Breaking the Golden Rule

I am reluctant and saddened to announce that I have recently broken one of my "golden rules" of medicine. During residency, I made the decision that I would not, under any circumstances, wake up before 5am. Of course, there were times when I was already on-call working and/or sleeping in the hospital during which I was busy before 5 am....but you always knew that the end of your 30-hour shift was coming up, and with that complete and utter freedom for the next half-day at least.

Things are a bit different this year. I no longer have to spend the night in the hospital when I am on-call (I can field phone calls from my home and attempt to problem-solve while discussing with residents working in the hospital), for which I am certainly grateful. However, the dialysis unit officially opens for business at 6:30 each morning, and I need to make certain that all my orders are in before that time on a constant stream of kidney patients. Coupled with the fact that it takes me about 40 minutes or so to make it in using "the T" (Boston's tram/subway system), I have already on one occasion broken THE GOLDEN RULE, in which I woke up at 4:45 am. I am hoping that I will not be in flagrant violation of this rule too many other times this year...

On the plus side: when I come home, Sophie (who has been smiling a lot more recently!) is there to cheer me up!

PS--in case I don't have time to blog tomorrow: Happy Birthday to Claire on Aug. 20th!!