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Posted: 4/7/2002 8:53:25 AM EDT
I went to the hospital at 0530 on Thursday morning.  After all the work was done and the S had HTF I went home at 0200 on Saturday morning.  That broke my personal record and put me there for 44.5 hours.  Needless to say I slept until 1500 Saturday afternoon!  

I am a general surgery resident and am currently on the transplant service.  I worked Thursday, was on call Thursday night, and then worked Friday.  Friday we did an organ retrieval and then ended up doing two transplants.  A retrieval is about a 6 hour surgery, and a transplant is about 3 hours.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:00:31 AM EDT
[#1]
I've lived through 38 hour "days" a couple times. It seems the worst at about the 18 hr mark, after that you get a second wind...
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:04:39 AM EDT
[#2]
Does writing corrections to one's dissertation count?

Due to an "Administrative Assistant's" error in scheduling I had to have all my corrections done a week [u]earlier[/u] than I was originally scheduled. Of course I found this out just two days before the deadline. So I pulled up a chair at the computer room in school and...

...started at 9:00am Monday, worked till 6:00am Tuesday - then slept for two hours. Began again at 8:00am Tuesday, worked till 5:00am Wednesday - then slept for three hours. Started again at 8:00am worked till 2:00pm then was finished. Submitted three hours prior to deadline.

End result:
Worked ~53 hours with only 5 hours sleep throughout and graduated on time.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:12:49 AM EDT
[#3]
I've pulled all nighters many times in college, but they were nothing compared to the time I worked 16-hour days, 7 days a week for about 14 months. At the end of it I thought I was having a nervous breakdown, but luckily, I survived. I don't think I'll be doing that again in my lifetime.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:14:27 AM EDT
[#4]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:18:35 AM EDT
[#5]
22 hours, pouring prestressed concrete beams.  Could not go home until the pour was complete.  Slept in the parking lot for couple of hours and went at it again.

Can I be 19 again?

[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/sadness.gif[/img]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:20:33 AM EDT
[#6]
I did 60 hours a week for 3 weeks in March.  I thought I was going to die.  Since I'm an exempt employee, no overtime pay [pissed]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:24:20 AM EDT
[#7]
I think I worked 4 hours straight at the skating rink one time!! No breaks or nothing!
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:28:07 AM EDT
[#8]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:30:38 AM EDT
[#9]
Quoted:
did 60 hours a week for 3 weeks in March. I thought I was going to die. Since I'm an exempt employee, no overtime pay [pissed]
View Quote


Luxury.
I had to get up in the morning, at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill and pay mill-owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our dad would kill us and dance about on our graves, singing Hallelujah!

And you try and tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you!

Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:37:12 AM EDT
[#10]
In the army, my longest "day" had to have been the first 2 days of Desert Storm. I drove for those 2 days, only catching 5-10 minutes of sleep at fuel stops or when the tanks a few miles ahead of us stopped for some reason. I'm pretty sure I got no more than 1 hour sleep in that time.

Outside of the army, it was a mere 14 hour workday, with a 1hr 45min drive at either end.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:44:09 AM EDT
[#11]
We got a report of a cable cut about 10 on a Sunday morning.  By the time I got to the site, 2 more had been cut.  All 3 were 900 pairs non color coded.  It was about 2am the following Saturday before that we had everything under air and left the site.  Of course there was an "after cut" party to celebrate our "victory", if you want to call it that.  I still don't know how we pulled it off.  Oh to be 20 again.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:48:09 AM EDT
[#12]
16 hours on the Lot!
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:51:13 AM EDT
[#13]
I hit a 110 hour work week a few times in the ICU when I was an intern. I think my personal best for continuous work was about 36 hours. I don't count being in the field, which is essentially continuous work with a few stolen hours of sleep scattered here and there. I remember being so tired I slept through a firefight (MILES fight anyway :) once. It's amazing how comfy a shallow hole in the Carolina clay can be. Keep strong drjakeb, your future in plastic surgery will be worth it!!! You are going into plastics, aren't you??? LAter.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:53:03 AM EDT
[#14]
27 hours in a towtruck after the blizzard of '78 hit.

oh, to be young, again!
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:55:29 AM EDT
[#15]
I've pulled 48 and 60 hour shifts at the fire dept. many times. I did get to sleep though, so it probably doesn't count.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:56:59 AM EDT
[#16]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:15:43 AM EDT
[#17]
In 1997 myself and another guy had one week to upgrade all the processors and software in the phone switch and remotes at a defense contractor site in Los Angeles. Because of security and business concerns, we could only work between 1700 and 0800 Monday to Friday, and all weekend long.

