what to do, what to do

Warren Cooper, the visiting surgeon that we had out in February, said
that he dislikes the weekends the most when he goes to visit places,
because he gets bored too easily. I've been filling my time this
weekend watching M*A*S*H on DVD, where they complain about how little
there is to do in Korea and invent little farces to keep themselves
busy. They seem to spend the rest of their time staying up all night to
sit at the bedside of a patient who's sick or operating '17 hours
straight'. I feel a little bit guilty spending my Saturday watching a
70's TV show when I'm supposed to be 'doing something' with my time
here; the simple fact of the matter, however, is that a day to sleep in
until 8am and not be hounded by folks asking for money or favors can be
a real blessing at times here. I'm certainly not cut out to stay up all
night multiple times during the week; even this week after spending just
part of 4 nights up doing anesthesia I was tired. Even though I'm on
call and have to stay close to home, the difference psychologically
between going into work and not going in can be very important. I try
not to feel too guilty that I don't measure up to the standards of the
TV doctors or even some of the missionary doctors you read about, at
least the way that their biographers would like to make you think they
worked. Certainly most days I enjoy the visitors and kids playing and
the work and the patients, but you do need a break. So here's to BJ and
Trapper and Hawkeye for another weekend or two.