done with my night shifts. i really enjoyed them overall. learned so much from the doc. and i like being there at night. like a friend said- it kind of feels like belonging to a special club of especially tough and dedicated people. i got used to the schedule, too....got home about 6:30am each morning, saw my husband for maybe 30 mins. slept until 1 or 2 pm... woke up and cleaned the house a little or did some reading for a few hrs, saw my husband for an hour or two, then back to hospital by 6:30pm to do it all over again. i noticed i had more energy each night that i did it. the first morning, as soon as i got home I fell into a coma. the second night, (morning), when i got home i made breakfast, played w/ the dog, etc..and then fell into a coma. and this last night/morning, i could hardly fall asleep when i got home, i was still so wide awake. every morning when i left the hospital the morning shift was just getting there- all awake and chipper looking. nuts. that's the thing about 24 hr hospitals- it's never ending.
in the downtime...the quiet hours in the doctor's lounge, drinking coffee and chatting with the MD, dosing off now and then, i tended to drift into fantasies about what i was missing. mostly my warm bed w/ my husband in it. but it also occurred to me (in an alarming moment!) that if i worked this schedule all the time- when would i drink??!? i didn't want my nightly glass of wine when i got home at 7 in the morning w/ my cereal and i couldn't drink when i woke up, mere hours before going back to work....i felt a bit like an alcoholic when this realization caused me so much panic. ("fine, fine, fine, i'll work crazy hours, not sleep, and not see my family, BUT WHEN WILL I DRINK?"). i also started fantasizing about going to the beach, thanks to a Sandals Resort commercial playing on tv as i dosed off at 3am this morning. i even started looking up flights when i got home before i realized time and money are not on my side right now. (more reasons to drink).
i did make a few observations over the last few nights....
-went to a code (cardiac arrest) in the ICU and i shit you not, i counted 24 people in the room. nurses, residents, attendings, respiratory therapists, etc. they were all pretty calm...this was clearly routine...as they pushed drugs and did chest compressions. it was interesting to watch. i've bagged a patient once so far (we use an ambu bag to push air into lungs instead of having to do mouth-to-mouth), but haven't done chest compressions. guessing i will in ER. it's interesting to me that when patients are in really bad shape we rely on ventilators, vasopressors through IV, and all kinds of mechanical/chemical means to renew/sustain life...but when they are dying...heart stopped, breathing ceased- the best we have to offer is human contact w/ chest compressions. and that takes elbow grease. no machine for that.
-the nurses have started to look to me as if i have a clue. i'm sure someday i'll wish i had more respect than i'm bound to get as a PA, but now it seems like they give me more than i deserve as a lowly student. (maybe it's the tobacco pipe i keep clenched between my teeth at all times..maybe it makes me look too distinguished).
-it's amazing how many male sexual enhancement commercials there are late at night. evidently people stay up late thinking about their boner deficiencies.
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If I had the human capability to not sleep I dont think I ever would, how do you explain the fact that I am a night AND a morning person? Doesnt make nay sense. It DOES explain why I come off as a ditzy blonde. We are supposed to sleep sometime right?
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