early to rise
your morning dose of randomness from geekadelphia
sometimes my ben franklin-esque tendencies (of the early to bed/rise type, of course, rather than the kite/key/lightning storm variety) backfire when i’m covering the pager. after all, i am definitely more likely to get paged at 10:00 pm than at 3:40 in the morning, since more patients and families are awake at that hour.
waking up 1 hour into your sleep cycle = painful, as i have learned since starting fellowship. waking up 6 2/3 hours into your sleep cycle (as i did this morning, at — yep! — 3:40 am) = not as bad, believe it or not. a brief pro/con analysis . . .
bad:
✖ i was totally unable to fall asleep afterwards (not because the call was something terribly difficult, but because my body just didn’t seem to feel like it)
✖ i will probably pay (in fatigue dividends) for this later!
good:
✔ i was able to finish an article on polyglandular syndromes which i was supposed to have read for a teaching session today
✔ coffee –> lifesaving nectar from heaven
i must have my rose-colored glasses on if i’m putting a 3:40 AM wake up call in a positive light, right? either that, or i’m just giddy to be coming off of the pager tonight at 5. the freedom to sleep (grocery shop, run, study, and clean) interruption-free will be sweet.
[. . .and, i was just paged again (5:44 AM) that someone let their daughter run clean out of insulin. not sure how that escaped mom’s attention until NOW, but yeah. come on 5:00!]
sigh. but there’s another up-side: i actually won’t be doing another straight 7 days of 24/7 pager call until november! this year feels like it is flying by already . . .
pen update
a little while ago, i wrote about ordering some pilot hi-tec-C gel pens from jetpens.com in a morning fit of self-indulgence (interestingly, between the hours of 5-7 am is when i most commonly fall victim to the lure of on-line shopping!).
i chose the 4 mm variety, as i actually prefer my point to be fine but not superfine. and i am now hopelessly addicted to these pens!
they glide beautifully across the page, do not skip or smear, and they leave a crisp, clean line. they make writing notes more enjoyable, and the rainbow colors are a must for my board prep.
at $3/pop they are not cheap, but i don’t think that’s overly exorbitant, either. interestingly, because they cost a bit more (and are a pain to get), i have been much better than usual about not losing them. definitely give them a try if you are in the market for a smooth, fine-tipped gel pen!
[by the way, this is in no way a solicited endorsement — i bought these myself and have zero affiliation with either pilot or jetpens. i am sort of losing interest in ‘reviews’ of free products and i have stopped accepting most offers. it was fun at first, but i started to feel weird about it. after all, how can one really give an unbiased opinion of something that was given away for free? and can i really pretend like it’s a financial hardship for me to buy a few granola bars to try out? okay, off my soapbox for the morning . . .]
triangle neighbors: where do you love to eat?
i’m happy to have finally gotten my favorite triangle restaurant page up (it’s slightly embarrassing how much time i spent on that). a few of you already wrote in with some suggestions — sara mentioned ye olde waffle shop on franklin street, and stevo recommended glasshalfull in carrboro, which we did try once and really liked. it got me thinking — there must be so many more places out there that i’m missing!
places i have not yet tried that i’ve heard great things about include the new [one] restaurant in meadowmont and cyprus on the hill (thought it looks pricey!).
any more recommendations for us? i’m always excited to expand my culinary horizons, so let me know!
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9.19.10
workout: 9 miles on the TM (alternating 9:13/mi, 8:57/mi, and 8:41/mi, 0.5% incline). (saturday i did 5 miles, also on the ‘mill, and 20 minutes of full-body weights). i was so excited to read the newest real simple that the miles flew by! but i am looking forward to ditching the pager so that i can get back outside.
old standard: all that restaurant talk made me hungry for old favorites yesterday! we headed to the loop and made what i have come to think of as our ‘standard’ order: one gorgonzola walnut salad + one medium portabello mushroom & pancetta pizza.
it was a battle of which pager would go off first . . .
unfortunately, mine ended up winning. but the call was quick and we were able to enjoy our meal interruption free!
up close & personal with the gorgonzola walnut salad with balsamic dressing
my favorite pizza in chapel hill – so salty and delicious.
board prep: i did a lot of studying this weekend! i am caught up in my plan, which is good, although tonight’s chapter looks to be epic (neurology). fun fact: UTI and abnormal bladder filling defect in a female toddler? think ureterocoele.
6 Comments
As for the title of your post…a family of two doctors isn't wealthy?? Haha…just kidding!
When I used to page doctors at 10pm, sometimes they would get angry (not saying you do, but ours did…), and I just wanted to say "better now than at 3am!!" Maybe not?? (Besides, it's not my fault they have bad urine output…)
I really think we could write a doctor/nurse duo book…
that pizza looks delicious and if it's salty than i am so there!
and that cartoon made me smile! i love philly 🙂
I'm glad to see a blogger address the freebies/review thing so openly! I find it's getting a bit overbearing on some blogs (in addition to those opensky stores) – I understand the desire to garner some swag/income from your blog, but yeesh. (off my soap box now)
P.S. – How many pages do you get a day? Seems pretty hefty!
In my opinion, Mami Nora's and Shiki Sushi are the best restaurants in all of Durham! Mami Nora's is definitely a hole in the wall, but the spices on the chicken are just SO GOOD. It's amazing, really 😉
Ah yes, The Loop. I've had countless meals there at the one on Duke's campus–love their Crunchy Broccoli Salad:)
Sarah … not sure if they are still around, but my ABSOLUTE favorite restaurant in durham when i was at Duke (ummm, almost 10 years ago) was Papa's Grille … have you ever been there?
also … i really feel for you as a fellow. we try to group our pages together to ours, but invariably somebody forgets and the poor fellows get VERY bad sleep the week they're on call. our fellows have actually gone so far as to have one night off during their week on-call, and give the pager to the other fellow for that night.