Maternity Jeans

So in a rare event I actually have some time off. Yeah, my program lets us do this half staffing for Christmas and New Year's so you either get one off or the other. Last year I worked Christmas and really it wasn't all that bad. Doctors don't want to be in the hospital, patients don't want to be in the hospital, nothing is elective, and you get the sympathy vote. So I decided this year to do the same. This year was a completely different story however. So as a second year all of my call is in the surgical ICU.....I run 2 units so that's about 20 SICU beds. 20 patients doesn't sound like that much until you're actually doing it. SICU patient tend to die, especially at night, and especially on holidays like Christmas. So every time I'm on call there are at least one to two patients trying to actively die on me. Now I love Christmas, and I know it's a big deal for a lot of other people too.....so I was NOT going to let anyone die on Christmas. Fortunately I was successful. But this meant that my 5 days of half staffing around Christmas was really exhausting, especially compounded by every third night call, and being on call on Christmas itself.

So now I'm officially on my break. I have flown with my husband to a little town in NY to visit my family. Yesterday as I was packing before our flight I realized that none of my real clothes actually fit me. I spend most of my waking hours in scrubs, and then when I am home it usually means a quick change into either pjs or gym clothes depending on the formality of the event. So now to visit my parents I had to be creative. I had purchased a pregnancy band (stretchy thing you wear over jeans or pants with an open zipper). So I was determined to use this for my trip. Of course as soon as I got home my mother tells me that my zipper is undone and she can see it. Needless to say mother and daughter went on an exciting trip to buy maternity jeans.

These jeans are great!! I may never wear regular jeans again! The zipper is fake and there is no button. The top panel is all stretchy and soft. I could be as fat as I want and still wear a size 8. Amazing :) Time for some maternity jeans Beta testing.

Post call...

So the hell that is being on call is always followed by the joy that is being post call. This morning, after rounding and operating (yeah patients don't want to know this) I was finally released. The way it works most places is that you can only be on for a max of 30hrs straight....which is what I do almost every 3rd or 4th night. It's kind of crazy really. If I were a patient I would be furious to know that a resident with baseline sleep deprivation who has just stayed up all night long is doing my surgery. Sure the attending is there.....for most of the procedure. Little do people know that most residents do significant parts of most operations. So as I was trying to make myself see straight while alone operating I began to have a serious pregnancy related craving. CAT MEAT! Oh come on, tell me you didn't know Taco Bell was made from cat meat....it is....I'm convinced.....and I LOVE it. Some how I actually made it there too, to Taco Bell that is. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I ordered a #1 supreme meal. And they had caffeine free root beer. Glorious. As a huge diet Coke drinker before becoming pregnant I'm really having a hard time with my carbonated beverage intake. I gave up caffeine and artificial sugar for the good of the parasite within.....so no Coke. This is particularly a problem in hospital cafeterias and such. Needless to say I had such a heart warming experience over my little cat filled burrito it almost made being on call worth it....just to be post call.

Pseudomonas....

So today was a typical glorious day. I went to bed last night at 7pm cause I'm so terribly exhausted. This morning I woke up to the alarm....and was still completely exhausted. I think this is the worst part of being pregnant for me. I am so tired all of the time. I knew this wouldn't be easy, but this is just ridiculous. I think I've actually gone to bed at the same time as my husband once in the past week. I don't blame him. The normal human body doesn't need to go to bed before the sun goes down. This parasite within is slowly eating away at me, while making me fat at the same time....crazy.

So I work at a big hospital in a big city and we have a burn unit. I'm currently doing burn surgery as a rotation. This poor man came in with a terrible injury and may lose his arm. But we're surgeons...which means we are pretty stubborn and won't give up on this arm. I get it, I mean if it was my arm I would want them to do everything they could for me before they gave me the axe. Regardless I think it's literally rotting from the inside out. Yeah, super yuck. You can smell it across the ICU. I'll tell you nothing makes a pregnant woman more nauseous than the sweet smell of Pseudomonas. Every morning, every afternoon, and every evening as I am taking care of my ICU patients I have to prevent the gagging from occurring. Yes I admit I have been known to puke in the ICU bathroom. Yes I know that's gross....and yes I'm not a fan. Needless to say it was an absolute miracle today when we cancelled his OR case. No matter how bad it smells on the unit, it smells ten times as bad when the dressings are taken down.

So I'm on call again this evening. Every third or fourth night kind of wears on you....especially when you are pregnant tired at baseline. But I'm trying to make the best of it. I'm having a crazy craving for ranch dressing, so I should probably go find some before I eat my arm instead. :)

Here goes...

So here I am starting my blog....it's kind of silly really. I just watched the movie "Julie and Julia" and felt compelled to start what I had been thinking of doing for quite some time. I'm in the second year of my surgery residency and I am 2 months pregnant. This however is an almost lethal combination. The plan is to blog my way up to the birth of my little one....whatever bumps may come my way.