If anyone is paying attention to the timestamp on this entry, you’ll notice that it is just past 3AM here in St. Louis as I sit in the resident’s room on the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center Labor and Delivery Unit. I am nearly done with my week of nights here (working 7pm to 7am) and it has been…hmm.. what is the appropriate adjective to finish this sentence?

Awesome? It has definitely been that – I’ve seen vaginal births, cesarean births, emergency cesareans, twin births… I’ve gotten to deliver a placenta and co-deliver a baby. It has definitely been awesome.

Exhausting? That it has been as well. Working nights throws off everything about my internal schedule. All I do is work and sleep – because once I get home (by about 8-8:30am) I have to go straight to bed to get my 7-8 hours of sleep before I get up and head right back to the hospital. When I’m working days I can at least watch some TV… have a meal… spend some time with AJ… or at least relax a little before I sleep, but I just can’t find the time to do that right now. At least I only have 1 more night after this one.

Confusing? A little, yes. I really like OB and one of the chief residents here is laying it on thick about how good I would be as an OB – how I really "get" the surgery aspects and how she thinks I would excel in something surgical. I haven’t given up my pediatrics ambitions (and I don’t think I will), but this is the first rotation that has given me a reason to stop and think about what I want to do with my life as a doctor. The residency is longer, the hours would be worse… but would I like it more?

Anyway – tonight has been pretty slow, giving me time to catch up on reading and try to study a little for a quiz I have in the morning (read: at the end of this 12 hour shift when I have to go back to school – without sleeping first – and take a quiz and attend 4 hours of lecture). I will be sad when my 2 weeks on labor and delivery is over, but it will be nice to sleep again. 🙂