so pooped...

oh my, i'm soo exhausted. working 12h shifts with hardly a break is soooo difficult! as much as i like what i'm doing, i feel lost and confused nearly every second. the first day of my emergency rotation, they throw a patient at me. at first i was crazy nervous, but of course i put on my "fake confidence" and marched in the room and did ok on my history and physical exam of patient. then the resident asked me to present the case right in front of the patient and his wife, which i managed to somehow. so for the last week, i've had these painfully long 12 hour shifts (by 5th hour, i need a break, by 8th hour, i feel like it's time to head home, by 10th hour, i'm dying, and by 11.5h, i can't stop looking at the clock every minute. worse thing is two times the doctor decides to ask me to do stuff at the 11.5h and made me stay an extra 1.5h....sucks!! but i've learned to do a lot in only 4 shifts:
- put in staples in somebody's head
- saw gunshot wound to chest pt die
- irrigated and cleaned out another gunshot wound to leg
- irrigated and cleaned and watched suture of a knife laceration to finger
- cut and drained a nasty 4cm abscess from cocaine use (think giant pimple)
- saw after a guy with a 3.5" nail embedded in his thigh walk right into ER
- casted a few broken bones
- took TONS of history and physicals
- boring paperwork and lab ordering boring stuff

i can't remember what else, but i'm soo pooped at end of each day--my feet ACHE!! eyes tired, back aches too. i basically eat, read/tv for 1h, and then sleep and the 12h workday starts over again. ceaseless!! i'm such a whiny wimp, heh!