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I try to sleep.

Overnight call with lots of traumas isn't as fun as it was 10 years ago.

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Fortunately AP call isn't too bad. Most of the time it is just stuff that didn't get into the frozen room before the cut-off time of 5 pm. I've only had to come in once over the weekend for call. It also isn't quite as stressful since I know my way around the frozen room.



Once I hit CP call next spring, that will change. I'll have had no rotations preparing me for the typical CP call - blood bank, transfusion reaction, pheresis. I'll do my best to read up on those myself beforehand.



My wife post-call just hits the sack like there's no tomorrow...mostly because she revs herself up so much she refuses to sleep throughout a 30 hour call. She also has a habit of startling the nurses by being one of the only residents to show up in the paging nursing station after each and every page.

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I guess it is rare to call in pathology after hours for surgical stuff, but I remember it happening once, don't remember details.
Sounds like your wife is damn conscientious. The nurses (if they are any good) will repay her in kind.

BTW, went to a code a few years ago and there was (I assume) an intern there. I asked if he wanted to put the tube in (lady was dead and looking to stay that way). He said sure. He did a good job. I said those airway skills will serve you well one day. He said "not likely. I'm gonna be a pathologist".

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Of course, you never can tell.  My program just re-instituted an autopsy service - before this year the surg path residents would have to squeeze the autopsies in between sign-out days and grossing days.  The running joke was that you could tell the path resident on autopsy duty was swamped with surg path work when, after a Code Blue was announced over the loudspeaker, you saw them tearing down the hallway to join the code screaming "YOU CAN'T HAVE THIS ONE, DEATH!!  NOT ON MY WATCH!!!"

It's also fun when people find out that my wife and I are both doctors and jokingly suggest that we could refer patients to one another.  I just grin and tell them the referrals all go one way and leave my wife to explain the difference between pathology and anesthesiology.

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I'm so glad I didn't do a residency (dental) where I have to take call.  I have a bunch of friends getting called in all the time for BS like abscesses that the person has had for a couple months, but just happened to pick 3am on a Tuesday night to get it checked out.  
oh, and for any ER docs reading this, Penicillin (and definitely not Augmentin) and Percocet is NOT how you treat a toothache.  If they're not febrile and don't have any swelling, dysphagia, or airway issues, tell them to GTFO and go see a dentist in the morning, and to call you if they do get any of those symptoms.  

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How do you feel about us doing a local nerve block? I don't like to shoot meds back behind the molars like you all do, but I often do a local block with some 2% lido with epi and some marcaine. It separates out the legitimate toothache patient (who really should've called their dentist) and the drug-seekers. The seekers don't want the block, and the true patient can't wait for it.





I've started telling toothache patient the following: "Coming to the ER/clinic/urgent care for a toothache makes as much sense as me (a guy) going to a gynecologist! You're in the wrong place. I can't fix this problem."


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My post call routine usually involves playing a little Half-Life 2. Jack rabbit hunting is always a good diversion too. I don't drink. If I did, I think I'd try everything listed in "I Drink Alone" by George Thorogood, just to see what went down best. As it is now, Cranberry juice mixed with sparkling mineral water is good. And Pepsi. Pepsi is always good.