The Rot Slowly Sets In

3 calls down, 4 to go. After only two weeks of q4, I feel like my grip on things is slipping. Out of four days, I'm either on call, post-call, in clinic, or out by 1-2 pm (in that order). Today's clinic unexpectedly lasted till past 5, and I had to tutor at 7, so there was no time to go to the gym. Fortunately, my lovely hubby made dinner, and brought me flowers to boot. He is such an amazing man!

q4 is not the most grueling call schedule possible by far. The schedule I described is not the worst I've ever worked. As the days go on, though, I'm getting progressively more sleep-deprived. I'm getting a few hours on call, so I generally don't sleep post-call until nighttime. I wake up every day around 5 am, and I find it difficult to get to bed before 10 pm. An hour or two of deficit here, an hour or two there, a talk on UTI that couldn't be started till 8 pm, etc etc, and it adds up. Again, it's not the worst I've ever worked, and the rotation is largely easy in terms of the workload (almost ridiculously low), with the exception of clinic requirements (every other day) and mandatory noon conference on post-call days. Maybe I'm just getting softened up by fourth year (very likely), maybe I'm a wuss (very likely), or maybe q4 call is actually somewhat difficult (likely).

Add to all this that my husband and I are working on a large life transition (no, not a baby) that has me all stressed out, and the fact that I was going to have 2 more baby blankets made by now for babies due in February, but I don't (and don't have the time to work on them), and that I just started tutoring this block, yada yada yada, I'm feeling a little stressed and worn out. Fortunately, tomorrow is my day off (I worked all weekend), so I can get a little more sleep, hopefully go to the gym, maybe go get my bangs trimmed, and crochet till my wrist falls off. It actually sounds very nice.