Elective Week Two

Everyone with us last Friday was still here on Monday. Plus some new admits. So I am kept hopping. Dr. Crane has gone to Ipswich, and Dr. Chapman can only be on 12 hours per week. This means I look in on all the patients that he cannot get to in his 2 1/2 hours every morning. As such I am learning lots. We always conference on everybody, so it's not like I'm high and dry. Tuesday we went to GinGin and Mount Perry (1 hr and 1 1/2 hours away from Bundaberg, respectively)to do home visits. I went with Dr. Whan, a Palliative Specialist who does outreach from Brisbane, and Carolyn a clinical nurse. I have his contact details, and so will be harassing him next year. He is fine with that, as he informs me there is (of course!) a shortage in Palliative Care specialists.
My 1st year colleagues in Emerg and Paeds unfortunately got to share an experience. There was a highway crash near Childers, leaving a mother dead, and 2 yr old in critical, and 4 yr old less seriously injured. So they are decompressing from that. The helicopter pictures I got were of the chopper leaving for Brisbane with the 2 yr old and his father, who was not in the vehicle at the time. I feel so bad for that poor man right now.... (I am not divulging anything more than was already reported in the local paper, and thus I am not breaching confidentiality, just in case anyone was concerned).
Wednesday afternoon I began to feel very tired. So much so that when I was give two hours off during their admin meeting, I chose to go home and nap, returning to check up on the last of my patients. Thursday morning I was full blown sick. So Thursday and Friday were spent recovering, and staying away from the immunocompromised cancer and palliative patients. It is not advisable to hasten the inevitable, especially by being too boneheaded to know when to stay home!