This weekend was basically a waste for me, as Saturday I was stuck covering an ICU call shift for a fellow resident who had to leave town. The upside is that he owes me a favor sometime in the future.

It was pretty slow most of the night (especially late afternoon to early evening) and I was thankful for that. At 2 am though, my slumber was interrupted because some 22 year old kid got way too drunk. He passed out and smacked his face on a curb. His buddies called an ambulance and when they brought him in his alcohol level was 411. (This translates to a BAL of 0.411 – remember you can’t drive after 0.08 per California law, so basically more than 5 times that drunk. AND THAT was when we measured the level, which certainly wasn’t his likely maximal level for the evening. Also, it’s been shown that people who get higher than 500 (aka 0.5) basically have a 50% chance of dying - you can do the roughly do the math on this guys 0.411 level and the likely number of drinks he had with this chart - he wayed about 185 pounds). So this guy was sauced. Anyway, in the ER he was minimally responsive and started vomiting all over himself. He couldn’t clear his secretions, started choking on his own vomit, and hence required intubation (basically a tube into his trachea to maintain his airway while a ventilator breathes for him). Nice work buddy. Furthermore, he had passed out and hit his face, so we had to CT his head to make sure he wasn’t bleeding into his head (he wasn’t); we also had to clear his cervical spine for possible fractures (requiring an X-ray and CT of his neck).

Anyway, anyone who is intubated has immediately bought himself an ICU bed, so in the middle of the night this became my problem. So essentially I was woken up because of some drinking night gone horribly wrong. I didn’t get much sleep after that.

The kid turned out to be all right – we got the tube out early that morning (like 7am Sunday) and he was doing OK, still pretty effin drunk.

When we had the tube out I asked him the last thing he remembered.

“I just remember drinking a lot….”

No shit. So, a night out with the boys turned into a overnight stay in the intensive care unit after a few head CT’s and being put on a ventilator. Again, nice work.

“Look Marge, this guy’s got a machine to breath FOR him – and here I am using my own lungs like a sucker…”

(This is a common ICU quote – sadly, it’s rarely appropriate).

Before all that craziness, one of the other residents (named Jimmy, which is funny in itself) and I started talking all sorts of shit about Axis and Allies. He was a West Point guy, and we both touted our skills. Well, before long, he was on the phone to his wife and he had her bring the damn game into the hospital so we could pass the time on call.

With a lot more shit talk, (I basically claimed I was “unbeatable” if playing the allies), we set up the game and went to work.

Sadly, we only got 2 turns in (Russia and Germany) before Jimmy got busy with work and we had to stop. We didn’t do any more that night, but we left the board set up in the corner of a call room and today at lunch we did a couple more turns. (UK and Japan).

What a fun game. I haven’t played in years, but we already have a good battle brewing. Jimmy is a solid player. (Warning – the rest of this paragraph is nerdy Axis and Allies talk). My opening Russia turn went very well and prevented him from attacking too effectively. On his Germany turn, he didn’t try and destroy my UK navy (mistake!) and with the UK I actually successfully invaded Western Europe. I won’t keep it for long, but it’s going to be a real pain in Germany’s ass and it got me 6 bucks. (or “6 space bucks, for food, gas, and tolls…” ß an old quote I used to say religiously when getting money in this game). Jimmy then countered with a very strong Japan move, basically getting great rolls (and planning well, I’ll admit grudgingly) – he’s hammering into Russia and took eastern China and also has an industrial complex directly east of china which will be huge trouble. So now I’m up with the US and I have some serious strategizing to do… What a fun game.

What’s even better is we had a bunch of other residents watching us play at lunch. Lots of trash talk and lots of people interested in learning the game.

In some small way, this is my attempt to make my job more like Eryn’s, I think…. Regardless, it’s a good game and should give us some entertainment this week.

Anyway, the rest of my weekend consisted of watching Citizen Kane on Friday night (for the first time ever!!) – what a great film. Then I spent Sunday (after getting home and napping for 5 hours) watching the 2 additional commentaries that came with the DVD. They were also excellent. I can’t believe I’d stayed away from “Kane” for so long. I love Netflix – it’s the perfect solution to all the holes in my movie vocabulary. I also finished Das Boot earlier tonight – also a solid film (but nowhere near as good as “Kane”). Check Mick Flicks in coming days for more.

Also, see every other blog for the NFL draft report. I’m pumped my Giants have a potential franchise QB, but I’m not fired up on his whining to be on this team or that team. I’m also not fired up on Archie “Puppet Master” Manning. I guess playing for a shitty Saints team for your whole career will do that to a man. I also think the Giants gave up too much to get Eli – if he’s a bust it could be the end of the Giants GM. (Which would be fine, according to Papa Stup). In fact, I talked to Papa Stup from the hospital on the day of the draft and he was already pissed that the Giants didn’t trade down to the Browns to get more picks and THEN trade for Manning. Ah, I wish my dad had some role in the Giants organization. It would make him (and me) so happy.

I’m super pumped on my new book, “A Prayer for Owen Meaney.” I’ve never read any John Irving before, and dammit that guy is really good. More later. More on good old Catch 22 as well.

In other news, the weather is getting nicer, the days are getting longer, and my mountain bike is getting tuned. I’m officially pumped for summer. Also, I got my schedule for next year last week (from July 1st on – or my third year of residency). My entire summer is clinic months which means I can take leave whenever I need to. So hello Montana officially and hello MLOM “LIVE” draft with the commish in San Diego. We simply have to get Fwats down this year. I’m willing to pitch in for his ticket…

And with that, I’m off to bed.