long week

I promise this will be the last ‘complaining’ blog for a while.  The last time I wrote I was cranky and boy things sort of went downhill in some ways from there.  The good news is that my car is fine and it wasn’t the oil gauge after all but rather the tire pressure gauge (apparently I am WAY too smart to read the manual) and so a quick tire rotation and draining off the unnecessary quart of oil I had added and all was well with the driving world.  The rest of the day wasn’t so hot though.  

Midday Thursday I went into one of the bathrooms at the office and there was a little bit of liquid near the base of the toilet.  I assumed it was pee since it is a pediatric office after all and my brothers work there too so it was bound to be pee.  I cleaned it up but when I flushed the toilet, everything went horribly wrong….the base of the toilet started to leak and within about 15 minutes dirty waste water was bubbling up from every floor drain in the office.  STINKY!  Lucky for me, Tom swooped in and called the maintenance guys and Frank who called the plumber.  We had to turn the water off to the suite while the plumber snaked out the line and it was a stinky mess!  That night the janitorial equivalent of a hazmat team came in and cleaned the place up but what a colossal hassle!  NOTE TO SELF (AND YOU): DON’T FLUSH PAPER TOWELS AND DIAPER REMNANTS (DUH!)

Those things alone would have made for a long week but since I am a doctor, the possible bad week causes are endless.  I saw a case of suspected child abuse, had a hard conversation with a family about a possible error in diagnosis I had made (I hate being human and fallible), and was on staff at Troy Beaumont for the week which meant that any kid without a doctor who goes to Troy ended up on my service.  I had a 16 year old boy with new onset Hepatitis B, a jaundiced 15 year old girl, a 17 year old with a bone and blood infection and a couple of kids with pneumonia.  My days would start at 545am with the alarm so I could see all these kids and get to the office by 9ish.  The weekend was spend rounding at Troy for 3 hours each day and then spending the rest of the time with my kids.  

Monday brought my busiest day in September thus far at the office with 31 patients to be seen and today I had a day filled with meetings with my lawyers (always a picnic).  I know what you are thinking, she is trolling for sympathy….but actually this difficult week filled with challenging patients, challenging toilets, challenging cars, challenging lawyers and a wicked case of asthma for me, reinforced how HAPPY I am.  I have never been so happy to have a challenging week.  Sure there were times when I wished I had someone to share the load but in the end, I am so happy on my own that it makes up for the stresses of a busy week.  

A couple I met last week at a ‘Meet the Doctor’ appointment said that when you love something a lot it doesn’t feel like work and that summarizes this incredibly long week for me.

Negotiate, diagnose, and take responsibility for your errors and each day will be your best!

Molly O’Shea, MD  Birmingham Pediatrics + Wellness Center

www.birminghampediatrics.com