General Medical issues thread

[Quickstatus]

junior doctors

Used to be on call Friday evening (after working all day Friday) till Monday morning then work all day Monday …

It was never good by any metric

 

[andye]

Used to be on call Friday evening (after working all day Friday) till Monday morning then work all day Monday …

Luxury......

(true though)

 

[MARTINE]

Luxury......

(true though)

Ditto
The ‘good ‘ole days’…….Not

 

[drron]

Ha. As an intern I worked all the Easter break until Tuesday morning though that was also a public holiday. I was on for Orthopaedics. RPAH was the receiving hospital for the Bathurst Easter motorcycle races. Was aware and working 50 hours straight. Then slept for 22 hours.

 

[Quickstatus]

slept for 22 hours.

Then there were some RMO who after a similar shift drove home to sleep. Some never made it home.

I had the luxury of a room in the RMO quarters at RPAH.

 

[drron]

I drove home. Obviously made it.

 

[prozac]

Then there were some RMO who after a similar shift drove home to sleep. Some never made it home.

I had the luxury of a room in the RMO quarters at RPAH.

Yes, like driving under the influence.
I once worked in an industry where once you worked 18hrs straight, often without breaks, you were allowed 12hrs break before recommencing work ... UNLESS your workplace changed in which case the employer only had to give you a 4 hr break before working you another 18hrs. In the 4hr break you needed to drive to the next workplace. Driving between workplaces I woke up 2am one night on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately not many cars about, however many of my colleagues did have accidents on their way home from work.

 

[love_the_life]

There is no benefit from being FCOTR.

Nothing worse than sitting around waiting to go under.

 

[Quickstatus]

Nothing worse than sitting around waiting to go under.

With a dry throat and unable to eat/drink

 

[mrsterryn]

Husband had annual MRV and had neurosurgeon appt for results
Neurosurgery agree tumour is growing back very slowly. Once again offered surgery. Very quickly declined. Husband has stated if his life is in actual peril then he will have the surgery..however currently the surgery with the associated risks is not an option

 

[MARTINE]

Then there were some RMO who after a similar shift drove home to sleep. Some never made it home.

I had the luxury of a room in the RMO quarters at RPAH.

RIP to all our late collegues.
One of my peers was not accepted to a radiology position and was told on the Friday. Sadly - Monday morning she received a call there was now a place for her as the ‘successful’ applicant never made it home at the end of her Fri/Sat shift

 

[coriander]

Back in the 1980s as a solo vet in practice during the canine parvovirus epidemic, I'd start at 6.00am and finish at about midnight, head home from the western suburbs to East Melbourne, shower, sleep, eat - rinse and repeat for several weeks seven days a week at the height of the epidemic.

As I've stated before, I'm a train/tram tragic and am *always* looking out for and aware of passing trains and trams. Melbournites may recall that there used to be a branch line from Dynon Yard crossing Footscray Road under City Link to Appleton Dock. The crossing was controlled only by flashing red lights, not traffic lights nor booms.

One night driving home after midnight, I was terrified by a loud loco blast and headlight beside my driver's door as I passed over that crossing at the regulation 60km/h - I had missed, or the Y class diesel had missed me by probably a meter as it hauled a loaded container train across Footscray Road.
I never drove home tired again - I'd sleep on a pile of towels on the concrete floor in my office.

Now I don't seek to mitigate that foolishness, but I think we are all programmed to stop at red traffic lights, go on green ones and can (unfortunately) do it in our sleep. Flashing red lights are uncommon and thus not on our muscle-memory-radar. Friends who work the Sydney Tram Museum say the Museum has begged for traffic lights to be installed where the tramline crosses the Princes Highway as cars and trucks routinely ignore the flashing red lights and trams often have to wait a minute or two for the four lanes of traffic to come to a halt before a tram can cross to or from Royal Park. But NSW road standards say flashing red lights, so that's what you get.

PS. It must've been more than me because as I recall the level crossing under Footscray Road soon got traffic lights synced with the right turn entry ramp onto the Bolte Bridge. The crossing was later eliminated when the lines into Appleton and Swanston Docks were upgraded and an overpass was constructed.

