To the Surgeon who slept next to me...

Dear Dr. Surgical Resident,

I understand how sleep deprived you are. I've been there myself. I also know how important it is to be up and ready to go in the morning -- to squeeze every last minute of sleep from that call-night, getting up with barely enough time to brush our teeth before rounds.

However, please please please do not set the callroom alarm clock as your method of waking up. Because, you see, when you get paged before the alarm clock's set time, and you leave, not remembering to turn it off, those of us within a 5 room radius of yours get woken up exactly when you had wanted to. And, FYI, the alarm clocks in the callrooms aren't like the fancy ones you have at home. No, they keep beeping and beeping and beeping, without the 2 minute automatic shutoff. So, from 6:18 until 7:45, when I had originally planned to get up, I sat in bed listening to your alarm, wondering where you had gone.

Next time, please use your pager's alarm feature. That way, if you forget to turn it off when you leave, at least it will leave with you.

Thank you,
Just a Girl...and an MD.