On Call

A day out of the rest of my life.

There are a lot of reasons that a 24 hour call becomes less attractive as I age. One day is really two days out of the rest of my life. Not all that important when I was 36 but now that I am 67 and outliving some of my friends, each day becomes more precious.

I arrived to start work on Thursday and saw 17 patients, signed off about 30 lab reports, spoke with a specialist at her request and to one about my patient, dealt with an abusive patient in the ER and was begging milk from my next door colleague for my tea at 18:35. The nurse in the ER called for advice or confirmation of his treatment four separate times, each for several patients. At 22:15, I had to go to the hospital for a maternity who thought she was in labour; she was not but other patients came in. Two more maternity patients, a man with chest pain and a hopeless resuscitation in process by the EMTs commanded my attention. I was in bed at 1:30 am.

One phone call interrupted my sleep. At 5:15 the nurse asked me to come in to see an elderly man.

My head felt as though I'd just arrived from an overseas 16 hour flight. It was a challenge to get motion into stiff joints. The patient was a cancer patient whose daughters were very anxious about treatment. Sympathy was difficult

I signed off the pile of unseen charts and was home by 7:50. I called the incoming physician for handover.

After a shower and something to eat, it was time to make up for the lost sleep – my sluggish brain made it apparent that I would not be doing anything else. Daytime sleeping is always a bit difficult for me so I prepare with earplugs and eye cover. Exactly ten minutes after the loss of consciousness and deeply asleep, the phone rings and rings. Eventually I am awake enough to answer it. The day nurse needs a signature! I told him that it could wait for 24 hours but the call had destroyed sleep. And now I had a dull headache. I'm whining about my osteoarthritis; my healing fracture burns.

I never did get the day back. It was lost. Now don't get me wrong, I did a few things but, like the pecking of a hen, a little here a little there, and couldn't get clearness back. An afternoon nap helped but now it was too late to call Eastern Canada for the business that I wanted to do.

And now, at 8:00 am on Saturday, I am back on call.for another 24 hours. It is hard to think positively about the next 48 hours.