Priority 3 purgatory.

      The other day I ended up doing a 28 hour shift. I called supervision when I saw that the Commerce rescue truck needed someone for night shift and I figured I could get paid to study. Why not? So when I call the supervisor convinces me to come in 4 hours early. No big deal. What else was I going to do? For the most part, it was an easy simple shift with only one true ALS call. But I didn't get enough sleep because of the huge amount of coffee I drank earlier in the day. So the following 12 hours on the Prov Park MICU were going to be that much more difficult.
     After a swim, a shower, change of uniform, and a large cup of coffee I was good to go. I was working with a certain partner that I had previously misjudged due to first impressions. As it turns out, she is a great person to work with and actually really sweet. So that was an unexpected plus.
    What was the bad part about the day was the fact that not only did we have a moderate number of calls. Seven if I remember correctly, but all of them were basic and took forever. The only exception, and in retrospect a blessing, was the cath lab standby. We got to quiz the student and learn a few things of our own in the process. The only bad part was the fact that I was starving. We really did not stop all day and we were stuck in the south east portion of Oakland county and had to make a trip down to the "D". Never a really good time.
     That shift was a good reminder that we don't always save lives or earn money sleeping. It is more common to sling dialysis calls, BLS every call, and get trapped in the hospital nursing home loop than to run all ALS/Rescue. Even the "rescue" dedicated trucks were feeling the effects of priority 3 purgatory. I am working the next 36 hours in both Commerce and Novi. Hopefully the next two days are a bit more mentally stimulating.