CCU Blues

Thursday night. On-call in CCU. Only my 2nd night on-call since coming back from my African journey (which was supposed to refresh and invigorate me) and already I feel like I'm dragging a little.

It's been a rough call so far. A Bangladeshi guy who had been seemingly safely moved from the Unit to the floor started having hypotension and new ST-elevations at about 6PM--he was emergently cathed and comes out with a balloon pump. Can't be good. Another woman was transferred from an outside hospital having had floundered there since mid-December...and it seems a safe bet that she won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Now a fellow resident is calling me about a patient of theirs who needs an emergency transfer to the Unit for cardiogenic shock, a Swan-Ganz catheter, and what night wouldn't be complete without a 2nd balloon pump to manage?

Wish I had more interesting things to report, but sadly I do not. Saturday is a day off so they can only hurt me so much tonight...