 

[MARTINE]

Back in the 1980s as a solo vet in practice during the canine parvovirus epidemic, I'd start at 6.00am and finish at about midnight, head home from the western suburbs to East Melbourne, shower, sleep, eat - rinse and repeat for several weeks seven days a week at the height of the epidemic.

As I've stated before, I'm a train/tram tragic and am *always* looking out for and aware of passing trains and trams. Melbournites may recall that there used to be a branch line from Dynon Yard crossing Footscray Road under City Link to Appleton Dock. The crossing was controlled only by flashing red lights, not traffic lights nor booms.

One night driving home after midnight, I was terrified by a loud loco blast and headlight beside my driver's door as I passed over that crossing at the regulation 60km/h - I had missed, or the Y class diesel had missed me by probably a meter as it hauled a loaded container train across Footscray Road.
I never drove home tired again - I'd sleep on a pile of towels on the concrete floor in my office.

Now I don't seek to mitigate that foolishness, but I think we are all programmed to stop at red traffic lights, go on green ones and can (unfortunately) do it in our sleep. Flashing red lights are uncommon and thus not on our muscle-memory-radar. Friends who work the Sydney Tram Museum say the Museum has begged for traffic lights to be installed where the tramline crosses the Princes Highway as cars and trucks routinely ignore the flashing red lights and trams often have to wait a minute or two for the four lanes of traffic to come to a halt before a tram can cross to or from Royal Park. But NSW road standards say flashing red lights, so that's what you get.

PS. It must've been more than me because as I recall the level crossing under Footscray Road soon got traffic lights synced with the right turn entry ramp onto the Bolte Bridge. The crossing was later eliminated when the lines into Appleton and Swanston Docks were upgraded and an overpass was constructed.

Frightening - I know exactly the spot you mean.

 

[coriander]

Frightening - I know exactly the spot you mean.

I had shivers down my spine as I typed that post remembering my brush with certain death- that headlight and the whistle still haunt me (and that's probably 40 years ago).

 

[Katie]

Update:

While we had a 4:40am alarm, traffic was easy, parking was a breeze, and we beat the 5:50am rush of other patients arriving at the day sirgery unit.
We had a short wait in the Welcome Lounge, but spent most of the time from 6:10ish doing admin, RAT test, and getting changed.
With a neurodivergent teen with anxiety and depression, I was glad they had very limited quiet time to think (aka worry). The teen’s psych had recommended we push the disability card to get them first on the list so they wouldn’t work themselves up.

We saw the doc shortly before 7:30, anaesthetist after that. We were amused the doc wrote in nikko on the correct leg. We joked we were going to write “not dis knee” on the good one.

Surgery done by 8, teen asking for me in recovery just before 9. Teen insisted on me taking a photo and messaging my family group chat. She had no memory of this a while later.
(“Tell me when to open my eyes Mum, because I can’t keep them open”)

Home shortly after 12, and the Teen’s been making lego, watching Disney movies and lazing around.

Walked a nlock up the road to get ice cream tonight & now need some pain killers. Otherwise in very good spirits.

 

[Quickstatus]

(“Tell me when to open my eyes Mum, because I can’t keep them open”)

Other funny ones are :
“Are you awake?”, “No”

…….

vet

Miss QS just got her Vet rego.
What was a predominantly male profession has become a predominantly female profession.

 

[Pushka]

Other funny ones are :
“Are you awake?”, “No”

I 'hate' the way everyone keeps trying to wake you up after anaesthetic when all you want to do is sleep. And then, when awake, eat!

I remember in pre op I'd been given sedation and was lying there almost asleep when the neuro surgeon came along and asked why I was smiling. (I was about to have a laminectomy for a known ruptured disc, when I was 32). I simply said, it was the first time in weeks when I'd not been in intense pain.

 

[Quickstatus]

anaesthetic

people occasionally wake up after an op asking when their op is going to start and then they don’t believe you until they are shown the dressings.

Their sense of time is out of whack - thinking they were asleep for just minutes when they have been under for a lot longer.

 

[Quickstatus]

eat!

It’s not a hotel but a production line. After eating need to start walking, do a wee and a poo. OK now get out!. No such thing as convalescence🎖

Gives perspective to “chop chop, let’s go”

 

[VPS]

Miss QS just got her Vet rego.
What was a predominantly male profession has become a predominantly female profession.

And a lot of them are vegetarians