the underwear drawer

i have to do this for a whole month?

Day two on the wards and I'm still alive, but very tired. I don't know what's wrong with me. The list is reasonable, the kids aren't so so sick, and we're getting good support on all sides. So why am I all stressed out? My co-senior and I were both working today, so since she was on call tonight, she ran the team and I took the senior admitting resident pager (heretofore known as the KIDS pager, because that's what it spells when you dial the pager number on the phone: 5-4-3-7), to field any new patients coming to the floor.

I hate holding the KIDS pager.

What is this horror anyway? A pager that goes off ceaslessly? That never, ever, ever stops going off? Because people don't ever stop paging KIDS. And they call for everything. They call because they know that there will always be a senior resident on the other end of the line who call back promptly, because if we don't, next thing we know we have a hypotensive septic onc patient who just came off pressors five minutes before transfer sitting on the floor without signout from the PICU. Because the sound of the KIDS pager is the sound of fear. OK, so maybe that's a little dramatic. But it is at the very least the sound of work. Lots and lots of work.

And the worse part? Someone set this pager to one of the musical ringer tones. And the song? "Theme from Love Story." Come on, people. As if it wasn't annoying enough?

I can't wait until I'm on call tomorrow night. At least I got my new sneakers to make me feel special.

Currently reading: I have "The Best American Non-Required Reading 2004" on deck, but not quite enough energy to start it at the moment. Did you notice the cover illustrated by Adrian Tomine? Quality!