Anyway, I worked two weeks of night shifts after we got back from vacation, followed by numerous shifts in the emergency department. Due to the way the schedule worked out, all but two of my shifts ended up being night shifts, so I essentially did 6 weeks of nights. I'm really not a very good sleeper during the day, and add on a new puppy in the house, and you can imagine how tired I was always feeling. Emily took it all in stride, but you could tell it was wearing on us both toward the end. The only times I'd really see her were in the morning while she was getting ready, when I really should have been sleeping. She occasionally came home from dinner, but I suspect the last six weeks were more like being married to a zombie.
Working in the ER was pretty insane too. I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but there's a little bug going around called the H1N1 virus... THE SWINE FLU! It's not that the illness is all that bad, but the media is driving me crazy about it. It seemed like every parent in the entire city loses all common sense and decides to bring their child into the EMERGENCY room for the slightest runny nose. The ER has been overwhelmed with the number of people, and by the time people make it out of the waiting room, they're cranky and probably caught the flu from other kids if they didn't have it already. So what do we doctors do in all of our power? "Your kid probably has the flu, but since he/she doesn't have any underlying illness or has been sick for more than a couple days, there's nothing we can do about it. Go home and get them to drink alot of water." That's not to say we didn't treat the flu, but most of the kids didn't need the medicine, and we had to save it for the REALLY sick kids. Yes, I realize it can be a scary illness, but dealing with the same thing for 80-90% of the patients became tedious and exhausting. I'm really sick of the flu, and I'm very thankful I didn't come down with it myself after being coughed on by every child in Tucson.
That said, let's move on to more enjoyable topics. As I mentioned earlier, we've had a new addition to the family. Albert is fitting in very nicely in our little household. He and Annabelle love playing/wrestling, and they tire each other out nicely at times.
That said, he is getting bigger, and he has not improved his coordination at an equal rate. He's extremely wiggly and has no awareness of his surroundings. I don't know how many times he's knocked our lamp over, but I'm not sure it's going to last too much longer. Once he's full size, we're going to have to rubber-coat the floor. He has some of the goofiest facial expressions I've ever seen in a dog. His jowls frequently get caught in his underbite, and he gives us either a mean face or an Elvis sneer. His ears are also very expressive, and they tend to flop around into an uncountable number of hilarious positions. Unfortunately, ever time we try to get this on camera, he reverts to his standard, "I'm ridiculously cute" expression.
Anyway, yesterday was Halloween. Ruth and Matt (who just got engaged!) sent me one of the greatest gifts in the world for Christmas last year, a Ghostbusters uniform. It is my all-time favorite movie, and I couldn't wait to wear it this year. Last year, I worked at the Juvenile Detention Center on Oct 31, so it wasn't quite the right place to wear a costume. I wore it to work, including the proton pack and blaster. I got a little nervous when I didn't see any other costumed people walking up to the hospital, but there were a few brave souls throughout the hospital who wore something. Well, it hadn't crossed my mind that I was to help do morning report that day. For those of you who don't know, morning report involves the ward senior presenting an interesting case to the residents and attendings in the hospital, followed by a brief discussion of what could be going on with the patient, and a learning session about the important parts of the case. I'd worn the costume, so I decided I'd go all out. I walked into the conference room decked in full Ghostbusters gear, while blasting the theme song from Emily's iPhone. Another thing that I'd forgotten: that was day one of the new interview season. No matter what people thought of Arizona, I hope they have something memorable to talk about. The rest of the day went as expected... a bunch of laughs and strange glances in my direction. Then some of the child life people decided to have a haunted house in the playroom. I was walking past in, when one of them grabbed me and told me I had to walk through it. I didn't realize it at the time, but after I went through, they took down the haunted house and told the kids that I had "busted" the ghosts. There was a really amusing moment a little later, when a little kiddo came up to me upset that the ghosts were gone, because he didn't get to see it in time. I told him that they were all in my storage facility, and when he asked to see it, I told him he'd need a court order (I hope at least one person gets that reference... the kid didn't). The only thing that could have made the night better is if we could have come up with some costumes for Emily and the dogs. We looked everywhere for a dog Slimer outfit, but were unsuccessful. I still busted Albert though.
