I'm taking a break from early morning starts.
I'm taking a break from difficult airways and back-to-back epidural placements.
I'm taking a break from preop evaluations that make me grimace, or mentally roll my eyes, or make we want to go back home, curl up under one of Ramona's quilts, and take a nap.
I'm taking a break from surgeons who repeatedly have multiple add-ons to their schedules.
I'm taking a break from nurses who think room air is adequate oxygen for desaturating patients, who announce in loud voices that if they were "anesthesia" they'd throw their bodies across the door rather than allow a particular complicated patient to be brought to the operating room, who question my not giving a certain drug without thinking that I might be trying to protect the patient from that drug's potentially deleterious effects, and who in general either aren't comfortable with acute crises or who think they know more than the rest of us do about how to handle them.
I'm taking a break from A-lines and those who might forego using them to monitor the induction of anesthesia in really, really sick patients.
All those moments are in the past and across the ocean now. Now I am in a time and space of healing and rest. I'll eat food from the garden and listen to music from my son's violin, the chorus of frogs at the pond, the birds and sheep in the meadows. Now I'll inhale the scent of honeysuckle, lavender, and roses all around me, and just be.
That sounds great, T.
ReplyDeleteI've been immersed in hospital life the last week while my spouse has been at MGH (still there) for one surgery, then another one when the graft failed, and now recovering apace. Meanwhile Anthem is denying claims of astronomical amounts because they are "investigative" and "not medically necessary" (though the oncologist says they are standard protocol and very necessary). I would like to leave it all behind, too.
May you heal, rest and enjoy your time away.
Hope you have a great holiday and that it gives you the change to relax and completely recharge.
ReplyDeleteHey,
ReplyDeleteLove your blog, just found it. very interesting. Have a nice vacation :)
Hi, I'd just like to say that I've read your blog over the last month or so and I think your writing is among the best of all the medical blogs I read.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading up on life in anesthesiology now that my husband is applying to residency (gotta know what the hubs' is getting into!) and I'm shocked that CRNAs/AAs are lobbying so much power.
I am left wondering about the seemingly disproportionate number of anesthesiologists complaining about nurses (on SDN and in media). Are anesthesiologists just more politically aware? Are they interacting with nurses/midlevels more than physicians in other specialties? Perhaps they are more aware of the pitfalls of nurses practicing autonomously because of that?
Wow, got off on a tangent here. Have a great vacay!