Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Things I Did Before 8 AM

Before residency I had several years of a schedule that typically started around 8 AM.

In college my perspective on whether this time is early or late fluctuated a bit. Some years I reliably swam at 6 AM, and then there was a while there when I barely (and sometimes not at all) made it to 8 AM classes. It's still a point of shame to think back on how many times I slept through Physical Chemistry in my final semester - and there were about 5 of us - my absence was noted and my Professor wasn't mad about it, he was sad. It's one of many stories I could tell you that were formative in coming to respect people through mistakes I made.

Anyway, there are certainly several rotations in residency that start at 8 AM - but a large number start at 7 or 6:30 (which is still much better than the surgeons).

I was thinking about it this morning because I was last on wards and am going to elective. For my first day I started at 9 AM.

The point of mentioning the years before residency is that in the first couple years of med school, I used to get up at 5 (with 8 AM classes) and have a lot of time to accomplish things in the morning. When my start time is 6:30, I can still get up at 5 but the time to be productive is much shorter.

So this morning I got up around 6 and realized I had that 3 hour window until I needed to be anywhere and I couldn't think of the last time that was the case on a work day - night shifts excepted of course.

In celebration of having a bit of a late start this morning, I thought I'd just list some things that were accomplished:

1. Spent some time with John
2. Spent some time with Kellie
3. Walked Luna with John
4. Updated duty hours
5. Submitted my PALS/BLS cards (certification of advanced lifesaving training)
6. Skimmed the AAP Clinical Guidelines on Acne treatment
7. Drank 32 oz of water and 32 oz of carrot/apple/kale juice and 20 oz of coffee
8. Showered
9. Put some clothes on my body and makeup on my face (the clothes pretty much happen every day - the makeup not really at all)
10. Put away all my laundry from yesterday that had been drying all around my room
11. Made the bed
12. Wrote this blog post
13. Hung out with Luna


She got a summer haircut recently and it makes her look even more like a puppy. 

So it's now just past 8 and I do have another 30 minutes or so before I need to leave. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but mostly I'm trying to appreciate it: a calm moment never lasts as long as I would like.

Happy July!

Thanks for reading, see you soon.


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