12 AM to 6 AM Thread

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I just finished all my computer competency modules for the year. Shoved 'em all in a week's worth of night float. DONE!!! FREE!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






seriously. You have no idea how good it feels to have a whole year's worth of stupid computer modules all completed.

Now on to studying for boards for the remainder of night float. But I'll start that tomorrow. For tonight, I'll get a couple of hours of sleep so I can at least spend a few hours with my husband later today. It's our 19th wedding anniversary. I didn't get him anything. He didn't get me anything either. We're too broke to do anything other than sit home. Next year tho... next year will be a killer 20th wedding anniversary. We'll have a couple of months of attending pay under our belt. Perhaps we'll go to Chicago for a really really nice dinner long overdue.
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I just finished my O-chem study block, and it's on to Genetics. I am wired and on a roll at 2AM. Yesterday I struggled to get anything done.

I think I may get this study discipline thing down soon. Now it's time to shut this SDN thing off because I can get so easily distracted.:eek:
 
CastleG8 said:
I just finished my O-chem study block, and it's on to Genetics. I am wired and on a roll at 2AM. Yesterday I struggled to get anything done.

I think I may get this study discipline thing down soon. Now it's time to shut this SDN thing off because I can get so easily distracted.:eek:
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You can do it! You should do what I do and hand your router/cable modem to someone so you're not tempted to goof off. :D
 
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Painted the kitchen with primer and textured the bathroom drywall. Late night work on my house isn't so bad, but what am I going to do in a few years when I'm working nights in the hospital and can't drink beer and listen to Willie Nelson to maintain the necessary energy to keep working?
 
Agitated 99 year old man whooping sheriff's ass for putting him on a police hold.
 
Chip N Sawbones said:
Painted the kitchen with primer and textured the bathroom drywall. Late night work on my house isn't so bad, but what am I going to do in a few years when I'm working nights in the hospital and can't drink beer and listen to Willie Nelson to maintain the necessary energy to keep working?
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Nice. If played the red haired stranger with a beer in my hand, it would be epic, but I'd be fired. We really missed the Golden Age of Medicine For White Dudes. Let's face it, whenever golden ages are mentioned, for whom is a giant implication. A cigarette and a round of scotches while discussing business was common. I don't see why willie Nelson wouldn't be appropriate, even in that setting. Dude seems like he's been touring, smoking weed, ans dodging the IRS since the Johnson administration.

I'm on to OB next week.

Really is amazing the number of humans being created. And I'm entirely convinced of the thesis outlined in idiocracy on the matter. Entirely.
 
Abider said:
I'm on to OB next week.

Really is amazing the number of humans being created. And I'm entirely convinced of the thesis outlined in idiocracy on the matter. Entirely.
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That was a great movie. I can't wait until we get hospitals where we can play slot machines to win free health care or where the triage nurse has a cash register with fast food style pictographic representations of various illnesses.

All outside work on my house is now done except for the porch light, and the kitchen is painted. Tomorrow night I'll hang the kitchen cabinets. If anyone here is dumb enough to want to live in Fairbanks, in a month or two I'll have a great house to sell you.
 
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I am reeling from the first exam in my schools designated weed-out course. My weekend just started and I feel like it's game time. I need to get some studying done.

My brand new kayak is still sitting in the backroom waiting to get used, but that is not going to happen until I meet my goal of 10X 50/10 study sessions. +pity+
I always start my weekend by cleaning my room, and prepping a nice study corner.
 
Fourth night in a row and the hospital I work in has been packed to capacity the whole week. Overflow unit has been open for one month +. Beds are being assigned before they're cleaned.

I had eight admissions tonight for a total of 12 patients. All my admissions were post-ops, so all getting q30 min vital signs x4 then q1 hr x 4. I counted: I did a full set of vitals on my patients 72 times in eight hours. I couldn't chart for the first four hours because the floor I was on has only three computers for techs, and two nurses decided they needed two computers apiece. Guess who couldn't check orders and got reprimanded by the charge nurse for not having SCDs on two new patients?

Four patients had to be moved around ala musical beds because a few fresh post-ops ended up in rooms with patients who have MRSA in the nares. Whoopsies, bed board! Guess who moved them and their stuff?

Got a 15 minute break to fetch dinner from the cafeteria and ended up in an elevator with a newly discharged patient from another unit, her husband and a transporter. One floor down, the ex-patient's IV site started gushing and her husband began to look faint at the sight of blood. Guess who didn't have gloves in her pocket for the first time ever?

I yanked them all off the elevator, put the husband in a chair, found a phlebotomy tray on the first unit I saw, patched her up and cleaned up the bloody mess. Called housekeeping to get the elevator cleaned. Went and got my dinner and brought it back.

