threshold

Maybe I am getting lazier.
Maybe I am getting weaker.
Maybe I am getting softer.

But:
I am not getting out of bed at 5:30 am to stand around a bed with a bunch of other residents, saying "Um, yeah, I think the wound looks better, but we'll come back at noon with the boss and check..."

Admittedly, I have never been great with early morning. Surgical rotations have always seemed hellish to me, but I could see the point of seeing surgical patients at 6 in the morning. If you have a huge belly wound, and were in pain all night, and we're going to be operating all day, we should see you before we go to theatre.

Plastic surgery, however, is not about big belly wounds.

Rounds on Tuesday were excruciating. We saw 6 patients. It took over an hour (avg # of gen surg patients seen in ward round = 17, in about 30 mins). Because there are only residents in the morning, seeing these patients is useless. We make no decisions, write no orders. We literally wake up these groggy patients to look at their wounds, then say, "We'll be back at noon with the consultant!"

I don't know if it's cos I only have 5 months left.
Maybe I'm drunk with the power of being a senior resident.
All I know is that I haven't been to rounds since Tuesday.
I may not go again this week.
And if they try to make me?
They can't. There is literally nothing they can do to make me.

Ok. I am drunk with power. Never had this realization before. May never go to work again.

PS: Last week I started work at 6am every day - it was ER shifts, so it was a pleasure to get up and go do useful, valuable work. Plastics can burn in hell.