Chapter 89
Ha....
A short sigh escaped me.
'Ah, I always went to sleep right when it hit 10 o'clock!'
My steps came to an abrupt stop.
Is that even right?
So they really went to bed exactly at 10 p.m.?
A med student?
Does that even make sense?
I thought back to my own med school days.
10 o'clock?
They slept at 10?
And kept doing that until graduation?
'...Hmm.'
Right, let's ask the geniuses.
Whether it was possible.
Whether I was the only one who'd busted my ass like this, or whether that junior had just come from another world.
I sat down hard on the musty mattress in the on-call room and opened the blue window.
=======================
[Dead Doctors Gallery]
Emergency Survey, Urgent as Hell
Author : HellJoseonSlave1
Guys, how many hours did you sleep in college??? When did you sleep??
=======================
My desperate question triggered an explosive response in less than a second.
[Comments]
Yep (211.36) : 3 a.m.?
ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1 : On average, 3 a.m.?
ㄴ Yep (211.36) : No, 3 a.m. during exam season. Normally 1 a.m.
ㄴ Back in My Day : I just slept late. After exams, I'd crash like crazy, study like crazy, crash like crazy, repeat forever.
ㄴ Hippocrates' Descendant : Back in my day, med school was four years!
I hesitated for a moment at the last comment.
'...Four years? What year is that even from? A fossil? Ah, right. A fossil. It's dead, after all.'
ㄴ Cardiology Ghost : But, Hell Slave, why are you asking that all of a sudden? Feeling nostalgic now that you're a second-year?
ㄴ HellJoseonSlave1 : No, one of the first-years who came into our department this year supposedly went to sleep right at 10 on the dot.
ㄴ Back in My Day : ???????
ㄴ Yep (210.94) : ?????? A med student at 10? Every day?
ㄴ Hematomas Are Hell : Did that person even graduate med school? Or did they go to some nursing academy churning out assistants?
ㄴ Pediatrics Ghost 77 : Hey, Hell Slave, you shouldn't be posting here—the one who should be here is them. They're the weirder one.
ㄴ God of the Scalpel : Someone like that is either insanely smart, or just doesn't think at all. One of the two.
'...Hmm, so even by these ghosts' standards, it's crazy.'
I felt strangely relieved.
Yeah, I wasn't the weird one.
That stubborn junior was just an oddball.
How was a textbook nerd like that supposed to survive down here in hell...
“Dr. Han! Please take a look at the patient who was just triaged!”
At the nurse's frantic shout, I shut the gallery window and sprang to my feet.
“Got it!”
***
At 4 a.m., a drunk middle-aged man shouted that his head was bleeding.
The cut was actually on his chin.
At 5 a.m., a man in his twenties was brought in complaining of sudden side pain.
A CT scan showed a kidney stone.
The scream of a man heard at dawn was more harrowing than any rock band's shouting.
And so, several hours passed.
And finally, morning.
Me, with dead-fish eyes from the all-nighter; Baek Eunseo, still sparkling despite it all; and Choi Su-min beside Eunseo, already looking like their soul had left their body.
We stood side by side at the station, sorting the last charts.
“It's over....”
I clicked the EMR logout button and leaned my whole body against the chair back.
'Kyaaahhh!!!! Time to clock out!!!!'
I practically floated out of my chair.
My jacket stuffed in the locker, my wallet, my car keys... no, my transit card.
“..That happy?”
Baek Eunseo, packing their own things beside me, looked at me with fascination.
“Oh.”
I froze for a moment.
Had my expression shown that clearly?
“Well. Yeah. It's time to get off work.”
I cleared my throat on purpose and tried to recover the dignity of a second-year senior.
“What's wrong with that? You were up all night too.”
“No! I'm happy too! I learned EKG from you today, and I got to see patients! It was a really fulfilling day!”
…Fulfilling?
Baek Eunseo slung their bag over their shoulder and bowed 90 degrees to me once more.
“Doctor, really, can I message you questions anytime?”
Baek Eunseo looked straight into my eyes as if they were waiting for a stamp of approval.
Right, I was their role model.
If I was a role model, I had to do this much.
“Of course! Ask anytime!”
I answered boldly, waving my hand.
“It's a hundred times better than sitting on something you don't understand until it turns into a disaster. Day or night, just send it.”
“Really? Thank you, doctor! See you next shift!”
Baek Eunseo trotted out of the locker room looking like they owned the world.
I stared blankly at that energetic back.
'What, how many questions could they possibly ask? They'd probably just ask about a few EKGs and be done with it.'
I shrugged and left the locker room.
...And I didn't know yet.
That I'd come to bitterly regret telling them to ask me anything, starting from the morning of my precious day off.
***
9 a.m.
I woke up to the blinding sunlight even without an alarm.
“Krrr...”
Crack.
The joints all over my body creaked.
My precious day off.
A golden holiday.
I lay in bed and laid out today's perfect plan.
