Winning the game, more night livers, and moving on...

We won the game last week. In residency, that means we discharged all of our patients on the service and didn't have to come early to round since there was no one to round on. It's a pretty rare event for this to happen, and it was erie. Everyone on the service felt uneasy, like we were supposed to be doing something but there was nothing to do. We gave the intern on the service Friday and Saturday off. I came in on Saturday to round on a consult patient and we actually did get one admission. I almost gave him Sunday off and he said "are you sure?"

In the end, I asked the intern to come in on Sunday and I'm glad I did because we got two admissions for transplant. One kidney transplant and one liver transplant. The liver transplant went first at 1AM on Monday morning, and we finished around 7AM. The patient did well but like all liver patients bled intra-abdominally on the first post-op day. I spent the day resuscitating him and we almost had to take the patient back to the OR for exploration but he stabilized out in the end.

Moving on, I started as Vascular Surgery senior resident on Wednesday. Vascular is the field that I am likely going into, but the service itself is miserable. I love the cases and like the patients themselves, but every day is a 6AM to 10PM affair. We always think that there is an end in sight for the day, but something always comes up, there are unanticipated admissions, extra cases that need to come up, anesthesia delays, oh my.

As a result, I haven't been able to spend much time with my wife who is usually asleep when I get home and waking up as I leave, but I do have this weekend off. I am looking forward to seeing my wife and we are going on a date to see a Tenessee Williams play at a local theater.