I have spent a fair amount of the last decade and a half of my life sleep deprived. It was rarely by choice, and never pretty. It was at least a good excuse to look like crap and be grumpy. It's hard for people to be overly judgemental about your lack of grooming or your attitude when you spent the night "saving lives".
Being an Attending however has obviously made me soft. In my early years, I could take back-to-back in-house call and survive on nothing more than a cat nap had sitting in the OR waiting on my patient to be put to sleep. Those days are clearly behind me.
Part of my embracing of 2013 has led to me accepting more of the evening out opportunities that are afforded one living in a vacation paradise. This has lead to midnight being "an early night" for the last 5 nights straight, and subsequently my turning into a pumpkin. Interestingly I have taken advantage of the being able to look like crap, but in all my sleep deprived state - still very happy.
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