Work-a-holics 'R Us

I have never understood how people in 'business' (generic term for any industry that I know nothing about) could spend 80 hours a week at work - it is just paper and numbers and junk. At least that's my perception of it - I don't want to offend anyone...Gretchen... :) I had felt the same way about doctors, too. Why not just leave at the end of the day - it will all be there tomorrow, after all. After a mere 8 weeks of medicine, I feel differently... It is really bothering me that I don't know what is going on with my patients. I actually considered going on rounds again this morning, even though yesterday was our last day. We're working with people's lives here. We have so much responsibility. (Well, not me personally, but the team does) Already, my own needs seem less important than figuring out why a patient is in renal failure, or making sure that another patient's hemoglobin rises appropriately after blood transfusion. As with everything in medicine, there has to be a balance... Someday, I'm sure I'll find it.

New medical term I learned this week: "squirrel." Refers to a patient who is faking pain or other symptoms. We had a squirrel on service this week. She seemed like she was really having symptoms (nausea/vomiting and severe abdominal pain) even though tests showed nothing. After they kept her NPO for two days, she miraculously felt better.

I have a test this afternoon. Blech.

Yesterday, I was sitting outside Jason's Deli waiting for Susan. One of the high school-aged employees came out for a smoke and a phone call. She told her friend on the phone that she'd been waiting over an hour for a cigarette, and was so riled up that she'd actually slapped a fellow employee. Slapped! Because she hadn't had a cigarette! Does she NOT see something wrong with that? Good grief, people. If not having something makes you a raving lunatic, maybe you should try to give it up. Grr. I wanted to slap her myself! But, then, it had been a while since I'd had caffeine... ;)

Rambling, rambling, rambling...