Exactly midnight Tuesday morning, and the computer screen shows zero patients pending consultation. Zero! Woohoo! Okay, better not speak too soon, or I'll get whacked if something bad happens later on. :D

For those of you who are interested in "ER", you'll be happy to know that the latest season is now on Channel 5 every Sunday, though at the unearthly hour of 12am -- guess Mediacorp is sticking to its impression that this is a "core niche" programme. Worse, there was virtually no publicity for the show at all. I found out only because I got home after an afternoon shift last night and was watching a recording of "Gilmore Girls", after which I switched to the TV channel and got a huge shock -- though a very pleasant one. :)
Looks like it's the first episode, since it focuses on Dr. Susan Lewis' first day back in the ER. Lewis, for the uninitiated, was in the original season with George Clooney, but Sherry Stringfield ( who plays Lewis ) left for greener pastures soon after, appearing in a few films, the only one I remember being "Autumn In New York". Guess that career path didn't work out, so she's back in the ER as an attending, and having a really bad first day from the looks of it!

"ER" has always been among my top 3 favourite TV shows, and watching it again after a long absence is absolutely wonderful, to say the least! It hasn't lost any steam, and the storylines continue to be refreshingly original. In this episode, there are no fewer than 5 concurrent plots, from Lewis' traumatic first day, to surgeon Elizabeth Corday being hounded by the ID team for possibly transmitting infections to her patients, to Peter Benton's frantic hunt for his "missing" young son, Carter getting zapped by an over-eager med student during the defibrillation of a patient in ventricular tachycardia, not to mention the myriad of patients that continuously flood the ER. Examples include an unfortunate Mexican lady who unwittingly consumed 11 tablets of Isoniazid on a daily basis, instead of 1 tablet, because she couldn't read English, and "once" means "eleven" in Spanish -- she presented with status epilepticus, and later died. Another was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy, but was terrified of telling her parents because she swore they'd disown her if they found out she wasn't a virgin anymore. Then there's the young woman who accidentally switched to the wrong gear while backing out of the driveway, pinning her dad against the wall and causing him to haemorrhage internally, which the surgeons failed to stop. The best one involves a woman in labour, whose dripping liquor short-circuits the foot pedal for the bed, resulting in the trolley rising a few metres while the baby is crowning. The attending doctors make do by proceeding with the delivery perched on a ladder. What a riot!

If this doesn't make you want to watch the show, then I don't know what else to say, except you'll be missing out. Big time. :)

3:15am, and I've already seen more than 30 patients since starting my shift at 9pm last night! This is terrible! ( I did jinx myself after all! ) It's my turn to rest, but I'm still quite awake. One of the best things about being in the A&E department is definitely being able to sleep before night shifts, as well as after. Contrast this with "normal" postings, especially the heavy ones like internal medicine, where you are exhausted even before you hit 5pm, then forced to work your way through the entire night, followed by marathon ward rounds the next morning, and if you're lucky, an early post-call after lunch. If you cover the intensive care unit, don't hope to sleep at all, unless you've got amazingly good karma, or very capable nurses. Am glad that's over. I'm always thankful for regular sleep hours. Furthermore, having free time in the morning allows me to run a lot of errands, hang around town or catch an early movie. Is it any wonder some of my juniors want to join emergency medicine after hearing my promo speech? :D

Gonna take a short nap now. Have finally heard the audio for the RJC incident -- having some trouble with the video still. Will talk about that later if I get the chance.