So that's what we did.

We finished up about 0200 Sunday night/Monday morning, and I slept in my truck in the parking lot for a few catnaps in there rather than eat. Lotta time-and-a-half and double time on that paycheck, which Uncle Sugar promptly slurped up. [>:/] [>(] [:(!]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:26:57 AM EDT
[#18]
I'm in the middle of it right now.  12 hours a day, 7 days a week starting April 2, completion date April 27.

I'll let you know how it goes.

(Hey - it's [b]BRC[/b] money, right?)

[:D]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:37:28 AM EDT
[#19]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:41:02 AM EDT
[#20]
Quoted:
I'm in the middle of it right now.  12 hours a day, 7 days a week starting April 2, completion date April 27.

I'll let you know how it goes.

(Hey - it's [b]BRC[/b] money, right?)

[:D]
View Quote




    Get back to work.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:56:27 AM EDT
[#21]
24 hours once, on a welding rig.  I was just getting home at 3AM after a hard saturday night of drinking, when I got called in. A [b]HUGE[/b] cooling fan in a power plant went down, and the comany who made them was long out of biz, and it totalled when it failed.  The only replacement had a different mounting system, so we had to make a 16' x 16' adapter plate.  8 guys welding non-stop, all on different sides.  I was the "grunt" who did the grinding to cut grooves for deeper weld penetration and surface area contact in mating surfaces.  24 hours of continous grinding.  I actually got send home early, because I was delerious, and my nose started bleeding... I guess from all the grinding dust.  Not fun.  Some of the welders did 36 that time.

Other than that, and more recent day, server outage, 36 straight... and pretty much worked from 5pm on a Friday till 7am on the follwing Monday, stopping once to sleep.  But that was cake compared to the above.  
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 11:27:07 AM EDT
[#22]
Granted, the transplant service is one of the busier services that we rotate on as residents, but I have averaged 110-122 hour weeks for over a month now.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 11:27:58 AM EDT
[#23]
60 hour workday a couple of times on telephone system cutovers...

But it was the 51 day 10-12 hour a day work weeks that got to be a drag getting all the construction telecommunication systems going up in Wyoming a few years ago...

Ted...
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 11:50:34 AM EDT
[#24]
31 hours straight.  It was part of a 92 hour work week that included Sunday off.  It was to try to get an order from Chrysler for a series of machines that make engine blocks.  Cost 65 million dollars.  We got the job but there was about 2 months of my life that I do not remember.  I bought a lot of ammo and parts with the overtime money though.  
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 12:08:35 PM EDT
[#25]
7 days straight. Only had 4 hours every other day to shower. 156 hours total.

Sleep, if you consider putting your head down for a couple of minutes as sleep.

Had to say that it was the most exciting time in my life, 18 years old, was given my first real responsibility of being in charge of serverl workers (all older than me). After the third day, everything had a true surreal feel to it, I could make decisions, but it felt like I was in a dream. Finished the project.

I still look back at that streatch with fond memories, seriously!

Oh, everything past 24 hours was on double time per the agreement!! Standard pay was $20/hr, which was a lot for an 18 year old. I know I don't every want to do that again.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 12:19:32 PM EDT
[#26]
Well, if you consider being on duty as a "work day" I was out in the field for 27 straight days once without a single visit to the rear.  I did get to sleep and eat, but I was working the whole time otherwise.
If you mean without significant sleep, then 72 hours back when I was in training.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 2:23:46 PM EDT
[#27]
31 hours continuous after a 43 day stint, no days off. Had to prep a piece of equipment we were selling to the Navy for the final buyoff inspection. Got a lot of sleep after that and bought a few guns with all the OT. Don't think I'd want to do it again.

coyote3
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 2:33:03 PM EDT
[#28]
Quoted:
I went to the hospital at 0530 on Thursday morning.  After all the work was done and the S had HTF I went home at 0200 on Saturday morning.  That broke my personal record and put me there for 44.5 hours.  Needless to say I slept until 1500 Saturday afternoon!  

