What's the longest you've gone during residency without seeing your family/s.o.?

[ArrogantSurgeon]

As a general surgery resident, what has bee the longest time you've gone without seeing your family or significant other? Have any of you not gone home for more than 2 days straight because you were too busy at the hospital?

Also, have you every been so tired that even after you got home you just went to bed without spending any time with your family/s.o.?

If so, has this changed at all with the gradual implementation of the 80-hour rule?

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[pjr]

During my second year of residency, I once went five straight days without leaving the hospital when I was on the transplant service. During my intern year I once didn't leave the bedside of a sick patient in the ICU for three days (except for bathroom and shower breaks) just because I had some attachment to her care. This has changed a hell of a lot with the 80 hour rule...I haven't done anything like that since my second year of residency, and our residents on the transplant service spend nowhere near that amount of time in the hospital anymore.

 

[Skylizard]

Originally posted by ArrogantSurgeon
As a general surgery resident, what has been the longest time you've gone without seeing your family or significant other? Have any of you not gone home for more than 2 days straight because you were too busy at the hospital?

Also, have you ever been so tired that even after you got home you just went to bed without spending any time with your family/s.o.?

I think this is a very broad question and is rotation dependent. I can also tell you that long nights/days are not unique to surgery.

During my first Gsurge internship two years ago, I went 40 hours without going home. During my FP internship this past year, I have also gone 40 hours without going home. I know numerous IM residents, FP residents, neurology residents, OB/Gyn residents etc... who will tell you about such long nights. The key about the 80/wk thing is that it is suppose to put a "cap" on how many of these long nights you do regardless of what residency you are in.

I have not gone 48 hours ("2 days straight").

I have often come home post-call during my first Gsurge internship so tired that I just stuff my face with some kind of food my wife cooked and fallen asleep without any "quality time". I have often had the same experience on certain FP rotations during my FP internship. Alot of this depends on the night of call and what has been going on during the week. I have had some trauma call nights when all was silent and others in which it was so busy we went onto "divert" after the 8th "trauma response call". The home post call thing or home by noon post call allows you to get some sleep but will not necessarily make it easy for you to spend quality time at home. It just depends if you slept during your call and how beat up you are from the weeks activites. My wife has often come in to see me while on call early in the afternoon or evening before I am beat up. Sometimes this will be all the quality time you get for awhile.

 

[jashanley]

my fiance is an Ob/gyn intern and I am EM/IM. She was working nights for a month and I was in the ED doing a week of days. I would go to work at 6:30 am and she would get home at 9:00 by the time I got home at 8:30pm, she be back at work starting at 7:30 pm. So we did this for 5 days straight (two weeks in a row), we got to go home but didn't see each other for 5 days then another 5 days in a row. It sucked. Not as horrible as staying in house for two days, but it was unpleasant. The longest I've been in the hospital was 41 hours in a row with 15min of sleep.....overnight. That was a really crappy call.

 

[soudes]

I am a third-year medical student doing my surgery rotation at a very busy hospital (I work about 70-80 hours a week q4). My wife is a consultant for IBM. Thanks to the wonderful economy, she has had to travel for business wheras in the past she could work out of the home office. So she leaves Monday morning and gets back Friday evening.

The call schedule being the way it is, I am on call at least one day 3 out of every four weekends. On the weekends, I get out at noon post-call.

This week, for example, I was on call Sunday (left my house at 6:00 AM), and I am on call Thursday, so I won't have seen my wife for 5 days.

 

[fourthyear]

Just to remind everyone, this stuff isn't completely unique to the medical field. Before med school, my husband was in the military. He had a 1-month training exercise where he worked 16 hour night shifts 7 days a week, and I worked days. So we had the same exact situation that jashanley and his wife had, sleeping in the same house, but never at the same time! We didn't feel bad for ourselves too much though, because at the same time that was going on, friends of ours, both of whom were in the miliary had a baby who they had to send to her grandparents house b/c both the husband and the wife were being sent on separate overseas deployments at the same time!

I guess my post is kinda off the topic, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind everyone about the lifestyle sacrifices that the military personell make for us and our country. We are not the only profession who has a disrupted family life due to our career choices.

 

[hemoccult]

Not to be an a-hole but the post by 3rd year medical student working a hard 70-80 hours with a grueling q4 call schedule, coupled with a spouse who is away due to career obligations doesn't seem to fit in this thread.

I am not discounting that it sucks not to see your spouse for 5 days as this colleague previously posted. Clearly, it is less than optimal.

I do, however, think that having a spouse away or not having contact with a spouse due to vacation, business, or other type travelling is distinct from the demands of being at a hospital for excessive time as some residents are doing.

