Fellowship Update: One Month In

Thankfully Brian's crazy work schedule that I reported in the week one recap did not hold up over the whole month of August.  He was home for dinner almost every day for the rest of the month, a few days even getting home as early as 4pm!  The new fellows get a break from call for the first two weeks of work, and after that he had two home "liver transplant" calls (where he didn't get called into the hospital), a 24 hour Sunday shift and two weekday call days.  The weekday calls are pretty nice here at Boston Children's, where the shift are from 3 in the afternoon until 7 the next morning, which gives Brian a whole "free" morning at home.  And also on those two call nights Brian was able to get some sleep, so only needed a few more hours of sleep once he got home.

This month, however, Brian is on one of his two Cardiothoracic (CT) Surgery Anesthesia rotations.  This means the kids (patients) he works with are sicker, the days are longer and the call schedule is worse.  CT call is home call, however the fellows don't get the next day off, only a mandatory 10 hour break between the time they get home and they report to work the following day.  So Brian got off of call on Wednesday night at 11pm and had to be back at the hospital for work the next day at 9am.  And to make matters worse, one of his co-fellows had to fly home to Malaysia for a family emergency, meaning they are short staffed until she gets back!

The bright side is that Brian has only one weekend call and two other weekday calls (as long as the fellow gets back in a timely fashion).  But overall, it will definitely be a rougher month then August.  Bummer!