You're traveling through another dimension
Imagine if you will a universe where 2 2 no longer equals 4, but rather something akin to the square root of a Buick. What would a rational mind do in such a place. What laws would step in when the laws of physics no longer applied. How would you cope with such a land.
Excerpts of conversations from the NICU zone:
Excerpt 1
Day 1
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 5 every feed
Day 2
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 10 every feed
Day 3
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 15 every feed
Day 4
Medtec: We’ve stopped feeding, he’s necrosed (killed off) his gut.
Senior Doc:I wonder how that happened.
Excerpt 2
Medtec: I’ve been here 3 days, and nobody has told me where anything is. I don’t know where to find the paperwork, much less how to fill it out, can someone show me?
Senior Doc: You have some extremely unrealistic expectations of this rotation.
Excerpt 3
Medtec: We stopped antibiotics on this kid, can we take her out of isolation?
Infection control: No, we only have one blood culture negative for MRSA, you need three.
Medtec: Easy enough, the kid never had MRSA, she had K. Pneumonia
Infection Control: Wow, then why did we order isolation?
Add to this things like my 7-7:30 shift ending at 12 midnight, my supervising a resuscitation on my 3rd call, and the oddness of an ER doc being the on-call neonatologist in a level one NICU.
Thank God I’m done.
Excerpts of conversations from the NICU zone:
Excerpt 1
Day 1
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 5 every feed
Day 2
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 10 every feed
Day 3
Senior Doc: Increase this kids feeds by 5 every three hours.
Medtec: But he’s vomiting 15 every feed
Day 4
Medtec: We’ve stopped feeding, he’s necrosed (killed off) his gut.
Senior Doc:I wonder how that happened.
Excerpt 2
Medtec: I’ve been here 3 days, and nobody has told me where anything is. I don’t know where to find the paperwork, much less how to fill it out, can someone show me?
Senior Doc: You have some extremely unrealistic expectations of this rotation.
Excerpt 3
Medtec: We stopped antibiotics on this kid, can we take her out of isolation?
Infection control: No, we only have one blood culture negative for MRSA, you need three.
Medtec: Easy enough, the kid never had MRSA, she had K. Pneumonia
Infection Control: Wow, then why did we order isolation?
Add to this things like my 7-7:30 shift ending at 12 midnight, my supervising a resuscitation on my 3rd call, and the oddness of an ER doc being the on-call neonatologist in a level one NICU.
Thank God I’m done.