So here is a topic that many non-medical personnel seem to find fascinating, thus the name of this post: the night shift (cue Inception music). Yes, I sleep during the day. Ideally from 9 am to 5 pm. And yes, I eat lunch in the middle of the night. Sometime between 1 am and 3 am. Despite these oddities (or perhaps because of them), I cannot even tell you how pleased I am to work nights. Mornings are a horrible time for me, so it's very pleasurable to be getting into my covers when the rest of the world is getting out of theirs. I have no trouble whatsoever sleeping during the day. I absolutely love the other night shift girls at work. And my patients are usually asleep for over half of my shift. On slow nights I get to read a lot. I see other staff members paying bills, going through their mail, doing online shopping. Because nights are typically slower than days, the pace for learning is ideal. I have time to hone my skills and learn how to do things right. I have become quite the expert at tiptoeing around (nearly) soundlessly to avoid waking sleeping babies and doing vitals, hanging meds, fidgeting with IVs etc in almost total darkness, just by the light of CR/sat monitors and IV machine displays.
A few inconveniences exist on the night shift, of course. My body is easily confused and I've found myself lying in bed fully awake around 4 am on my nights off. Getting up before noon is exceedingly difficult and on my days off I can't really plan on doing anything in the morning. My metabolism is also confounded and I can't for the life of me eat on any kind of schedule. There are times when I can literally go all day without a bite to eat and other times when I feel like death if I'm not ingesting something at least every hour. I find it troublesome to schedule doctor's appointments and run errands to places that aren't open 24 hours, especially the gym. Good thing my work keeps me active or I'd be morbidly obese by now. I've actually been losing weight as I slip more and more into a semi-permanent night shift schedule because eating is such a bother and I'm hungry at such inappropriate times. And, the most irksome aspect of my nocturnivity of late is that I spend quite a bit of time (but would like to spend much more) with someone who keeps a relatively normal schedule. I feel like I'm always coming or going when I see him. But we are working through it :)
I feel like all I blog about is work so here's a sound bite about my time off - the Sunday nights that I'm off I get to spend time with the most incredible teenagers at Life Teen (youth group). I still don't know everyone because I can only see them about once a month but I'm getting there, and the ones I'm getting to know are just mind-blowingly awesome. I hope I am contributing to their lives half as much as they contribute to mine. Catholic kids on fire for Jesus...these ones are gonna change the world. In fact, they already are...and it is so exciting to watch.
