Much like "rules are made to be broken". Today I felt like I was on vacation. The day actually proceeded according to the appointment schedule. I saw patients on time and went to lunch on time and finished almost on time. That does actually happen occasionally, and I get close lots of the time, but yesterday was such a whirlwind that today was a "day of rest".
It is true that my schedule usually changes more than once per day. There are always cancellations and re-scheduling of appointments. Clients can’t find their pet, or they have a sick kid, or their car breaks down, or the sick kitty appears now to be well. There are also usually some additions. Fluffy just suddenly became ill during the night, or took a turn for the worse, or had babies, or got hit by a car. It happens. It happens often enough that my receptionist occasionally becomes so exasperated that she says, "I don’t know why I even make these schedules." I know why: it’s because I like the comforting illusion that I have some idea where my day is going and that I have some control over it. Which I do… sort of. Then there are those (thankfully rare) days like yesterday.
I knew things would probably be pretty busy, since I skipped out for three days of continuing education (hey, you’ve got to stay current to be a good doctor… also to keep your license). There were a couple of things that had smoldered over the weekend, but most of the crazy stuff called for the first time that day. There were two major medical workups, two trauma emergencies (both doing well today), and four terminal patients in one day (which is very unusual, and depressing). I worked through the lunch hour without a break and finished an hour late, just in time to be an hour late to work at the Kiwanis little league basketball games until 9:30. Here’s the kicker: we had eight cancellations yesterday. I might still be in yesterday otherwise.
I would say everything’s back to normal today, but sometimes it’s hard to say just exactly what "normal" is. I’ll say one thing: it’s never boring around here.