So…it’s Saturday and I’m snowed in at work. My shift starts at 7:00 am in the morning and ends at 7:30 pm in the evening – chances are I’m going to end up sleeping over. Although there is on-call overnight room here, that room is reserved for anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists. Maybe, I’ll try sleeping in the operating room tonight…yes, it sounds a bit grotesque, I admit. But, the operating room on the weekends is entirely different from the operating room during the week – it’s quieter and much more serene. On the weekdays, the operating room is alive with the hustle and bustle of the OR staff and the patients; on the weekends, however, since only emergency cases are bound to arrive (announced ahead), the operating room is quiet otherwise.

                I could try falling asleep to the quiet hum of the instrument sterilizer in the sub-sterile room between the operating rooms or I could fall asleep by counting the number of screws and rods on a spine fusion and instrumentation case x-ray. The OR table should be relatively comfortable, although it is much narrower than the tempurpedic mattress that I am used to. I could turn the lights off and sleep peacefully without any interruptions; moreover, should a case be scheduled, then I would immediately receive a notification on my phone (situated right next to me).

                But, then again, it is rather chilly in the OR, averaging about 50-55 ^oF in each of the rooms. And also, it seems that the maintenance staff is working on monitoring the nitrogen levels in each of the rooms. I guess it would be a bit frightening to wake up on the operating room table and look over to see someone working on the nitrogen tanks in the dark corner.

                On second thought, then, I think I might just lay back and relax in one of the recovery room lounge chairs and hope that no one walks in to find me snoozing on one of the patient chairs. Looks like I’ll be spending Super Bowl Sunday in the operating room then…