I'm a sad turkey. Yesterday, I was out for a few hours than went home because the patient wasn't brain dead and the family just wanted to extubate. And no, he wasn't a DCD candidate, if you're keeping score at home. Then I thought I was going to be releaving my orientee(who got her first consent yesterday-yeah!)and doing just an OR this morning, leaving me free to enjoy my Thanksgiving. Not to be. I got called out to a hospital and drove for an hour only to find the patient they had called me on had coded and was pronounced. No worries, they had another patient in the CCU who was brain dead. Wife had already brought up brain death to the staff and here we are, me and another orientee(yes, I train everyone) staying through the night and keeping this guy going until the OR Friday morning.
It's a nice case. No rushing. 3 organs to share. All night to do it. A few management issues, but he seems to have weathered them. Now, I just got a call saying he's Hep B core positive. I'm waiting for the hard copy before I wake my surgeon. This could put a crimp in my plan. His recipients aren't Hep B positive and I don't if he any of his patients are. So we may have to begin sharing again. We'll see. Right now it's the wee hours and my head feels fuzzy and I miss my family and my baby who I haven't seen in 15 hours.
On a positive note, we did have lumpia and ponsit, two of my very favorite Filipino foods. Especially the lumpia, yum. And apparently there's sweet potato pie waiting at home, when I get there.
3 comments:
Oh, the days when you wish you worked at a bank, doctor's office, or surgicenter. No weekends, no holidays, and sleeping at night. Just remember, you saved three lifes on your Thanksgiving, and gave those people and their families something to be thankful for!
Sometimes it's hard to see through to the end when you're in the middle of it all... but your job is SO worth it in the end. Keep up the hard, heroic work.
You do such wonderful work. I know, working holidays is hard, but without people like you, life would be a lot harder for all of us.
MJ
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