Friday, May 11, 2007

Making the switch

Is not easy!

I have to work the 8pm - 8am shift tonight in the ER & I tried to stay up late so I could sleep in late today. Um, yeah...that didn't work. I made it to 11:30pm. When did I get so old that I can stay up late? I guess it doesn't help when your spouse gets into bed between 9 and 10pm and you want to snuggle. So, I stayed up watching Futurama & Family Guy re-runs and then some Late Night TV and then zzzzzzzzzzzz. Ima wus. And I tried to sleep in late. It was kinda late....9am. But I am going to have to stay awake until 9am tomorrow. I am definitely going to have to try to nap today.

How do changing shift workers do this? I guess they get used to it???

Thankfully, I only have 4 night shifts: tonight, Saturday night, Monday night & Tuesday night. Then no more....hopefully ever. I did one week of night shifts at the beginning of my clinical rotations when I was in OBGYN, it was Labor & Delivery....that was rough! Barely any babies those nights, it got quite boring. My one delivery that I got to do myself (with help) was during L&D days, and I saw a lot that week, including a few c-sections. Ok....tangent.

Anywho, I HOPE I will be able to get a nap in today. I may have to juice up on a lot of coffee tonight. :) Hopefully we'll be busy.

3 comments:

Jen said...

From what I've observed (though I am no expert and have tried not to do this myself), it's always tough switching from days to nights.

I don't know if anyone really gets used to it, b/c if you constantly switch your schedule, then there is no schedule your body can get used to.

You will; however, have somewhat of a rough time switching back to days after your 4 upcoming nights. Your body won't know what's up or down - night or day!

Coffee is key. So, I've been told a time or two. . . .

It's the weekend and if you're at Hermann, you'll run into more gooky stuff. Things that would make me turn white, barf and pass-out.

Allison Horner said...

It would be cool to be at Hermann for my ER experience. I'm @ UTMB in Galveston....but will probably still some interesting things.

tt said...

It's my understanding that if you can expose yourself to some type of sunlight as soon as you get up, your body rhythms will adjust quicker. Some shift ppl get special lights to simulate the sun's effect. Don't know about the cost but for ppl who do shift changes often, I think I'd invest in one.