Its hard to believe that we're already a quarter of the way through first year, its gone by surprisingly fast! Month three (September) was trauma surgery, which I expected Mr. Dawkter to enjoy...... not so much. I on the other hand loved it! Trauma surgery is similar to the Emergency Room in that it's unscheduled patients, but rather than treating those that come in with the flu or other illness, they treat the patients that need emergency surgery. Examples of patients would be car accidents, broken bones or any major injury/illness that requires immediate surgical attention.
I thought Mr. D would love such a service - it sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? Well I guess trauma is divided up into two divisions, ICU (intensive care) and regular trauma. The ICU trauma is the patients that just came in or just came out of surgery and may not necessarily be stable yet. The other other part of trauma handles patients that are less severe and are closer to being released from the hospital. As an intern the husband was on the regular trauma not the ICU trauma, meaning his patients weren't as "interesting" and didn't necessarily involve critical care management. For that reason, after just coming off burns which involved more serious patients, Mr. D found that he did not learn as much (because he wasn't exposed to as much).
The other unique thing about trauma was that it was more like shift work because they have day and night shifts. With such a set-up there is no need for anyone to be on-call at night. Personally I loved the trauma schedule because he was on days, he had every Sunday off, and he was home every night! But unfortunately I was the only one in our house who liked it, Mr. D struggled with the service and its schedule, he literally counted down the days until the month was over. I however, enjoyed having a husband home to sleep with me each night! Although there were some long days he really wasn't sleep deprived because he got a full nights sleep at home every night.
And not very significant, but he did get his first "cold" at the end of the month which made him even more miserable. Usually I'm the one in the house getting sick as Mr. Dawkter has a great immune system and gets sick about every two years. For once I managed to escape catching it, but I'm not looking forward to him bringing home any hospital germs this winter.
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Dad.
2 years ago
I guess that's similar to when the residents on "Grey's Anatomy" get assigned to the clinic. It's not as much fun for them because they don't get to see the more "interesting" patients. But I can definitely see why you like the arrangement!
ReplyDeleteToo funny hey? It seems that everything that I like, S hates too!!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that it's a quarter the way through the year - I am SO excited when it is put that way :)
Glad that you guys seem to be doing well though. I hope he keeps the nasty hospital germs away from you!!
I would think trauma would correspond with exciting things as well, but of course...they always have a way of putting a damper on things ;)
ReplyDeleteRuss' rotation last month had him counting down the days as well - even though his hours were pretty good!
Make sure to take your vitamins! I'm pretty sure I'm doomed to catch something. Between riding the bus and Russ working in the hospital and my immune system being crappy, pretty sure it's only a matter of time! But I'm still poppin' those vitamins and drinking OJ like it's my job :)
The fact that he hated the schedule probably means he picked the right specialty!! haha. Who would have thought he wouldn't enjoy a fairly "normal" schedule?
ReplyDeleteHA!! My hubs loved trauma during his 3rd year rotation last year -- and he says he even misses it! However, it was the worst 2+ weeks for his functioning -- I had never seen him so tired. Your hubs hospital must have it nice!! Here they rEaLlY give it to the med students hard...definitely had overnight calls -- and was usually at hospital by 4am and not home until 8pm. I hardly talked to him at all those 2 weeks -- and I was thankful we weren't married yet at that point -- haha!! :-)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear an update! I never know what to expect J will like. This month his first two weeks have been easy. (He's still MSIII, so hoping that continues). I expect the next two weeks (and the following four months) to be harder as he shifts from clinic to hospital, but for now the kids and I are enjoying him at home. :)
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