Guess who got reprimanded by the charge for being 5 minutes late from break? The charge didn't like that she had to answer a call bell in my absence.

She apologized later.

Sigh.
 
BrainOnFire said:
You can do it! You should do what I do and hand your router/cable modem to someone so you're not tempted to goof off. :D
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Hey, just saw your reply. That is not a bad idea. I use the reward system to motivate myself. After I finish 1-2 hrs study, then I allow myself to play Call of Duty for an hour.

When I want to do something fun, I make myself earn it.:nod:
 
CastleG8 said:
Hey, just saw your reply. That is not a bad idea. I use the reward system to motivate myself. After I finish 1-2 hrs study, then I allow myself to play Call of Duty for an hour.

When I want to do something fun, I make myself earn it.:nod:
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There's a program called "Freedom" - it simply asks you how many hours of freedom you want, and then it cuts of your internet until that time. The only way to get rid of it is to restart your computer, which, for me, was an active enough step to keep me from taking "quick breaks", on, say, Imgur.
 
CastleG8 said:
I am reeling from the first exam in my schools designated weed-out course. My weekend just started and I feel like it's game time. I need to get some studying done.

My brand new kayak is still sitting in the backroom waiting to get used, but that is not going to happen until I meet my goal of 10X 50/10 study sessions. +pity+
I always start my weekend by cleaning my room, and prepping a nice study corner.
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Not to be a negative, distracting influence, but what kind of kayak are we talking here?
 
I have an AdvancedFrame inflatable kayak from Advanced Elements. My school is right near a great paddling trail. I can't have a hard shell strapped to the top of my car during 5 hours of classes. The entire kayak fits in my trunk. I hope to start taking it to the bayou after classes soon.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into the program you mentioned.
 
blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
 
MedPR said:
blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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Was that a boredom or an overworked blah?


My first three kitchen cabinets are in! I had to stop when I ran out of screws, though. I wish Lowe's was open 24 hours.
 
So I just finished the second week of class and am fairly certain that I'm going to spend the next month and half getting my @$$ handed to me.... after that it should improve slightly. Hopefully that'll be around the time I sell my house. :xf:
 
Ugh. Sometimes it is difficult to really put my foot down all the time and make the interns and students broaden their differential. I breathe and remember that I, too, had to learn how to broaden a differential.
 
Chip N Sawbones said:
If anyone here is dumb enough to want to live in Fairbanks, in a month or two I'll have a great house to sell you.
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I don't want to live in Fairbanks, but a two week visit in July or Aug would be great. SDN timeshare maybe?

After my entire six week bathroom flood saga here, my landlord actually asked me if I'd like to buy the unit. The only reason I maintained enough self-control not to laugh in her face is because we were talking on the phone.

As for me, I'm off tomorrow and heading to bed now.
 
QofQuimica said:
I don't want to live in Fairbanks, but a two week visit in July or Aug would be great. SDN timeshare maybe?

After my entire six week bathroom flood saga here, my landlord actually asked me if I'd like to buy the unit. The only reason I maintained enough self-control not to laugh in her face is because we were talking on the phone.

As for me, I'm off tomorrow and heading to bed now.
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Anyone is welcome to stay for free at my house up until I try to sell it in a month or two, but you really don't want to be there now. It's beginning to get cold, and it won't be long until it's so cold that vodka freezes if you leave a bottle outside. Even in the summer Fairbanks isn't that great; it only looks good when compared to the miserable winters. Kodiak, where I grew up, is much nicer.
 
QofQuimica said:
I'm now waiting for an admitted patient to come up from the ER. I have no idea why it takes so long for the ER to send patients to us; I got signout from the ER resident hours ago. But there you have it.
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I work as a paramedic tech in an ER. Most nurses prefer not to transport because it means their assigned patients are losing their most knowledgable caregiver, if only for a little while. Usually I'm the only overnight tech from midnight until 8:00am, and I can only transport one at a time. While still being responsible for being a flex resource for ANY nurse in the ER. When told I need to transport I get to it as soon as I can, but I have no way of knowing or controlling when the report is given. And then I get snarky remarks from the nurses on the floor because "I took the report and have been waiting for this patient for over an hour."

Not saying you do this, but if it's a real annoyance / problem please don't take it out on us. I work my butt off for my entire shift and it makes me feel like **** when I get chewed out by a team of nurses for being late; especially when they are just sitting around chatting at the nursing station.
 
