Week 2

This morning I’m in the hospital.  I will be here occasionally in this job.  It is large and daunting but I have found the cafeteria.  It’s not busy this morning apparently and the guy I’m supposed to follow around isn’t here yet.  In fact I may have awoken him with my 6:56am call.  There’s free wireless though so I can do facebook and pretend I’m somewhere familiar. 

Last week was remarkable for the presence of a Day Off.  This is a marvelous phenomenon which apparently exists in the real world of real doctors.  In it, you do not work on that day.  Except probably you spend the whole day unpacking boxes and go for a 4-mile run while the kids are sleeping.  But that turns out to be lovely.  And then when you go back to work the next day it is Friday and so it is only One Day Before the Weekend and you can do anything for one day.  Even if one of the patients requests you get a second opinion from a doctor who "looks older than you do."

Even if you discover in clinic that there are no ortho supplies.  Or crutches.  And you had to send a poor little girl hopping to the ER holding on to her mother’s arm.  That is unfortunate.  You can think about that on your day off.  Actually, maybe you shouldn't.  But you probably will anyway.  Hmmm.

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Here are some things I thought about, 10 minutes too late, today.  First impressions matter.  As you meet people while touring a hospital, probably don’t comment on people’s impressively western outfits, or tell them about your previous experiences with mentally ill nephrologists, or let them know about your fringe activities in the medical field.  Probably don’t  try to pronounce their name unless it’s John Smith.

But then I had my first delivery of the likely many to come.  One nice thing about babies is that they all come out in the same one of two ways no matter where you work.   And almost all mothers think at the last minute that they can’t do it.  And then they do.  Lovely little boy.  The thing is that in every hospital all the forms are different and the protocols are different and the delivery tables are set up differently and you’re never supposed to put the laps in the same place.  But whatever.  Babies.

Bless the babies.