Another Weekend of Call

This whole second year of residency has been much tougher on Marcus work-wise (and subsequently, the boys and I) than the first year was. And this spring has been the most demanding of all. Marcus was assigned to a satellite cancer clinic for four months in the fall, which prevented him from taking turns covering call at the main hospital downtown, without letting him off the hook for the number of call weeks he has to cover in 12 months. So this spring and summer, he is on call every two or three weeks, instead of every five to six weeks like last year. On call weeks, he works later every night (until 8:00ish, usually), and usually has to go in some on the weekends. The irony of this is that one of the reasons Marcus was attracted to specializing in radiation oncology is that there are very few emergency needs for radiation therapy. The only one really is when someone has a tumor that is compressing the spinal cord, and therefore shrinking it immediately is imperative. Well, somehow, the fates have determined that Marcus is the spinal-cord-compression guy, and in 21 months of residency, he has had ELEVEN CORD COMPRESSIONS during his assigned call weeks. Two or three would be a more reasonable expectation, if even that many.

On top of all of the extra call, Marcus has been studying around the clock for over a month for the annual inservice exam he took Thursday of last week. In addition, he has a couple of research project deadlines for conferences coming up in the next couple of months, as well as a conference to attend in May. All of these extra responsibilities have left him with MUCH less free time than we had last year, and I've ended up feeling very much like a single parent for the first time since Ethan was born. (I did the single-parenting thing for most of Caleb's first year of life, while Marcus was a third-year med student, but it was much easier with just one child.)

This past Saturday morning, Marcus was paged for a cord compression at 5:30 am, left immediately for the hospital, and didn't get back home until eight hours later. And he was still taking calls through the rest of the afternoon regarding the same patient. Needless to say, most of our plans for the day (which was the first Saturday Marcus didn't have to study for over a month) went out the window. Though he was able to come home in time to play in the back yard with us for a little while. And since the boys nap-striked on Saturday, we put them to bed really early and spontaneously had a couple of friends over for dinner.

On the bright side, I would much rather it have worked out this way, with a harder second year, after we were already well-established here in Birmingham, than a super-tough first year. At least this year, the boys' and I had our routines in place, a long list of favorite places to go, and most importantly, friends to call on for play dates and chatting. And, of course, we are both hoping that things will slow down at work some once the residency year turns over in July.