The aforementioned comments are not intended to be inflammatory, but to help share insight regarding the topic.

Thanks. Peace out!

 

[Skylizard]

Originally posted by hemoccult
Not to be an a-hole but the post by 3rd year medical student working a hard 70-80 hours with a grueling q4 call schedule, coupled with a spouse who is away due to career obligations doesn't seem to fit in this thread...

Word!!!

Originally posted by ArrogantSurgeon
What's the longest you've gone during RESIDENCY without seeing your family/s.o.?

 

[Foxxy Cleopatra]

I appreciate that life during residency is a total different ball of wax than MS-3 life, but give the guy a break- he was just sharing.

after all, take any- (and every-) thing on this board with a grain of salt.

I wish the surgery board (in general) would lighten up.

that's it for my venting and the end of my $0.02

peace
-f.c.

 

[soudes]

Gosh, I wish I would have known that in order to state a valid opinion you have to be at least an intern. My answer to the question is it has been 5-6 days every 3 to 4 weeks for almost 5 months. This would be the same whether I was a resident or a student.

Too bad my opinions don't coun't.

On a semi-related topic: I can't understand why some people have such negative opinions of surgeons in general. Could it be because certain members of the surgical ranks suffer from inflated egos coupled with diarrhea of the mouth? Could such an off-putting combination be the source of animosity?

SL and others: I choose to make this my last reply on this or any other topic regarding "rights to post.". I would rather not engage in head-butting with your ilk.

Try to find time in your busy posting schedule to get some exercise; you might find it diffuses your hostility.

 

[Pureride]

One day you are gonna wish you still had access to the "days of not having to see your significant other"
Why dred them when you can apprecite such a marvel.

 

[dr.evil]

Long days/nights are a rule on some services. My transplant rotation had some brutal times. I was at the hospital Monday at 3:30 AM to round, up all day doing cases, floor work/crap, a retrieval and tranplant throughout the night, Tuesday-rounding again at 4:00 AM, up all day doing cases/crap, on Trauma/G.Surg call all night (not a good call night either), Wednesday-cases/floor work/crap, left the hospital at 7:00pm. I was about dead. I do have to admit I slept 1-2 hours in between our retrieval and transplant as well as 2 hours on call, but it didn't do much but make me more tired. I guess I never sat down and added how many hours that was.

63.5 hours with 3-4 hours of crappy sleep.

That was the worst for me. Honestly though, I don't remember being too horrendously exhausted until I got home. When you're constantly busy, you don't have time for your body to tell you you're tired. It took me a week to recover. I'm better for it though.

With the 80 hour work week, those hours have disappeared. No one will have to endure that again.

 

[Skylizard]

As per the original post, I am currently on OB during FP internship. I am basically on a Q1 call schedule...even though they try to hide it under the guise of "night float". I still see my wife at least once in every 24 hours. But, this rotation is arguably more stressfull and less satisfying then any I did during my first surgical internship almost two years ago. I too believe childbirth to be a miraculous thing...but some times there is too much of a good things. I will definately be happy to no longer wear knee high shoe protectors and spend all night avoiding the "coochy juice".

Originally posted by soudes
...I wish I would have known that in order to state a valid opinion you have to be at least an intern. My answer to the question is it has been 5-6 days every 3 to 4 weeks for almost 5 months. This would be the same whether I was a resident or a student...

You definately have a right to your opinion and the right to post said opinion. I think the point some of us were making is that the question was in regards to RESIDENCY and not MED-SCHOOL.

Originally posted by ArrogantSurgeon
As a general surgery resident...If so, has this changed at all with the gradual implementation of the 80-hour rule?

While my interpretation may be in error, I would further submit that the posted question was intended to elucidate the effects residency has on family. I suspect this question, being posted by a med-student was intended to provide insight as to what the future holds. I do not think the poster or any other med-student will gain any great wisdom as to what may lay ahead by knowing the work hours and family seperation of another med-student (IMHO). I do not think the poster or other med-students are presently applying to a second med-school. I understand this and other replies in this thread may come accross as abrassive or less then "diplomatic". However, the point remains, the original question was specifically posted by a med-student with regards to residency.

Alas, you do have a right to have and post your opinion. You do have the right to defend every posted reply and become indignant if someone should dare state that certain replies are innapropriate or off topic. You and anyone else can also claim that a non-diplomatic response or someone stating a reply is innappropriate is in someway reflective of the "malignant nature" of surgery. Again, you do have that right...even if you might maybe just a little bit be over-reaching and lacking in some perspective.