Now I definitely have to get myself ready for this.
I already started night shifts on Tuesday evening. It seems that transitioning between day and night is getting more difficult over time. Maybe it's age, or just long-term effects of chronic stress, but... I can't do it quite as smoothly as I used to when I was younger.
We're now basically working 13 hour nights (plus at least 2 hours of travel). 12 hours working on admitting patients and assisting our interns, and after that, an additional hour discussing some of our overnight admissions. That last hour of discussion is a pain in the butt. I was falling asleep through that time until it was my turn to discuss a case. It's just silly to expect us to be completely alert enough to have in-depth medical discussions at that point, especially on our first night, when we're still not used to the schedule.
Well, I went home, did a few things, and slept. I had a late afternoon appointment, so I woke up for that and attended. Then I helped revise some e-mail, then tried to go back to sleep because I had not slept all that much. It took me about 5 or 6 hours to go back to sleep, and I finally managed to get up around 8 a.m. (which on a night shift, is equivalent to 8 p.m.). That's a completely lost ay.
Now it's 11:30, I still haven't eaten today, and I have to be up to get ready to work at around 5 again. I'll have 6 consecutive nights before my next break. This seriously sucks.
Now, it gets just a bit worse. If I had 4 straight weeks of night shifts, I could manage that, as I've done it before on multiple occasions. This time is different.
March 14th - 16th and March 21st - 23rd will be board review sessions (and we do need to pass our board certification exams in order to be board certified physicians). These are 7 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. sessions. And they're happening exactly during this month of night shifts. Shit!
So this poses 2 problems: if I'm going to attend these sessions, someone is going to have to cover my shifts, and that's going to include the night before the first review session each week, and the night after the last session each week, because it's unreasonable to expect someone to be sharp for 24 hours. Finding this much coverage is going to be a challenge because we're so overloaded with patients, that every spare person is being pulled to take care of those patients. I paid for this board review, and I don't even know whether I'll be able to attend it.
Next, if I am lucky enough to get covered, I'm going to be transitioning between night and day multiple times. This is going to take such a toll on my body that I am going to feel terrible by the end of March. I already know it. I already felt it yesterday morning when exercising, and that's just from a single night.
So yeah, this is going to be a very tough month. It's going to take a toll on my physical health, and likely mental health as well. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm grateful that it's only for 4 weeks. After that, my schedule is going to be much better.
If you don't see me posting that much until early April, this is the reason. I'm going to have to find ways to take care of myself so I don't crash and burn. Wish me luck, folks...