Transitioned to a new service this Monday. For the next three blocks I'll be chief resident on the Transplant/Hepatobiliary Surgery service. Started out with a bang! Not only was I on call, but one of my patient's got a liver and the transplant went all night long.
It was a tough night for everyone involved. Our patient was incredibly sick to start with, my Attendings and the anesthesiologists had to fight and fight hard for long hours. While this was happening, level 1 traumas kept coming in. Working with my senior on call, at one point we had to pull our intern from the floor to cover the transplant as I needed to help with the level ones and our junior was already covering other cases that were happening. This left the floor uncovered, but when fires are burning, you work collectively on the biggest flames and then spread out again. I think my senior aged 5 years that night. Active resuscitation on multiple patients simultaneously, intubating multiple patients, playing musical beds in the ICU... for all those patients being intubated and resuscitated. So many decisions to make and make them fast. Our Attending AWOL throughout it all. We kept things under control, kept everyone alive, operated on those that needed it, and when all was semi-stable again I would head back to the transplant to free up our intern, and then our junior to once again tend to the floor and help with the fires happening outside of the OR. My senior would then come into the OR to run things by me... at that point he didn't really need my help, more my approval of his decisions and reassurance.
It was also a long night for everyone. I actually fell asleep during the transplant. Was close to 5am at that point. I caught myself, and used peripheral vision to quick check if anyone had noticed, no one had. If it wasn't for SEIGO yelling at me every 30 seconds, "SUCTION! Christy SUCTION! look! look! like this, USE TWO SUCTION!" I'm sure it would have happened more than once! But when I finally rolled my patient into the ICU, the morning was well underway, the various surgical teams already running through the halls to check on their patients prior to heading to the OR. I ran into my senior one last time after he escaped from morning report, and I could relate to the look of absolute defeat in his eyes. I hated myself for not being able to help him more, and did my best to reassure him that he did a good job, and now needed to let go of the rest.
Welcome to Transplant indeed! We have another one tonight, so should probably get some rest quick!
It was actually a little bittersweet to leave Vascular behind. Crazy busy three blocks, but I enjoyed it. I was incredibly blessed to have fantastic teams for each block. You can like what you do, but when you enjoy your team and can trust them, it makes such a huge difference.
Block 1: Moe (pgy3), Nicole (pgy1) They did fantastic for being a small team for the first block of the year! And when I texted them to ask for a picture they both showed up and smiled! I hope that means their PTSD isn't that bad! jk...i hope ;)
Block 2 I don't have a picture of because my intern was then on night float, so need to get a picture now that she's back on a regular schedule again.
Block 3: Kamil (pgy1), Aryeh (OMFS rotator), Kenji (pgy3) They also did a fantastic job. They kept our whole team laughing as well. Made for a fun time taking care of our patients with these guys.
Much love and prayers!
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