I am a general surgery resident and am currently on the transplant service.  I worked Thursday, was on call Thursday night, and then worked Friday.  Friday we did an organ retrieval and then ended up doing two transplants.  A retrieval is about a 6 hour surgery, and a transplant is about 3 hours.
View Quote


This is exactly the kind of situation that the American Medical Student Associaton is trying to avoid in their current propsals to limit resident work hours, and a recurring theme in the AMSA's Surgery Intrest Group.  Of course, this may be a weasely attempt to lighten the load of the next few years.  You're aware of the surgeon "shortage" numbers in this year's match that left so many spots for foreigners and US-IMG's?  Have you read "Forgive and Remember" by Charles Bosk?  
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 2:44:36 PM EDT
[#29]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I went to the hospital at 0530 on Thursday morning.  After all the work was done and the S had HTF I went home at 0200 on Saturday morning.  That broke my personal record and put me there for 44.5 hours.  Needless to say I slept until 1500 Saturday afternoon!  

I am a general surgery resident and am currently on the transplant service.  I worked Thursday, was on call Thursday night, and then worked Friday.  Friday we did an organ retrieval and then ended up doing two transplants.  A retrieval is about a 6 hour surgery, and a transplant is about 3 hours.
View Quote


This is exactly the kind of situation that the American Medical Student Associaton is trying to avoid in their current propsals to limit resident work hours, and a recurring theme in the AMSA's Surgery Intrest Group.  Of course, this may be a weasely attempt to lighten the load of the next few years.  You're aware of the surgeon "shortage" numbers in this year's match that left so many spots for foreigners and US-IMG's?  Have you read "Forgive and Remember" by Charles Bosk?  
View Quote


Most of the legislation/proposals that you will see regarding limiting resident work hours have originated back east.  IMHO it is the work of a bunch of rich, spoiled, East Coast brats that don't know how to work hard and don't like to work hard either.  I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for general surgery.  I also grew up around farming and worked 100-120 hour work weeks before I was 19.  I don't remember anyone trying to limit my work hours then.  

I think it will be real interesting to see what happens with the resident work hours issue.  I don't think it is needed, and most of the residents in the surgery program here don't either.  If they do limit resident work hours then what will happen?  Will we need more residents in our program to get the work done?  Will our now 5 year residency become 6 or 7 years?  
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 3:07:26 PM EDT
[#30]
I'm with you.  Surgery is a demanding specialty, a harder specialty.  Those who choose the 5 years (or more for some) know what they are getting in to.  They will define their lives by their work for the duration of their careers.  Let those who will be intimidated by the long hours go into something else and get the coffee, not blood, on their shoes.

There were some interesting words on the subject written by Dr. William B. Schroder, Chief of Vascular Surgery at UMKC in Kansas City on the subject, and although I'm afraid that I can't quote him directly, the essence of what he said was:  training to exhaustion is not healthful, but neither is shifting, or reducing, responsibility for the patient healthful.  Surgery is a harder, more demanding specialty, and surgeons, unlike many people, want to be defined by what they do.  He felt that it is impossible for one to understand the process unless they have completed it, and that all of those pampered kids that you refer to as "East Coast brats" ought to go back and look at their emails after they were finished with the training and gain a sense of the maturing process that goes on during residency.

Not trying to drop names here, just want to pass along what I considered to be wise words.

I love the sense of pride in each one of the posts in this thread.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 3:17:17 PM EDT
[#31]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 3:28:58 PM EDT
[#32]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I went to the hospital at 0530 on Thursday morning.  After all the work was done and the S had HTF I went home at 0200 on Saturday morning.  That broke my personal record and put me there for 44.5 hours.  Needless to say I slept until 1500 Saturday afternoon!  

