Strep Throat

Absolute madness. That is what I would call this past weekend. Most of you who live in reality outside of the hospital bubble had a long weekend. For me, it was one of longest weekends of my life. Here is why.

Thursday, August 31, 2006. I started to feel sick. Malaise, headaches, body aches, fevers and chills, sore throat. I worked from 5 am until 6:30 pm that day, and by the time I was ready to go home I felt horrible. I did not eat dinner and went straight to bed, hoping that I could sleep off whatever illness I had begun to contract.

Friday, September 1, 2006. I awakened to my usual cell phone alarm ring at 4 am. I still felt terrible. My headache and sore throat were worse, and after taking a quick peak in the mirror I knew my tonsils were inflamed, erythematous, bulging. I popped some Tylenols into my system before I headed off to work. I continued to get fevers and chills throughout the day. Since I was switching services and starting General Surgery Team #1, I had the additional stressor of trying to figure out who each patient was and what we were supposed to do for him/her. In addition, I had five new students, three of whom bailed out on me (went to the operating room or clinic or lecture) so I was left to fend for myself with my limited knowledge of the patients during rounds. On our “short days” or “non-call days” the rule is that I am supposed to go home at 12 pm. Needless to say, that never happens. There was so much work to do that I went home at 4:30 pm, and I felt absolutely miserable.

When I took a look into the mirror again, I diagnosed myself with strep throat. I decided to start myself on oral antibiotics. I was too tired to go to the urgent care center for a rapid strep test or a prescription, so I just took some amoxicillin that we had lying around the house. This time I decided to choose nutrition over sleep, so I ate some pureed food for dinner before going to bed. My tonsils were so inflamed that every bite was sooo painful to swallow.

Believe it or not, this is what my throat looked like. Look at that white exudate. Yuck!!!



Saturday, September 2, 2006. Crazy weekend days. Our two General Surgery #1 and #2 Teams are combined into one huge team on weekends or holidays, and so the senior resident rounds with me on all the surgery patients. We had about 30 patients total on our lists, but only two students to help me write notes. I ended up writing about 13 progress notes by myself that morning. Consults started coming in one by one – and pretty soon we had about 8 consults by the end of our shift. We didn’t start rounding until about 11:30 am, and we didn’t finish rounds until nearly 4 pm! Imagine 11 straight hours of running around like mad, not stopping to drink or eat anything! After rounds, my students and I grabbed a quick “lunch.” And then we had a little less than 2 hours to finish all the floor work. It was insane. Although I was supposed to leave at 6 pm, I left at 8 pm. Fortunately, I had more energy on Saturday than I had had on days prior. Perhaps the antibiotics were kicking in. But, more likely, God was helping me (I know my fiancé was fervently praying for me). All I know is that I’m thankful He got me through that crazy day.

Sunday, September 3, 2006. I had the day off. Just got my hair trimmed and went out to eat with my dear friend, Kar-Yee. Physically had time to recuperate from my illness. Feeling sooo much better.

Monday, September 4, 2006. Another crazy “weekend” day (since it was a holiday). This time, I had to write notes single-handedly on 15 patients, as there were about 40 patients on the combined General Surgery #1 & #2 Teams today. I would have had to write more, but fortunately I had two students and a second year surgery resident helping with the rest of the notes. After that madness was over, we again had the mad rounds. We didn’t start until 12 pm, and we were interrupted with surgery cases in between, so we again finished rounding at 4 pm! Between then and 6 pm, I discharged about 10 patients and took care of floor work for the others. It was so crazy. In order to get everything done, I did not even take a lunch break that day. I just made sure I had a nice dinner later (a vegan pizza that Ken Lim baked). Mmmm...

Despite the insanity of my weekend, I see how God has led through this experience. He sustained me when there was no way I could have had the energy to lift a finger to get any work done. He reminded me that I must lean fully upon His strength at all times. I was forced to pray for help, and He answered my feeble cry. I serve a great God, and I hope and pray that you have all experienced the peace that overcomes you when He is in control of your life. Hooray that another week on surgery is over! Just 6 more weeks to go! =)