shifty

February 24, 2009

ER time
i have the day off today . . . sort of. in reality, i am scheduled to work an 8 hour emergency department shift, but it doesn’t start until 11 pm! i’m not exactly sure how to make things work, body-clock-wise. i think as of now, my tentative plan is to tire myself out with a run during the afternoon and then take a nice long nap. powered up with some café, that should help me at least start my shift feeling okay. then i can crash at 8 am upon returning home, sleep 8 hours, and my circadian rhythms will magically be flipped on their axes to get me through the rest of this backwards week! well, here’s hoping, anyway.

now, i’m a novice at this kind of shift work, but please do not construe this as complaining. this is much, MUCH better than 30 hour stints. MUCH!!! and it’s not a heavily loaded month by any means — of the 28 days that make up our block, i only have shifts on 16 of them! this is in part because i traded 2 away (i’ll be going to a conference instead), but still — it’s pretty sweet.

goals for the rotation
■ dive in and get procedures over with! in particular, i need to get all of my required IVs out of the way. if i place one per shift, i’ll be done halfway through the month!
■ work on creating a system to stay organized in the midst of chaos. likely it will take a few shifts to know what really works, but i think this is really important.
■ take time to teach med students that rotate through – try to make their experiences worthwhile, as they don’t get lots of time to spend in the emergency department
■ read daily. with 8 hour shifts, really there is no excuse not to!
■ start each shift with a positive attitude and ready to gain experience — while it’s true that i’m not exactly well-versed in trauma care (we don’t do much of that on the wards!), now is the time to learn.

now what?
i really hadn’t thought about the fact that i basically have a full day to do whatever with today! time for some cleaning, some reading (likely both for work & fun!), and a 10-mile run. i’m debating going outside vs. the gym . . .

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2.23.09

workout: 45 minutes (5.5 ‘miles’) on the elliptical, 20 minutes weights
– pushups, 2 x 12
– tricep cable pushdowns, 15 lbs first set, 10 lbs second set, 2 x 10
– lateral and forward raises, 6 lbs, 2 x 10
– lat pull-downs, 55 lbs, 2 x 12
– walking double lunges, 8 lb weights each hand, 2 x 10
– ball tucks for abs, 2 x 12

doin’ time: thanksgiving in february? why not! last night i made martha’s chicken with cranberry sauce, accompanied by mashed white beans and roasted brussels sprouts. MMM — so homey and delicious! and by the way, if anyone is wondering whether martha can be blamed for yesterday’s weight rant, i feel that the answer is a resounding no. her recipes typically are not too buttery or oily, and if they are, i just use less. most of the meals in the book are balanced nicely, and she uses mostly lean protein sources such as chicken and fish, as well as vegetarian options. in general, the book’s recipes tend to rely on fresh vegetables and herbs for flavor rather than lots of fat. rather than martha, it was my cooking strike (lots of take out!), eating the ‘free’ (but heavy & unsatisfying) lunches at work, and too many random chocolatey snacks that hurt me this past month. but i’m back on the health-train now!

enough blabbering. here it is!

this meal was worthy of a close-up.

reading: 30 minutes on pulmonary hypertension from february’s peds in review

flossing: in case anyone was wondering, i’m still flossing. i missed a few days, though, because we ran out of floss! aimee, my floss-buddy — if you are reading this, are you still going strong?

2 Comments

  • Reply HangryPants March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Enjoy the day and good look with that shift tonight!

    The beans look really good! I am going to need to rememeber to try to find this recipe.

  • Reply Jess March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    I’m looking up the beans recipe. Good luck on your shift!

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