Small Victories

So on Thursday all my patients seemed to be cranky and depressed and although I know that has less to do with me and more to do with the fact that they have to live in the hospital (which is of course no picnic) I still felt down about it.
Then yesterday there were lots of small victories that perked me right up for the weekend.
Mr. KN was sitting up in his bed without his oxygen he's been on for the last week and he looked great. And when I checked his oxygen saturations they were over 90% and when I showed him he gave me this great toothless grin.
Mr. LC's family was at the hospital and wanted to have a family meeting about his condition. I had printed off some information about his new condition and talked about the 3 main medical issues still outstanding while in hospital. He has a host of outpatient specialists (actually my current staff is one of them) and his family said they want me to be his long-term doctor. They also call me Dr. Amanda which is adorable.
Mr. DC finally got out of the ICU which is a victory in and of itself. I had seen him in Emerg almost 2 weeks ago and admitted him to hospital. He's this big biker guy that's been confined to his bed due to very bad arthritis. Later that night his breathing got so bad he had to be intubated and transfered to the ICU where things were very tenuous for a long time. Now he's out in the CCU and he doesn't even need oxygen (he's on BiPAP at night which he loves (people hate BiPAP) - he wants to market "Marijuana BiPAP") (*BiPAP helps people breathe by adding positive pressure when people inspire as opposed to CPAP where the positive pressure is continuous.*) Anyway, I saw him today (that's how he told me about the marijuana BiPAP) and I said "Hey do you remember me? It took you a while to get back to me." and he said "Look what I went through just to get to you darling." I love people that can put such a positive spin on tough experiences.

Yesterday was a good day to be a doctor (in training).