short hair

so i chopped off all my hair last weekend... it's liberating in a way. i donated about 8 inches to Locks of Love. i never realized that the shorter my hair gets, the more i seem to shed. my hypothesis is that when my hair was a long tangled mess of dreds, the loose pieces were held in place by being tangled. now, they just fall off and scatter across my bathroom floor. and... everywhere else.

i started at a different hospital this month. it's a chronic care facility so there are a lot of patients with cerebral palsy, asthma, sickle cell, diabetes, etc. they stay for a looong looong time, while waiting for placement or for their homes to be ready to accommodate all the "technology" that's supporting their breathing, feeding, etc. it's a really unique and special place but REALLY frightening at night because i'm the only doctor for the entire place, when i'm on call (every 4 nights).

usually things are fine... but some of these patients are teetering on the edge and things can go badly very quickly.

we have one back-up senior resident who works in the emergency room on the first floor, but other than that, we're it. and there are no ancillary services, like labs or xrays in the middle of the night. it really does feel almost like a community hospital. at least what i imagine it to be like at a community hospital. i'll see how it goes this month. tomorrow is my first call there. wish me luck!