Picture this… it’s 6:42 this morning, my cat is snuggled in my lap, my coffee is delicious, the music is wonderful. And then… I looked at my calendar.

Really? 

I’M ON CALL?

Between call and business travel this is the first weekend in 5 weeks I’ve been home.  I was totally psyched for a weekend off and then…

If you are in medicine, you will immediately recognize that this is an important syndrome which, up to now, has gone unnamed.  If you aren’t in medicine it’s important to know what happens next.  When a physician, nurse or other provider suffers from SUCS, it only takes 10-15 minutes to have the paradigm shift of “Oh, well….. “ and then move on to how you are going to take care of others.  (Trainees – when, not if, this happens to you, the worst thing you can do is turn this into a chronic condition by letting this torture you during your call day.)

I took a deep breath, reorganized my thoughts and my emotions.  I went from my hierarchy of needs for the weekend to the well recognized hierarchy of needs for being on call.

Photo credit

 Then I texted my fellow.

And she responded….

On to the rest of the day, including my Saturday tradition of going to the farmer’s market!

As I was at the farmer’s market, looking at all the wonderful produce, having breakfast and soaking in the sun, I pondered my rapid recovery from SUCS.

And then I had a thought I will pose to my readers…. what should we call the opposite syndrome?  You know, the one when you get to the hospital and realize you made a mistake and you aren’t on call?

Dancing Doctor Video

p.s. It turned out my call yesterday was listed as an “all day” event for two days on Outlook.  Whew!