House of a Very Tired Doc

Last night shift at the hospital. Calling it a night shift is such a misnomer. How do you call a working session that starts at 7.30 AM and goes until 1.30 PM THE NEXT DAY?? How do define 30 continuous hours without a single nap? And how do gather the strength to face a week with three such shifts? Welcome to the life of a medical resident.
And tonight is the last one. When the sun will shine in 3-4 hours I will no longer be on the rotating "death list" of the residents. Tonight all the types of patients I learned to know had gathered as if to say goodbye. The old man dying of cancer who came for his painkillers and blood transfusion, the younger guy clasping his chest in pain and fear of never making it through the night, the crazy woman with unmatched socks who has a rash she just couldn't hide anymore, the girl with the high fever and nasty looking lab results, the man who feels his heart racing out of his chest as the monitor is bleeping and flashing it's neon lines.
I was here, a house doctor, for almost two years now. Some nights I felt like a hero, some like a crappy amateur. Many times I was waiting for the show director to turn on the lights and tell me to stop playing at grown-ups' stuff. Some nights I just fought to keep my eyes open. Goodbye.

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