Rocky Mountain High

I'm missing Colorado. More than I have previously, when I was even farther away. Perhaps it is because I had thought that once I was back in the US, it would be easy to make weekend trips back to Colorado. I mean really, Dublin to Denver was a long commute, so surely from where I am now to Denver should be quick. But sadly, there is no non-stop flight, and the length of travel (plus the outrageous ticket prices) has kept me from making a quick trip home. And it's killing me that when I get pictures from home I can't tell which nephew is which. I also really miss being able to make a quick day trip up to Georgetown, Breck, wherever. This morning I was surfing on the web looking at maybe trying to do a month elective in a small Colorado town ( I won't tell you which, but it is perhaps the most perfect place on earth), and it didn't look like there was a pediatrician in the town. A few fam pracs, but no pedi doc?? Outrageous!

So, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't think I can wait til New Years to make it back. Anybody got a leer jet I can borrow?

On another note, I was on call Friday night. My first full call shift (there is an overnight float senior resident except for Friday and Saturday night). It was pretty decent, busy. 7 admission or so. Cool kids, cool parents. I didn't even seen the call room, but that didn't bother me.

In some ways, it has been a weird month. We've seen 2 incredibly rare cancers in kids, both kids should be ok. Both are likely to end up as published case reports, especially since one kiddo is the youngest patient ever to receive this certain chemo drug. Again, cool kids, cool parents.

Anyway, should be going to bed. Slept on and off yesterday post call, and took a nice nap this evening, so my sleep schedule is all off... c'est la vie.

By the Numbers

3-the number of e-mails I have received today from people I haven't heard from in years.

9-the number of admissions I had last Thursday to the pediatric team which I am managing.

2- the number on interns I was over-seeing last week.

8.5-the number of extra hours I worked due to the nine admissions

1-the number of brilliant diagnoses I was able to make the last week purely by accident

2-the number of naps I took on Saturday because I was so tired

0-the number of miles I hike last weekend, the weekend I was going to go for a two night backpack trip

3-the number of nieces and nephews I haven't seen in six months

635-the amount of money it would have cost me to fly to Denver last weekend had I booked my ticket on Tuesday

2-the number of discharge summaries I have not completed from this month

5-the number of cups of coffee I had today

2-the number of alcoholic drinks I had last week

5.5-the number of hours of sleep I would to get if I fell asleep right now until I need to get up for work in the morning

24-the rough estimate of the number of people I wish I could get around to e-mailing

7-the number of unscheduled vacation days that I have available

73-the number of times I was paged last Thursday

374-the number of days I have been a doctor

2-the number of times I seriously considered moving to a small mountain town and changing my identity

3-the number of hours worth of work I feel I would like to get done tonight

5-the number of conditions I listed that I wanted to read about