On Call

Part of my new work environment involves going on call....that means for a week between the hours of 7.30 to 8am I am the person the emergency department doctors will call if they need an urgent ultrasound. To say I was a little nervous about this would be an understatement! The on call phone was always close at hand and I'm sure I wasn't sleeping properly constantly worried about missing the call. Anyway no calls the first night; a call on both the second and third nights which required no action; all quiet on the fourth night and by this stage I was beginning to think this wasn't too bad after all!

Famous last words! It was tiring all this waiting business so I headed to bed early on fifth night only to wake up at midnight with a temp of 39º! Had a contingency plan for everything else except this. Prayed really hard for the phone not to ring and I think someone up there was looking out for me. Not surprisingly called in sick for work the next day. A trip to the doctors who diagnosed a virus and wanted to write me off for the next five days! Said I couldn't do that...I was on call which included working the weekend too. Did I mention that Katy was sick too with similar symptoms!

Slept all afternoon waking in the early evening and was very glad that one of my colleagues could cover my on call for the night as well as my day shift the next day. Eventually got out of bed at lunchtime the next day as the high temp has finally subsided. Felt fairly average but thought I'd be ok for the rest of my on call shifts. Got called in that night at a respectable time of 9.30pm and managed ok for Sunday which turned out to be a nice amount of busy.

Arrived home at 5.30pm Sunday night and while Andy was cooking dinner, the girls and I got out the Christmas tree. We put the tree together, draped the lights around and then the on call phone rang! Luckily I had time to have dinner before heading back into work. Andy and the girls completed the tree decoration while I was gone.

 

So my first experience at on call will be one that I'd like to forget. My tentative plans for my two roster days off last week were foiled by still being sick (along with Katy). Oh well at least next time can't be that bad.....won't have to wait long to find out.....next on call shift is in early January!