A Day of Trauma Call

I thought I would take the opportunity to share what a day in the life of trauma call is like for anyone interested... these are based on, but not actual, events that occurred. (On trauma call days we can't arrive before 8am or we go over the 30 hour shift... pre-call days we're at work between 5 and 6 am).

6:15am Alarm goes off
6:45am Actually get up (I'm really bad at getting up)
7:15am Leave for work
7:45am Arrive in surgery resident's lounge and start writing down: vitals, labs, radiology/pathology results, and medications for patients I'm responsible for seeing
8:00am Start seeing patients
9:00am Rounds with the Chief Resident (the senior most resident)
10:00am Get work done; wait for the page to round with the staff; possible case in OR
??:??am Rounds with staff
11:00am-5:00pm Get work done; cases; wait for trauma codes
Sometime after 5:00pm Trauma Code: MVC vs. Pedestrian, eta 5 minutes (this exact call happens about twice per night... Detroiters love playing frogger on the major roads).
8:00pm Dinner with the team
10:00pm Evening pre-rounds
11:00pm Evening rounds with Chief Resident
12:00pm Trauma code 1; GSW or stab wound; eta 2 minutes
2:00am Grab a nap if you're lucky
4:00am Pre-rounds
5:00am Rounds with Chief Resident
7:00am Rounds with Staff
8:00am Some random OR case
10:00am Finish work
12:00pm HOME!

Trauma codes of course come in at any time during the 30 hours, with a few actually ending up in the OR. For "getting work done" there are a lot of things involved: consults from other services; bedside I&D (cutting open sacral decubitus ulcers); ER consults; pulling lines; walking patients; checking up on labs, etc.

This week I got to see and do some cool things: 1) saw my first external hemorrhoids and cut to cut them open, 2) saw compartment syndrome and the emergent four compartment fasciotomy and positive crescent roll sign*, 3) had a combative patient who had to be held down by 7 people and admitted to having alcohol, cocaine and heroin on board... there's more, but I'll stop there.

And on that note... it's time to get back to my research...

*Crescent roll sign: the rapid expansion of the compressed muscle upon fasciotomy, much like the release of dough from the crescent roll can.