Estoy cuidandome.

It was 6:30am Monday morning, end of my call and waiting for my patient to be extubated, the Anesthesiologist joked with me. "We've still got 30 minutes left! We can squeeze in another!" To which I responded, "I can still go grab the gallbladder!"  The gallbladder to which I was referring had actually been the very first case I'd booked for myself on call, then traumas and other emergencies kept pushing it back. To the point that we ran out of time and I never actually got to do it at all. Not for a lack of operating, my anesthesiology colleagues we soooo mad at me that call. When I finally got home that morning, I crashed harder than I had in a long while. Absolutely dead to the world. When I finally came to and reaching for my phone, discovered I had missed a lot. Spent the short evening I had left attempting to organize myself... only semi-succeeding. It reminded me of the various conversations held over the past 7 years with my colleagues surrounding the best way to present ourselves and our lifestyle to society. Concerning the work/social life balance, how to keep it steady, what is enough, acceptable and appropriate. Questions and conversations that perhaps will never truly have a standardized response, as they are going to be different for every individual. The joy of work, the peace of purpose and the love of life shown and received different by each resident in their own unique way. 

A lot of times sacrifice is thought of at the expense of social activity in order to work. In my experience, knowing the need for social interaction, that sacrifice frequently comes at the expense of my work and/or rest. Which is what happened this past weekend, prior to another heavy call, culminating in the exhaustion that led to me falling asleep, sitting in a chair, mid-dictation and ultimately crashing when I finally got myself home.

The day before, on my day off, instead of sleeping, which is usually the #1 priority on an off day, I woke early to get work done in time to go apple picking! Monica, Alex and I drove up to Barton's Orchard. In this case, sacrificing sleep and studying to instead get outside, in the sunshine and separate myself from the hospital for a moment. And it was worth it. It's always worth it!

Alex, Monica and I picking apples at Barton's Orchard.

Relaxing in the middle of an orchard, because.... why not?

Sometimes you go for the highest apples, because those are the best ones of course! Plus, the most fun to try to get at!

 

There's never an easy answer to maintaining the work/life balance. Plenty of lectures, talks, books, etc on recommendations and advice and How To's. I tend to ignore the general recommendations, feel when the balance is starting to tip and then act to counteract the tip. In retrospect, more reactionary than proactive I suppose. But, I have very few regrets. One regret however.... that I didn't get more of Barton's apple cider donuts. They were. Amazing!

 

Much Love and Prayers!