Squad 51, Squad 51

On call, one of the hardest things to get used to is to be in the deepest of sleep and then have to wake up and immediately run in to the hospital and perform something complex at a moments notice. The littlest things help ease it though. Instead of using beepers, we now use our cell phones. Before you would get the page, roll over and see the number of the ER. There would be a groan and then you would dial it not knowing is they needed and order for Zofran or that you had to get there stat because someone was bleeding out. Each time the beeper went off, there would be that little bit of anxiety. One of the big problems it that quite often, it was enough to make it hard to get back to sleep. With our cell phones, the text message goes off and right there is what is the problem.

Now, the fun part is when the ED calls or another part in one of the medical centers, we can assign them a ring tone. The ED is the Squad 51, Squad 51 from the old TV series Emergency. The patient placement/transfer office which is where they tell you another dump is coming in from somewhere is "Incoming tactical NUKE" from the Transformers Movie. Hospital Administration is "Run Away, Run Away" from Holy Grail. Fast track, which is like a mini-ed why are you here place is a Siamese cat whining. There are a bunch more but is Sunday morning and like always we are of to the OR for something that was elective 2 months ago but is now urgent!