LegendaryPunk said:
I work as a paramedic tech in an ER. Most nurses prefer not to transport because it means their assigned patients are losing their most knowledgable caregiver, if only for a little while. Usually I'm the only overnight tech from midnight until 8:00am, and I can only transport one at a time. While still being responsible for being a flex resource for ANY nurse in the ER. When told I need to transport I get to it as soon as I can, but I have no way of knowing or controlling when the report is given. And then I get snarky remarks from the nurses on the floor because "I took the report and have been waiting for this patient for over an hour."

Not saying you do this, but if it's a real annoyance / problem please don't take it out on us. I work my butt off for my entire shift and it makes me feel like **** when I get chewed out by a team of nurses for being late; especially when they are just sitting around chatting at the nursing station.
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The annoyance is more because I hate having to sign the person out to the day team half-admitted, not because I suspect any foul designs by the techs. It's just kind of lousy to sit around doing nothing for a few hours, then have the patient come up right before we change shifts when we could have had them all tucked away if they'd come up promptly. Considering that we have a 1:1 or 1:2 nurse to patient ratio in the ICU, vs. typically a 1:4 or 1:5 nurse to patient ratio in the ER, any ER nurse here who is boarding an ICU patient is usually going to be pushing hard to get them upstairs.

It's also not good for patient care when a transport delay happens, because the ER resident will have left by then, and so the day team is getting a signout of a signout. Think of signouts like the game telephone. Every time the patient is signed out again by someone who barely knows them, a lot of important info gets altered or lost altogether. It's bad enough to have as many necessary signouts as we have. Adding on additional ones for no good reason except that you the tech are overworked is just bad care. (Not at all suggesting that this apparent understaffing problem is your fault, BTW.)

I'm actually surprised that your hospital lets you transport these patients by yourself. I mean, if the patient is sick enough to need the ICU, do you really want them stuck in the elevator with just you if something goes wrong en route? At our hospital, there are usually three people who transport the patient, at least one of whom is an ER nurse. If the patient is intubated, an RT will come along for the transport as well. Considering that we've had patients hit the door coding, it seems unwise to have a critical care transport team consisting of just a tech. :eyebrow:
 
I suppose I should have clarified - I was just speaking about transporting patients in general on a crazy night, not ICU specifically. ICU transports do require an ER nurse to accompany, with respiratory too if the patient is intubated. And the nurses do typically push to get them upstairs as soon as possible because trying to manage a critical patient while still keeping up with the rest of the ER can be terrifying, and unsafe.

Typically we have no problem getting people upstairs on time. Everyone in our ER communicates well, and even when we are moderately busy we do a good job managing resources. It's only when we get really crazy or are short staffed because of callouts that things start to fall apart.
 
Anyone else around? I am debating whether I should take a nap or suck it up and stay awake until 7 when I get off. What I should be doing is reading articles for journal club or working on my license application, but I'm just too brain dead right now.
 
Can't sleep... What a bummer. I have a really hard day at work tomorrow followed by two hours of Biochem. Uggg
 
Q - are you on call? I have never ever been a napper and actually wake up feeling worse than before. I need more than 2 hours to wake up feeling the least bit refreshed, so I never nap. Think this will be difficult in residency? I am fortunate enough that I have never needed much sleep and regularly get 3-5 hours and feel great - so hopefully that will help!
 
gumbyj said:
Q - are you on call? I have never ever been a napper and actually wake up feeling worse than before. I need more than 2 hours to wake up feeling the least bit refreshed, so I never nap. Think this will be difficult in residency? I am fortunate enough that I have never needed much sleep and regularly get 3-5 hours and feel great - so hopefully that will help!
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Yes, I'm on call. In-hospital, so I can use a call room, but I can't go home.

People have different preferences/philosophies concerning naps. I find that too long of a nap gives me what some call "sleep inertia," where it's hard to wake up. But a 15-30 minute nap is a huge help.
 
QofQuimica said:
Yes, I'm on call. In-hospital, so I can use a call room, but I can't go home.

People have different preferences/philosophies concerning naps. I find that too long of a nap gives me what some call "sleep inertia," where it's hard to wake up. But a 15-30 minute nap is a huge help.
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Hmm I have never even thought of trying 15-30 minute naps. Next time I am super tired in a situation where I can't really sleep I will try it out.
 
I have to say, it's good to be back in this thread. I spent last week in Oregon killing time between interviews and wondering if the pipes in my house were frozen. Now I'm back at work, and I've already installed the bathroom medicine cabinet, fixed the furnace, made a Lowes run, and installed most of the lower kitchen cabinets. My kitchen is sort of resembling a kitchen again, not just a cross between a construction site and a bachelor's crashpad.
 
QofQuimica said:
. But a 15-30 minute nap is a huge help.
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Nap to me means at least 1.5 hours of sleep, need enough time to get into a deep sleep cycle.