I am a general surgery resident and am currently on the transplant service.  I worked Thursday, was on call Thursday night, and then worked Friday.  Friday we did an organ retrieval and then ended up doing two transplants.  A retrieval is about a 6 hour surgery, and a transplant is about 3 hours.
View Quote


This is exactly the kind of situation that the American Medical Student Associaton is trying to avoid in their current propsals to limit resident work hours, and a recurring theme in the AMSA's Surgery Intrest Group.
View Quote

Most of the legislation/proposals that you will see regarding limiting resident work hours have originated back east.  IMHO it is the work of a bunch of rich, spoiled, East Coast brats that don't know how to work hard and don't like to work hard either.  I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for general surgery.  I also grew up around farming and worked 100-120 hour work weeks before I was 19.  I don't remember anyone trying to limit my work hours then.
View Quote

On the farm, if you got the shakes from too little sleep, your pigs didn't care if some of the slop missed the trough and hit the ground.

Try explaining that to the patient whose artery you just nicked.  Did you remember to count all of the sponges and retractors both on the way in and on the way out?  Oh, and is that prescription readable, or is the nurse gonna give the patient a 1000% overdose because you forgot or misplaced the decimal point?
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 3:31:47 PM EDT
[#33]
110 hours straight, since I was the only person in the team who was allowed to keep the lab we were working in open.  I was so tired at the end that I couldn't fall asleep for four hours.  I think I actually worked about 70 hours, and then spent 40 more sitting in a chair making suggestions to the others who were still able to function fully.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 3:44:13 PM EDT
[#34]
Went into the shop in Houston (14 yrs ago) at 7:00 thurs. morning and finished up a CMR (Confirmed Must Ride) order about 2:00 Sunday morning and got the choke and kill manifold tested , painted and broken down into sections small enough to go on a DC 10 cargo plane to Kuwait. I was exempt also, thats why I got stuck. The Goober I worked for was finishing up the paperwork on the computer and I went and laid down in the 1 ton parked in the shop. When I woke up about 10:00 sunday morning, the "Boss" was asleep on the hood of the truck, so I just couldn't resist reaching over and giving the horn a tap. Hilarious, seeing his face plastered on the windshield hahahahahaha.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 4:03:19 PM EDT
[#35]
Quoted:
On the farm, if you got the shakes from too little sleep, your pigs didn't care if some of the slop missed the trough and hit the ground.

Try explaining that to the patient whose artery you just nicked.  Did you remember to count all of the sponges and retractors both on the way in and on the way out?  Oh, and is that prescription readable, or is the nurse gonna give the patient a 1000% overdose because you forgot or misplaced the decimal point?
View Quote


First of all, I hate hogs, have never worked with them and never plan to.

You're right.  Maybe we should just tell patients "Go home.  I'm too tired.  I can't do your surgery."  Or in the case we had the other night how about "I know you're #1 on the transplant waiting list, but we're tired and have had a long day.  You'll have to wait for another organ."  
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 4:13:39 PM EDT
[#36]
Just deleted my last post because I was beginning to go over the top.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 4:41:18 PM EDT
[#37]
Quoted:
Quoted:
On the farm, if you got the shakes from too little sleep, your pigs didn't care if some of the slop missed the trough and hit the ground.

Try explaining that to the patient whose artery you just nicked.  Did you remember to count all of the sponges and retractors both on the way in and on the way out?  Oh, and is that prescription readable, or is the nurse gonna give the patient a 1000% overdose because you forgot or misplaced the decimal point?
View Quote


First of all, I hate hogs, have never worked with them and never plan to.

You're right.  Maybe we should just tell patients "Go home.  I'm too tired.  I can't do your surgery."  Or in the case we had the other night how about "I know you're #1 on the transplant waiting list, but we're tired and have had a long day.  You'll have to wait for another organ."  
View Quote

Or cut back the schedules, make the profession more attractive for people to get into, and end up with more surgeons to deal with the growing population.

When I applied to medical school, the feds and the AMA were actually paying the schools to cut the number of positions, because there were going to be "too many doctors".  Now the medical profession is in chaos as too few doctors exist for too big of a population.  Good call, guys.

