tired but loving it

Man! Do I ever have bad "Call-Karma" in Anesthesia. Last Tuesday I had a four person trauma come in with one of them needing to come to the OR right away, and I couldn't get ahold of my attending. Saturday night was OK, but we worked until 3:30am and then I was up for the rest of the night on Obstetrics. Last night was pretty much the same. We literally worked all night. I finished the 7 cases of the night at 8:00 this morning. A couple of kids, some ortho, and, of course, another trauma who was , of course, drunk and belligerent. I wasn't that tired or feeling that bad until it was all over (actually I got kind of hyper and weird). Then I was bagged.

Despite feeling tired from being up all night, I was still smiling at the end of the day. I am worried that I will never be able to learn enough to pass the exam (especially seeing Jurgen going through it), but in the mean time, I am enjoying myself. Yes, it has finally gotten much better. I am back in my element. As Jurgen said the other day, "You really care about this stuff", and I do. There is still stress, still challenges, still times of exhaustion and feeling stupid, but there are a lot more times when I think to myself, "I love my job!". Finally, the truth.