I've always considered 15-30 minutes to be "resting with my eyes closed" lol. But it can be very helpful to just get that 15 minutes.
 
I need some help with terminology here. Is there a name for a second dinner eaten after midnight? It's too much for a midnight snack and too early for breakfast.

Today I worked on plumbing, electrical circuits and the septic system, so I guess I got some good practice if I decide to go into urology, neurology or gastroenterology.
 
Chip N Sawbones said:
I need some help with terminology here. Is there a name for a second dinner eaten after midnight? It's too much for a midnight snack and too early for breakfast.

Today I worked on plumbing, electrical circuits and the septic system, so I guess I got some good practice if I decide to go into urology, neurology or gastroenterology.
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Sadly, Taco Bell is pushing the term "fourth meal". That alone means I'm not sure you want to get in the habit of eating it. :)

Sent from my phone
 
vc7777 said:
Sadly, Taco Bell is pushing the term "fourth meal". That alone means I'm not sure you want to get in the habit of eating it. :)

Sent from my phone
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A la Tolkien, it could either a) be second supper, in suit with second breakfast, or b) be named after the approximate time eaten (i.e., elevenses) - maybe midneat?
 
SrootsWwings said:
A la Tolkien, it could either a) be second supper, in suit with second breakfast, or b) be named after the approximate time eaten (i.e., elevenses) - maybe midneat?
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Midneat for the win. :thumbup:

What did the rest of you have for midneat? Shredded wheat with soy milk here. I realized as I typed this post that my midneat might not sound very appetizing. But it was actually quite tasty, and not so heavy as to give me heartburn upon lying down immediately afterward. (I'm currently supine in bed while typing this.)
 
Chicken noodle soup here. I was going to take a two hour nap, that somehow turned into 10. I guess that's not a bad thing since I was awake for 30 hours straight the day(s) before, but I don't work another night shift until Monday night and was hoping to get myself shifted over to normal people hours for the next few days.

I got a sweet volunteer position at the local student run free clinic, they had "overwhelming turnout" of applicants and had to decline a lot of people so I'm glad I got in as it was my last year to be eligible to apply unless I get into med school here.
 
Spaghetti and Alaska Amber beer for midneat (I like the word!). Tonight I installed drain valves in my water lines so I can drain the pipes before I leave for my next set of interviews. No matter how bad medical school and residency get, it's comforting to know that they won't require squatting in a crawlspace waving a propane torch around my highly flammable house.
 
Residency feels a lot like squatting in a small, enclosed space with high incendiary potential. As Rush so aptly put it, our job is to fight the fire while we're feeding the flames.

Peanut butter and apple jelly on wheat bread with diet ginger ale for midneat today. Nighty-night, fellow lateys. :sleep:
 
Up late, trying unsuccessfully to study for my exam tomorrow. :(

Also wondering why it is that my dog only seems interested in obsessively licking himself with loud slurping sounds when I'm eating :p
 
QofQuimica said:
Residency feels a lot like squatting in a small, enclosed space with high incendiary potential. As Rush so aptly put it, our job is to fight the fire while we're feeding the flames.

Peanut butter and apple jelly on wheat bread with diet ginger ale for midneat today. Nighty-night, fellow lateys. :sleep:
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:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Rush quote! I think I'm going bald.:p

wholeheartedly said:
Up late, trying unsuccessfully to study for my exam tomorrow. :(

Also wondering why it is that my dog only seems interested in obsessively licking himself with loud slurping sounds when I'm eating :p
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A family that slurps sloppily together chirps happily together. That works if you say it with a heavy Midwest accent.
 
oh hey, up at 4 a.m. again.... I forget what sunlight looks like sometimes.

anyone have good snack suggestions? i have the strangest urge for a malt but am trying to talk myself into eating a pear instead

and yeah, that exam blew... big time.
 
wholeheartedly said:
oh hey, up at 4 a.m. again.... I forget what sunlight looks like sometimes.

anyone have good snack suggestions? i have the strangest urge for a malt but am trying to talk myself into eating a pear instead
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Have a malted pear? I'm out of snack food at my house, except for pilot bread, so I don't have any other ideas.

Tonight I stained the baseboard and window trim until I ran out of stain and energy. Now that I finished installing the Pergo floors, the trimwork is the only major project I have left on my house. Oh, and I got a letter from Western saying I'm on their waitlist. Fair enough; they're on mine too.
 
You know Chip, I've got quite a few projects to do around my house to get ready to list it this spring...... and I've got quite a bit of food.... ;)
 
I know you think having me come and work for food would save you money, but after first breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, lunch, dunch, dinner and midneat, it really wouldn't. You'd be better off hiring someone with less of an appetite.
 
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