'I am busy'

'I am busy'

Perhaps the most overused words for me, with such under rated meaning behind it.

When 'I am busy', I am spending 30 minutes taking blood from a difficult patient, with constantly cursing and screaming directly at my face.

When 'I am busy', I am tracing an important CT brain for a patient, as I am worried bout the outcome of the fall from 2 storey height that he had.

When 'I am busy', I am attending an unstable patient, whose blood pressure is constantly low despite giving high noradrenaline support.

Yet there are people who will say words like 'There is no such thing as too busy to reply a message, it just depends on your priority'

While some seem to be offended, it is actually quite true. Priority always comes first. And when you are dealing with humans who have excruciating pain, your priority is to win the deal between you and the grim reaper who wants to suck the life out from your patient.

Thus, the word 'busy' seems to not able to compensate the daily warfare happening in the hospital.

It should be replaced by:

- I was having a back-breaking call last night attending to the non-stop admissions to yellow zone

- I skipped my lunch as my 30 minutes early referral to ICU is more crucial than my rumbling stomach 

- I was late to home 2 hours as the patient decided to vomit blood and life out, right before I stepped out from the hallway

If you have been through what I have been, you will appreciate life and understanding more about suffering.

But fortunately, if you have also not been through what I have been, look around you, you should be grateful =)