Radiology night shifts are a frenzy. Maddenly, absurdly difficult. An older internal medicine doctor once asked me “oh, do you get to sleep during your call shifts?” and I scoffed. Sleep?! We hardly have time to go to the bathroom!
Labeling radiology nights as “call” is misleading, suggesting that we only spring into action when some rare clinical circumstance occurs (like checking if a baby’s bowel is twisting itself off). “Night float” gets closer, implying a skeleton night crew takes over to cover overnight emergency issues (like if a patient in the scanner requires special attention). I mean, we do those things too, but the commodity of modern radiology is incorporated real-time into many diagnostic workups, so we’re basically ALWAYS needed.
The world record for fastest official single Rubik’s Cube solve is 4.69 seconds, set by Patrick Ponce earlier this month (edging out perennial champion Feliks Zemdegs at 4.73 seconds). That’s brain-meltingly fast, but the robot called Sub1 Reloaded holds the robot record at 0.637 seconds.
There were oracles in China around 1200 BC who could see the future in ox bones and turtle shells. They would inscribe them with characters, anoint them with blood, heat them up until they shattered, and “read” the fracture patterns to divinate future events. Royals would ask about rainfall, about warfare, about their own health. There were oracles everywhere in the ancient world; in Greece, Africa, and America, people sought the advice of those mystics who could see things they couldn’t. Continue reading The Hospital Oracles→
