It’s 12:45 AM here in California, and I’m tired. Like really tired.
My clinical duties from 6:30 AM to ~2:30 PM (no clinic!) were relatively uneventful. Got to do some cool interventional pain procedures (facet joint injections, medial branch blocks, epidural steroid injections) and head out to grab some food from Urban Eats’ happy hour.
The next ten hours would be torture.
I decided to pseudo-flash the developer preview for Android N on my Nexus 6P, but being in a rush to the airport, I ended up messing up the flash sequence (which I ultimately fixed on the airplane). My battery was horribly low and apps were crashing left and right. Next, the rain was horrible… traffic was bad… but fortunately I made it to the airport in time.
Going through security is always a chore, but this time I couldn’t find my driver’s license after collecting my belongings. I knew I left it in one of those gray boxes the TSA provides, but it was no where! I frantically ran back, asked to look through all of the empty boxes and still couldn’t find it! Not in my pockets. Not in my bag. *insert 5 minutes of anxiety + frustration + OMG I’m going to miss my flight*
“Sir, is this your ID?” I turned around and a TSA employee found it… on the conveyer. 😯 Disaster averted!
I ran to the gate only to see the flight was delayed due to the inclement weather. On the bright side, the arrival time in California wasn’t changed! Less time in the air crammed in a little aluminum tube? Yeah, I’m all for that!
WRONG!
We landed in San Francisco at the predicted time, but waited 45 minutes on the runway since no vacant gate was available at the terminal. We finally got out… but where was my bag? I wasn’t allowed to carry it on since the overhead containers were all filled, so the airport collected it within the jet bridge. I didn’t find it in the San Francisco jet bridge or in the baggage claim! I swear, every other bag and stroller in that plane was retrieved before my bag popped out several minutes later as the very LAST one. 🙁
I finally made it to the hotel which I reserved the day before. The concierge to check me in since my ID didn’t match the name on the Hilton Honor’s account (my dad’s name). I had all the login information, I could access everything online… but I couldn’t add myself as a guest! It was 11:30 PM, I was starving, tired, and flustered with my trip thus far… and yet another barrier presented itself. After jumping through the typical telephone channels of large conglomerates, I finally spoke with someone helpful (~25 minutes later) who straightened things out through a convoluted method.
I got to my room, stared at the bed, and hugged one of the pillows. I finally made it. And now it’s Thursday. A new day. And I’m hoping it’s a better one.
End rant. 😀
Glad for your safe arrival. By the way rishi, just been sent in my 1st year of residency to a pediatric intensive care unt. Will have to do neonatal, paediatric, obstetric anaesthesia as well as paediatric intensive care including the perioperative care of pediatric cardiac surgery. You can only imagine how overwhelmed I am. I never performed an epidural and have yet to harness the basics of spinal anesthesia. Any good books/journals regarding these fields?? Many thanks
Thank you so much! That sounds like an intense stretch of rotations, but you’re going to do great! Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with pediatric *anything* at this point (I’ll be doing pedi anesthesia in April, May, and June), but have plenty of experience with epidurals and spinals.
YouTube is a great resource to SEE how those procedures are performed. As far as the theory, any anesthesia textbook (Miller, Barash, Morgan and Mikhail) will give you the theory behind neuraxial anesthetics and their considerations. 🙂
The rain is crazy here in California right now, and last weekend. Floods and all :/
Hopefully things get better for you!!
Yes it is, but with the drought, Cali definitely needs it! Stay safe! 🙂