Med 3 Insanity

Shawn in his scrubs after being on call all night.
Shawn passed out after getting less than an hour of sleep at the hospital.

Shawn began his Med 3 rotations on July 7th and it's been a whirlwind of a life since then. He gets up at 5 am now, and gets to the hospital around 6 am. He begins with rounds, seeing all of the patients on the cardiac service. He, another med 3, a med 4, intern, resident and attending visit each patient room and go over the patient's chart, present condition and decide on a treatment plan (the attending asks each person for their opinion and they compare). After rounds he hurries to get his notes done, does his H&P's (history & physicals), and anything else the residents want him to do (get test results, watch procedures, attending didactics, etc). They round again at 9:30, then again at 4:oo. Lunch is a luxury at this point, when he has time he gets it. If not, he's SOL. After the last rounds he does any discharges necessary and sees any new patients that have come onto their service. He has been getting home around 7:30 so we eat as soon as he gets home (he calls when he's leaving and I rush to get dinner ready) and then he studies until he goes to bed (around 10:30). Then he starts all over again the next day. This doesn't include short and long call - short being that he goes until 9pm and long meaning that he spends the night and goes until noon the next day. This week has been crazier than normal as he took two long calls. So Monday through Wednesday he worked 6:00am until 7:00pm (excluding the day he worked until 8:00 when his patient coded on his way out the door) then Thursday he got to the hospital at 6:00am, spent the night and got to leave around noon on Friday. He got 50 minutes of sleep that night, came home and crashed until about 5:30 when I woke him up to go to dinner :) Then today (Saturday) he went in again at 6:00 am and got to leave around 11:00 am. He's studying today and we'll go to church tonight because tomorrow he has to be back at 6:00 am and will spend all day & all night there. He'll get to come home on Monday around noon to sleep and start all over again Tuesday morning. Medicine is fun :)

Meanwhile, I've been trying to do what I can to help the poor guy get through each day because on top of being sleep deprived, starving and stressed out constantly, he has had to pretty much start over again. Med 1 & 2 are all book learning, but this is actual, hospital-based medicine. He's having to recall everything he's learned, even though it looks completely different in the book, compared to what he's seeing in real life now. He's put on the spot daily by the residents and attendings and is having to study during the few hours he's home so he can pass the test at the end of each rotation. God bless him.

Needless to say this has been quite an adjustment period for us. I'm taking on everything at home so he doesn't need to worry about one more thing (meanwhile, my job has been crazy too). I'm just trying to make life as easy for him as possible. I'd say my biggest struggle has been turning the independence "switch" on and off. As the wife of anyone in a medical career you need the perfect balance of being independent and making your spouse feel needed. So when he's been gone for a while, I get used to "fending for myself" and doing things with people or on my own (I've been reading like a mad woman). But when he has a few hours I need to make the most of it and turn back into the wife who needs him around. It's interesting trying to find a balance but I'm trying!So that's our life now, I'm sure in some ways it'll get less crazy, but I'm not expecting that to happen any time soon!

Regardless of how things are going I can always say that I am so incredibly proud of Shawn. This is such a stressful schedule and so tiring, yet he wakes up every day ready to take what is thrown at him and never doubts that this is exactly where God wants him. I am very blessed to have such an amazing husband and I don't ever want to take him for granted.