i hate calls :(

had my 2nd call on thursday in the labour ward this time round, i barely survived! :\

(for your info: a call is when you work all day and then go on "call" at night, so that the rest of the team can sleep in peace. in short, you (and the others on call) are left holding the fort at the hospital till daybreak when the rest arrive at the hospital again, ready and refreshed to begin a new day! my weekday calls are from 430 pm to 8 am, weekend from 730 am to 1230 pm the next day, depending.)

labour ward is so so tough, i barely know enough to scribe in the case notes and the loud ticking away of the CTG machine makes it really hard for me to hear what the residents are saying when reporting their VE/CTG findings. plus the masks we're all wearing means i can't lipread to save my life either. :\
thankfully, this being a medical profession, means that the senior doctors are usually a bit more understanding once they find out i wear hearing aids! :) the only thing i need to learn now is to start pointing out that i do wear hearing aids. sigh.

did my first episiotomy repair (with lots of begging to get another resident to come supervise me, he isn't a very nice fellow but i didn't have a choice- those on my side were all in the OR for a crash caesar :\) thankfully it went quite well, wasn't a very big tear. so that's well and good! :D
managed to do it quite quick, must say that the pelvic trainer session we had was super useful!!!! :D

both the senior residents were super nice and patient with me and my slowness, they patiently dragged the tables outside the rooms and yelled their orders into my ears while attempting to teach me. plus my JRs were fabulous, doing the plugs i failed without complaining much and showing me how to do cord blood pHs.

i felt so bad!!!! :\ esp when i failed 8 out of the 10 plugs i set :( i keep bunging the veins, i really really need more practice. thank God my friend, G, was on call with me, so i could ask her for some help here and there.
it was even worse when she had to go to the OR to help with a crash caesar and i was the only one left in the ward of 24 beds :\ tonnes of paperwork, harried midwives and nurses, scared/irritated/pained/grouchy/demanding patients to see! oh my.

the midwives were fantastic, they asked me to dilute all the penicillins and hang up the drips before i slept at 445 so i wouldn't have to wake up at 5 plus to give all the drips, they'd do it themselves. SO NICE. when they heard i needed to do deliveries, they instantly pulled me into a room to observe a delivery that was ongoing (unfortunately, i had to leave early to go do paperwork for a crash caesar. arghhhhh). but i was so touched :D

G and i were so depressed on call, we started a countdown timer to the end of call! we wanted to watch american idol, but sadly, we had work to do just as it started :( oh well.

it was my last day in the same day admits clinic and the ward, i was honestly rather sad to go! :\ the ward nurses have been super nice to me :D today a patient had a hamper of fruit delivered to the ward, and the nurses wanted to give us some fruit, but S and i agreed they'd done far more than us, so we had a banana each. hehe :D so cute, i love the nurses. and there wasn't much work to do on the last day as well :D

took off at 245 post-call, fell asleep while standing on the train, waiting for the bus, riding the escalator down - so dangerous! in the end i cabbed home from the train station as it was pouring and i was so tired. ooph.

having 3 calls in the next 6 days, hope i survive without making major mistakes!