Whirlwind

I ran into my coworker this morning at the airport. I called her name several times before she finally turned to me confused. "Sorry," she said " I feel like I've been inside a tornado for the past few days." It was the perfect way to describe how I feel as well.

Thursday morning I got up at 3:45 and hit up my elliptical for a workout before heading to the airport. For the next 20 hours I got to deal with all the pleasures of travel, an overly packed plane, delayed flights, and nasty airport food. I finally got to Arcata only to go to the wrong Best Western 2 times, before finally finding my hotel!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I was up at 4 to hit up the hotel gym, which had nothing but a crappy treadmill. So the treadmill it was. Then a quick shower, a stop in the lobby where I stuffed my laptop case with stuff from the continental breakfast and I was in the car for the 45 minute drive to the hospital. I am sure it was a nice drive in the daylight- through the mountains and redwoods on highway 101. But it was always dark when I was driving it. Then the next 13-14 hours were at the Redwood Memorial Hospital ED supporting the doctors and nurses as they went LIVE with Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE). There wasn't much at the hospital or in town in terms of food, but luckily there was a Starbucks! Then it was 45 minutes back to the hotel, where I'd fall in bed exhausted. I am very tired of oatmeal, yogurt, cheerios, and fruit since that's all I ate the whole time. Well, and a lot of chocolate from the candy I brought to bribe the staff into liking me and CPOE.

As exhausting as it all was, it was all pretty rewarding. It was really interesting to be in the ED and see all the cases that came in. It was pretty sad as well. It's a poor, rural area so we saw a lot of people who came in simply because they had no place to go. It was also rewarding to see the staff do so well with the new electronic system. I spend so much time in a basement, or at my house, building the system, but totally removed from the patient care aspect.

And now it's time for my second flight of the day. Cross your fingers that the rest of the trip home is a smooth one, because I think I'm too tired to handle any disruption with grace today.