Hello. My name is Irina, I’m 46 years old. I’ve been working as an emergency doctor for the last 12 years. Our schedule: day, night, two days-off. It’s not very convenient but it’s not up to me to decide.

I want to present to you the report I made on August 27th, 2011. I took photographs with my cell phone because I couldn’t take my camera along when I examined my patients.

I woke up at 7 a.m. and turned on my TV to find out what the weather was like. It was +14C.

I looked outside. It was not really cold. This kitchen garden belongs to my neighbor but I don’t mind it.

After a shower.

I have breakfast not always but sometimes I can have something like meat chops or borsch for breakfast! That day I decided to take some food with me.

Here it is.

I left for work at 8 a.m. while the rest of the family were sleeping. It was Saturday.

Just left my apartment house.

I’m not that fat yet so I can squeeze through those narrow passages between the houses.

My shift starts at 8.30. It takes me 12 minutes to get to work.

I paid about $0.50 for the ticket.

Usually, there are more people going to the church on Saturday mornings.

I entered the hospital the back door.

I was there!

I had to sign my name for taking the shift.

I took my gown. Many people wear their own gowns because they look nice and those issued by the hospital don’t.

I signed my name again (for the medicines I received).

Doctors’ lounge for women.

I have to share the locker with two other people.

My folder and phonendoscope.

Putting some makeup on.

Done.

I put my bag with my food into the fridge.

In those boxes are all kinds of kitchen stuff, like sugar, tea, coffee (I don’t drink coffee).

My personal belongings.

We have two microwave ovens and a kettle here.

I love our flowers.

Those are drivers having a smoke break.

We were called…

I took a register…

Our first patient was a woman, 40 years old, drunk and vomiting.

Usually, I work with Julia, she’s a medical assistant, but that day she was on sick leave so I worked together with Victor. He’s new in the hospital. I like him too.

As for the driver, I’m not comfortable working with him. He’s from another city and doesn’t know Angarsk at all. And the map doesn’t help him because he can’t understand what’s there. He keeps forgetting to turn off the blinkers… He’s a bad driver.

We were told that that woman was fine and we had to go to another place.

On the way.

We didn’t see anybody so I contacted the dispatcher again.

That homeless man was our “client”. He was released from hospital just the day before. I examined him right on the site and found no reasons for hospitalization. In winter, we take such people with us because otherwise they will get frozen to death.

Back in the hospital.

I entered the dispatcher’s room to take some photographs.

Through this telephone, we can contact Head of Civil Defense in case of emergency.

The dispatcher entered the data into the computer.

This is a map of the city of Angarsk.

Another patient was a woman, 58, suffering from high blood pressure.

This man came to the hospital to try to sell some of his books.

Our driver.

More salesladies.

They brought bedclothes for sale.

We dropped our first aid kit but luckily nothing got broken exept for an ampule of Mexidol.

I examined the lady and wrote out a prescription.

It was Saturday and there were many weddings in the street.

We pulled up at a store. Victor had to buy some food.

Lunch.

We asked for a permission to have lunch. They agreed. We had 30 minutes.

Splints.

Other medical brigades had lunch too.

I warmed up my mashed potatoes and a cutlet.

The next call was from a man whose 70-year old grandfather passed out. We had to hurry up! I didn’t let Victor ponder over the map and showed which way to go myself.

When we arrived, the one “who didn’t respond” looked great and was sitting in a chair.

ECG.

No negative dynamics identified.

We called the dispatcher and headed back.

The hospital is situated right behind this house. Several doctors live here and they go to work wearing their gowns.

Back in the hospital.

Once I got down to work, we received another call. A woman, 80, had pain in the chest.

Anamnesis, examination, ECG, pulseoxymetry…

The woman has extremely high blood pressure, 240/120, and I wrote out another prescription.

Back in the office.

Usually, we go from one patient to another, all day long, but that day was not really busy.

The senior doctor signed my prescription.

In went to the drug store, handed in the prescription and received the drugs I needed.

I laid down for half an hour.

Another call was from a paralysed person who didn’t feel well.

We helped him too.

It’s good to work with a man because he carries all the stuff by himself!

After that, we had to go to Kitoy Village to examine a man with pain in his chest.

We hardly managed to find where he lived.

The man lived in his country house and had had this pain for a couple of days. We decided to take him to hospital.

Preparing for transportation of the patient.

In the hospital.

After that, we had another call from a man with pain in the chest too.

It’s good there has been nothing extraordinary that day. Or in your feedback I’d find something like “The patient’s dying and the doctor’s taking pictures…”

Next week, I was to go take professional development classes in Irkutsk.

My husband picked me up from work.

We called on Victor to download the photographs I took with his cell phone when mine discharged.

It was beginning to rain I was afraind we would get struck with a lightning due to all those cell phones.

Almost home.

At home.

My husband had to go to our garage to park the car.

My husband made us some patties with cottage cheese, raisins and cheese. He is a cook by education but has tried a bunch of jobs during his life.

My dinner. It was 9.15 p.m.

My husband came home 20 minutes later, we had tea together and he got down to the computer.

I talked to my mom on the phone.

I had to wash these jars with canned food.

I also had to do the dishes.

My daughter came out of the shower. She’d been in there for two and a half hours! Not bad!

I checked out the photos I took and deleted some of them.

Why do I always have to tell them to go to bed?

I put the jars into the fridge, took a shower…

The kids were about to go to bed too.

It was 1 p.m. and I fell asleep.

Thank you for reading my long report! Hope you liked it!

Location: Angarsk

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