Three Weeks And Counting..
So, three weeks from now, we will officially be finished, on Thursday, August 7. Our tour of duty at the Y will have come to an end, and we will moving on to the next assignment.
It's a little strange really. I think that I'll miss this hospital, and this unit, but then again, once a decision has been made about going somewhere different, it just seems like a waiting game, getting ready to go. I feel very comfortable here, and it actually seems like I've been here longer than 10 weeks, a lot longer. I guess I caught on to the flow of the place early on, and have found my place here. In fact, there are several people leaving for various reasons in August, and I found myself considering going to their goodbye parties. I don't even know these people, and somehow I feel entitled to go eat their cake and drink their beer. Not that that is something different for me.
It's been a long five days of addiction for me. Every shift, I've had drunks and druggies. Hardcore folks, too, not just college students on a binge. I've had the serious drunks, and the crazy crackheads. I was thinking they were punishing me, but then I realized the whole unit is full of these folks. I guess they come out of the woodworks this time of year. It is, after all, a good time of year to smoke crack.
I did have an interesting patient this week, my one-day reprise from the junkies. He was a gentleman who had worked in coal mines in Jamaica. He has steadily declined since arriving on our unit. From my perspective, his case was poorly managed by the team here; he would have been put on an oscillating ventilator long ago at the Big D, and at one point, an attending purposely gave him a cuff leak on his vent to "blow off a little extra CO2" (sorry for the medical jargon for non-medies). Anyhow, it was all pretty ridiculous, I think the attending was planning on writing a paper about it, and wanted some data. When they finally did oscillate him (a huge rarity here), he died immediately. Guess it was a little too late. Still, the shift that I was pretty interesting. It was very intellectual, and very busy. He wasn't an alcoholic, either, which spoke volumes for him.
Tonight is my last night for almost a week, fortunately. Tomorrow, Jess and I head up to Acadia National Park in Maine. We're camping for the weekend. It's going to be a great trip. As rustic as the campground it, there apparently is wireless internet, so maybe I'll post something from the bush.
Until next time, be safe.
