Sunday, October 14, 2007

Vacations: Blessing and Curse

Well, got back from vacation last week. Went to a city out west with bright lights , gambling, great restaurants and always something to do. Played 4 rounds of golf with friends and spent time with my wife on our anniversary. Rode around in limos. But the thing that sucks with my(our) job, is that any time we take vacation, we cram all the shifts of a month into 3 weeks. So I get an intense reminder of how great it was to not work, and how horrible I feel at 3:00 a.m. physically and mentally. Vacations make it hard to go into the room and keep my patient satisfaction scores high by looking interested about a 19 year old's penis drip. They make it difficult to deal with the codes and unexpected deaths (had one today). Vacations make your heart sink when you return that next Monday to several already waiting to be seen when you get there at 7:00 a.m.

I guess the best solution to prepare me would either be to not take vacations ( won't work, because I do love drinking white Russians, smoking a fat cigar, and sharing good times with family and friends) or plan B: to stay up all night the last night of vacation, hire several people to yell and bitch all night and complain about stupid things, pipe in the smell of pus, beer, poop and feet, and kick me in the balls. Then I would be prepared to come back to work.

12 comments:

  1. 'cat,
    you seem to like that place in the desert with the lights and stuff. you speak the truth about vacations. who knew that you could pick a job that made you fear going on vacation and dislike Christmas and Thanksgiving?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amen!! And, boys and girls, it just gets worse with time. I actually hate Christmas and all holidays, even if by some mistake, I'm off, I still can't "celebrate" them..And my family(brother, sister etc not the kids and wife) doesn't know why..It can't be explained, only experienced..

    ReplyDelete
  3. CAT. There's always pathology. Only a five-year residency and lots of dead bowel. Probably worth it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ugh - I hear you. I was gone for 2 weeks last month with wedding, honeymoon, etc and had to cram the rest of my shifts into the other two weeks. Worst 14 days ever.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's pretty sad when, on your first day of vacation, you start counting how many days you have left before you have to return to work. I'm sure nobody else does that but me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. God, this makes me want to cry. I worry about the quality of our lives when we hate our jobs. I'm feelin' for you, 'cat, even though I love my job.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree. I finally started scheduling my vacation time at the end of the month. That way I can work my butt off before my trip and have something to look forward to.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I try to take one five day stretch of days off every month regardless of plans, just to unwind a bit. If I want to go anywhere on vacation, it isn't a big deal to stretch that out another few days.

    You guys are complaining about one of the best benefits of our specialty....the ability to take off whenever we want without having to arrange coverage or worry about patients.

    I don't get it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. scalpel,
    i think perhaps two things are at play. if i'm not mistaken you may have been doing this longer than we have and may either have been able to arrnage a somewhat irregularly irregular schedule with your group or you, perhaps, don't work as many shifts as we do. i think 'cat works 15 or so and so do i and at least at my place there's no shifting sked to account for days and nights etc...

    at all three facilities at which i have worked after residency i have also found myself both looking forward to and dreading vacations. coming back to work is, to me, just as 'cat describes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 911 is right.

    When you do the math, cramming 15 shifts into 23-24 days accounting for night to day turn arounds ( 5 shifts are nights) it makes for a horrible 3 weeks. I have a family, and will not be able to take my son to a scout camp out, will miss my younger son's soccer game and violin, and will miss church for 2 weeks. That doesn't even consider the health effects of 24 hour turn aounds on cortisol levels, sleep wake cycles, and fatigue.

    ReplyDelete
  11. True, I didn't consider the night/day turnarounds since I've been working only nights for the past few years (which is no bargain either).

    ReplyDelete
  12. hey scalpel.
    all nights huh? wanna job? nice place too!

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM AND GRATUITOUS LINK POSTINGS WILL BE IMMEDIATELY DELETED.