I'm not really sure what day it is. But that doesn't bother me. I know I left work this morning, and that I go back tomorrow morning. I'm not sure why I am up still. My plan is to head back to the hospital in an hour or two and go back to the clinic where I was the last few months and plug away at the research. There is a new sense of urgency to this project, which is lingering more than I would like, as I must collect all the data before I leave South Africa. I can start the analysis while stranded in Abu Dhabi on my layover back to the US.
In typical post-call disorganized thinking patterns, I pulled into the driveway thinking that maybe I should consider doing an ICU fellowship. Maybe a pediatric ICU fellowship. It's been a steep learning curve the past few days... and this ICU business isn't so tough. Ok, that's a bit of a lie, but I'm going with it.
What has been enjoyable, is that when I'm there during the day, I'm taking care of adult patients. Half medical, half surgical. During the day, the 2 pedi residents who are in the ICU are usually taking care of the pedi patients. Makes sense. But at night, my co-residents have absolutely no interest in covering the kiddos. So, I get to cover the kids at night. For me, it's a win-win.
But last night was slightly shaky. Lots of kids, most on vents. A few sick trauma kids, a few sick medical kids. Problems with the blood gas machine (basically not working)- which made it more challenging to manage vents. A problem with nursing (oh come off it, I hardly every speak bad about nurses back in America, but I'll have enough stories from the nurses here to write a separate blog. Which I don't mention in the blogosphere because that would be slanderous-which isn't really appropriate. Buy me a drink, and I'll tell you stories that will FREAK YOU OUT). Where was I... Oh yeah, I couldn't sleep last night, because a few of the kiddos were fragile enough that I didn't have the confidence to let the nurses oversee the care and so I basically hovered like a hawk.
Anyway, aside from the lack of running water for a few hours-which made it impossible to make coffee, the night was par for any night in an ICU.
We did our hand-over round this morning, the consultant agreed with my management during the night, and all the kiddos were still alive.
And in my hypo-caffeinated, post-call victory, sleep deprived state the idea of a PICU/ICU fellowship made sense.
Enough rambling for now.
More soon, I'm sure.
