um, diabetes camp runs out of insulin?? there’s a national steroid shortage, and the NICU has to ration the hydrocortisone? that would be bad . . .

and today? i’m still on call, of course, but so far it doesn’t look like i’ll have to go in at all! yeah, i’ll take this over a weekend in the NICU ANY DAY!

this weekend’s slower pace has greatly assuaged my panic about not being able to get anything done (or have any time left for myself once it’s all finished). i will be able to get the usual household stuff done today, AND have time for some reading/work.

* it DID happen, too, during one of my shifts!! the bus had just been bumped, but everyone’s kid had to be ‘checked out.’ everyone was fine, but O.M.G., the angst and paperwork that that one vehicular love tab generated!

what’s in your bag?
two lovely ladies took the cue from my bag post and revealed the contents of their totes/backpacks . . .

■ marathon maiden is carrying enough for a small army — including a giant kaplan MCAT prep book and flashcards! perhaps she can count toting around these items as part of her strength-training routine . . .

■ chelsea‘s bag may look worn from the outside, but is filled with colorful and organized components. plus, we get a glimpse into her office including a swoon-worthy (okay, maybe just to me) graph-paper log.

if anyone else has a bag to share, drop me a note or leave a comment!

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7.10.10

workout: 40 minutes elliptical (10 as warmup, 30 post-weights), levels 9-12; upper body weights (from SSU week 3).

in the kitchen: it’s a rare saturday night that we stay in and cook! however, since it’s my first weekend on call, i didn’t really want to be far away from a computer (to look up patient info, labs, etc) in case i did get paged. plus, we had ingredients just languishing in the fridge! so cajun jambalaya it was.

the recipe in the magazine called for chicken breast plus turkey sausage, but i substituted bison sausage since that was what we had available. it worked fabulously! i also nixed the whole foil packet idea and just used a glass pyrex covered in foil. less messy, less wasteful, but the same ‘steaming’ effect. i baked it for 35 minutes rather than the 25 stated in the recipe because the shrimp didn’t look quite done enough initially.

farewell, furry friend
our dog-sitting adventure ends today. major deegan has been a little bit tempermental this time around, insisting on sleeping in our bed and refusing to eat his food (although he picks out everything we try to put in there to GET him to eat it, including cheese, tomatoes, red pepper pieces, and carrots).

clearly, he has discerning taste. does orla make dog accessories?