Exhaustion

I worked this weekend, and my god, it was the most exhausting couple of days I've had in a long time. I discovered that this exhaustion makes my body break down (as I imagine it does to most people), physically, mentionally, and emotionally. After two consecutive 12 hour shifts, I feel the beginnings of a flu. My throat hurt this morning, and my arm and back muscles are sore. Was the human body really meant to work 12 hour days? I know alot of people do it, but I suppose that when you're not accustomed to doing it consecutively, your body goes into shock. My mind feels woozy, and yesterday night I was so sensitive that I cried for quite a while. I'm normally a sensitive girl, but yesterday was out of character, even for me. It's strange how everything in your life affects everything else in your life, even if you're referring to unrelated things. I wonder if that makes any sense.

Saturday we were short staffed, down one nurse, one tech, and one secretary. I wonder if there are weekends when civilians all gather together and decide they're all going to show up at the ER at the same time. HA. Because that's what happened this weekend. At the end of my shift on Saturday, I thought to myself, "tomorrow HAS to be better... what a ridiculously busy day this was..."

Lesson learned: NEVER think that way.

Sunday I showed up to work and we were even more short staffed than the day before. Down two nurses, one tech, and one secretary. No rooms upstairs for admitted patients, which temporarily turned us into a holding area. To top it off, the attending doctor was one of those docs who's so afraid of getting sued that he'll order EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN on every patient... Come in for a stubbed toe, and he'll order the expected xray PLUS blood draws, CT Scans, throat cultures, etc. You get my point. While this may come across as thorough examination, please keep in mind that we work in an EMERGENCY ROOM. Not a clinic, not a doctor's office. You take care of the problem, discharge the patient, and call the next one in. His work ethic is especially problematic when we have crazy busy days like we did on Sunday. He backs up the entire ER and we end up with a full house and about 25-3o patients waiting to be seen (who ultimately end up waiting 8,10, 12 hours to be seen. Unacceptable).


I'm thankful that I was able to destress after work on both days. On Saturday, my boyfriend and I picked out books to put up for sale on either amazon.com or half.com from his warehouse... What a cool place that is. It's got an air about it. Then on Sunday I picked up some subs and ice cream cake to bring to his place, ate and watched a bit of TV, then laid out on the hammock in his yard. It was a beautiful night filled with good conversation and the even better company.

Enjoying the outdoors makes me wanna go camping.