Now there are too few doctors, and residents are being loaded down to the breaking point, making it an unattractive profession to go into. . . .  Hmm.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 5:36:44 PM EDT
[#38]
I did a 19 hour straight at work. Came back to work five hours later and pulled in another 9 hours.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 5:42:43 PM EDT
[#39]
Anyone who has been there knows... longest work day is the 2 months plus at Ranger school.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 8:59:29 PM EDT
[#40]
First two or Three days of Desert Storm.....   Man did that suck.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:05:16 PM EDT
[#41]
32 hours.   Then took a 2 hour nap, then shower and 2.5hr presentation.   Became delusional after that.   Screwed up my sleep pattern for 2 weeks
PS
The guy needed a heart not a new liver.  LOL
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:22:46 PM EDT
[#42]
I have done 60 with only cat naps of 15 - 20 mins here and there. At the end, I got 11hr downtime and then back into my regular watch rotation.

Navy, it's not just a job, it's an indenture! [:)]
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 9:33:58 PM EDT
[#43]
My longest work day was 19.5 hours.  We were installing new encryption gear and ran into problems.  I am a salary employee which means I get nothing for working longer.  Gotta love that!
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 10:59:34 PM EDT
[#44]
Couldn't tell you exactly when or where or which time...but it was when I was in the Army...Combat Nap and Strong Coffee...that's the ticket!!!
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 11:06:15 PM EDT
[#45]
This past July, I worked one Wednesday night 12 hours (6pm-6am).  Got home Thursday morning to find that the water heater had sprung a leak on the tank.  I had to go buy another water heater, install it, and be back at work Thusday night for another 12 hours (6pm-6am Friday morning)  Got off Friday morning, went home, showered, and drove from Alabama to Arkansas for a wedding I was in.  Of course, there was the batchelor party Friday night.  Then had to be at the church Saturday morning at 10 am for pictures.  Then had to drive back to Alabama Sunday.  All in all, I was awake from 3:00 Wednesday afternoon until about 2:00 Friday night/Saturday morning with about a 1hour catnap the whole time.
Wasn't exactly working but I would have rather been at work than driving to Arkansas.

Actually worked 42 hours straight one time during start-up of a gas processing plant I worked at a few years ago.  Also worked 22 hours straight on a breakdown in a papermill.
Link Posted: 4/7/2002 11:12:09 PM EDT
[#46]
Longest work period?  175 hours.  Maintenance department with constant outages in new building.

Longest time no sleep?  Got two hours in three weeks once.  TOLD my boss then (non-option!) that I was taking some time off.  How much?  I'll let you know when I wake up.  Boss argued - naturally - but he had still been putting in 6 and 7 hour days while I was doing 22-24 with only enough time out for pissbreaks and showers...  And running home to get clean clothing...  I slept for 50 stright hours after that...  I got up and my roommate had pinned a note to my shirt (I didn't bother to get undressed, and didn't make it to bed either) "Do not disturb.  I am not dead, I am only pretending..."  Spend just over two days passed out in the hallway.

Both instances were while I was a PFC (Private F***ing Civilan!) and were only a bit harder than anything I did in uniform.  When things are happening fast and loud, sleep becomes a non-essential until it gets quiet...

FFZ
Link Posted: 4/8/2002 12:25:10 AM EDT
[#47]
Moved our plant to a new location last year. My 2 week paycheck at one point had 80 hours regular and 198 overtime.
Link Posted: 4/8/2002 2:23:52 AM EDT
[#48]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I'm in the middle of it right now.  12 hours a day, 7 days a week starting April 2, completion date April 27.

I'll let you know how it goes.

(Hey - it's [b]BRC[/b] money, right?)

[:D]
View Quote




    Get back to work.
View Quote



LMAO!  [:D]
Link Posted: 4/8/2002 7:35:27 AM EDT
[#49]
The 30 seconds it takes to tell someone their loved one is on his/her way to the ER and when last seen was pulseless and nonbreathing.
Had an intern demand to know all the details over the phone once. Last thing I heard on my end was his phone hitting the floor as he passed out. My least favorite job related task, being the Angel of Death.
Link Posted: 4/8/2002 7:44:04 AM EDT
[#50]
My experience doesn't come close to y'alls experience but I did have a long ass day.

Last June I had to  rush a timber cruise to make the bid date the next day so my boss & I left the office at 3:30 am, drove 2 hours and got into the woods shortly after sun rise....cruised the timber NON stop on the steep ass mountian until 8:45PM, we then went back to the truck to get spotlights and cruised until 11:00 by spotlight  we  left the woods at 11:30 and  I was in bed at 3:00am, I have never been so beat before in my life after that.
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