Step 1: lie there like a corpse all morning.
Step 2: get up around noon and heat up yesterday's leftover chicken.
Step 3: watch OTT and turn my brain off.
Step 4: order chicken for dinner again. (This time grilled.)
Step 5: fall asleep cursing tomorrow's shift.
Perfect.
There could not possibly be a more perfect holiday plan than this.
Just as I was about to close my eyes again to carry out step 1.
Ding-
My brow furrowed.
'...Who is it.'
Hospital?
With a sinking feeling, I picked up the phone on the bedside table.
A very unfamiliar name was on the screen.
[Baek Eunseo (EM)]
[Hello, doctor! Good morning!]
I couldn't bring myself to reply.
A first-year.
And at 9 a.m. on a day off, texting me on KakaoTalk?
Why?
When I was a first-year, I wouldn't even step on my seniors' shadows.
Ding-
Messages kept arriving one after another.
[I was studying a case report at home, and this ultrasound image is really confusing. Is this GB wall thickening
(* gallbladder wall thickening)
finding correct? Or is it just an artifact
(* illusion)
maybe?]
And then came a blurry ultrasound photo that looked like it had been taken from somewhere—textbook or the internet, I couldn't tell.
“Ah.”
I shot up from the bed.
I squinted at the blurry photo.
Gallbladder wall thickening?
It did seem like that.
But if the patient wasn't fasting, it would look like that naturally.
But was it an artifact?
I had no idea.
No, not knowing wasn't an option.
I opened the gallery.
=======================
[HelpHelpUrgentAsHell]
Author : HellJoseonSlave1
Guys, this ultrasound is way too confusing..
Is it GB wall thickening? Artifact?
[Photo]
[Comments]
Back in My Day :
Can't you see it's a total mess? Besides, the patient isn't fasting.
OR Ghost 3 : How is that even a question? They just ate.
“Phew.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
Yeah, this was obvious.
I started typing my reply.
[It's a typical post-meal finding. The gallbladder has contracted, so the wall just looks thickened; it's not a lesion. Make sure to check whether the patient is NPO
(* fasting)
status.]
[Thank you!!!]
Right. I lay back down in bed.
***
1 p.m.
I finally ran yesterday's leftover chicken through the air fryer.
It was the sacred moment right before I took a bite of the oil-dripping chicken.
Ding-
“Aaaaaaaagh!!!!”
I set the chicken down, scrubbed my hands raw with a wet wipe, and grabbed the phone.
[Hello, doctor, I looked into it and this is... (see more)]
[A 25-year-old female patient says both hands' knuckles are swollen and stiff in the morning.]
[Her blood work shows rheumatoid factor (RF) is negative, but anti-CCP antibodies are positive?]
[Can we make a straight RA diagnosis in this case? Even with RF negative?]
“Aaaagh! Why are you asking me rheumatology questions! Do I look like a rheumatologist? I'm EM! Emergency medicine!”
I tore at my hair and opened the gallery.
After I wrote that, a comment appeared not long after.
Rheumatology Grandma : Long time no see, my little quack. RF is an old test with poor specificity, dear. If anti-CCP is positive, you diagnose seropositive RA even if RF is negative and start DMARD therapy right away.
[Anti-CCP antibodies are far more specific than RF. If that's positive, it meets the RA diagnostic criteria. It doesn't matter if RF is negative.]
[Thank you so much, doctor!!!]
...With that, at 3 p.m. I was passionately explaining the diagnostic criteria for Kawasaki disease with the help of Pediatrics Ghost 77, and at 5 p.m. I studied bone marrow with the help of Bone Nerd 88.
At 7 p.m., I even discussed the distinguishing points between ATN and pre-renal AKI with the help of Nephrology Old Fogey.
And finally, 9:58 p.m.
I was sitting at my desk.
Even though it was my day off.
Why was I doing this on my day off?
Ding-
[Doctor, this is really my last question. The isolation protocol for a suspected MERS patient...]
“Krrr...”
...And just like that, I was out cold at 10 p.m.—the very hour my junior goes to sleep.
To be exact, I passed out.
***
The next morning, at the start of my shift.
I showered and took a taxi with my eyes puffed up.
'Did I sleep? Why am I even more tired if I did...'
When the ER's automatic door opened, I dragged my battered soul inside.
“Hyeonjae!!! Good morning!!!”
A booming voice with a level of energy from another world grabbed me by the collar from behind.
It was Lee Min-jae.
You'd think he'd quiet down a bit after becoming a fellow, but that guy is still just as loud.
“Good morning.”
“Yeah! Another really good morning! How've you been... what?”
Lee Min-jae stopped in his tracks after looking at my face.
“What's wrong with your face? Did you eat something bad yesterday? Weren't you off? What did you do on your day off to end up like this?”
“...No. Nothing happened. I just had something a little tiring to deal with.”
Next day off, I'm just turning my phone off.
Seriously.