6:00 am. Husband feeds the baby, I wake up the three-year-old.
6:15 am. Feed the kids breakfast, pack lunches, get the kids in the minivan.
6:45 am. Drive to day care and drop off the kids. They cry as I leave the room.
7:15 am. Arrive at the hospital and pump in the call room.
8:00 am. Grand Rounds, ironically on the topic of physician wellness and sleep deprivation. I wish they could live a day in my life.
9:00 am. Drive to clinic, prepare to see morning patients.
9:30 am. First patient is complex and takes more than the 30-minute allotted slot.
9:50 am. Cerumen impaction, takes longer than expected to remove.
10:30 am. I miss my pumping break and just move on to a Medicare annual physical.
11:30 am. Last patient, sinus infection, sick enough for antibiotics.
12:00 pm. Aching breasts and very hungry. Hunger wins.
12:20 pm. Finally get to pump again.
12:50 pm. “Rest” period prior to night shift. Spend entirety of this time finishing clinic notes, dealing with patient messages, and checking emails.
4:40 pm. Pump again.
5:30 pm. Start my night shift, assuming care for 15 acutely ill, hospitalized patients.
6:00 pm. Admit two patients to the hospital–an opiate addict with cellulitis and a ninety-year-old with a fever and slight hypoxia. I have a chance to pump before and after these admissions.
10:00 pm. Triage several pages about hospital patients and answer several phone calls as the outpatient on-call doctor. Fighting exhaustion.
2:00 am. Attempt sleep. I get almost an hour before the pager wakes me up. Somehow I feel even more tired after the nap.
3:30 am. Another admission–a complicated patient with lung problems, closely followed by a 19-year-old on labor and delivery in early labor.
6:30 am. End of night shift. Pass off patients to the day team, then shovel breakfast in my gullet as I pump again.
8:00 am. Finally done with all my paperwork, I drive home feeling woozy.
8:30 am. Shower, pump, so tired…
9:30 am. Pass out in bed. Get a luxurious 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep, dreaming of my children.
Jessica Faraci
Colchester, Vermont