As a nurse, you have the option of working all sorts of shifts. 7am-7pm, 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm, 7pm-7am, 3pm-3am, etc. For the past year, I have worked the night shift, grave yard shift, shift of the dead. Whatever. For the most part it was great. I worked on a "regular" floor. When I moved and joined the Army Nurse Corps, I became the night shift worker for the Maternal Child Unit. In other words I was a mommy/baby nurse. Nonetheless, things start to change after working night shift.
1. "IT BURNS!!! IT BURNS!!!!!"
Night shift makes the sun become your enemy. It sears through your skin and burns your very soul. Sometimes you forget that it exists. You come in with the sun down (or going down) and you leave when the sun is coming up...if it has even woke up yet.
After working the night shift for such a long time, I started to CRAVE blood....literally. So my higher superiors thought it wise to move me to another unit. So Magpie the Vampire gets moved to Perianesthesia Care Unit (PACU). Operating Room is only open during the day. DAY SHIFT!!!! Man, the first time I walked into the daylight I felt like my eyes were receding into the back of my head. My body quickly began self destructing. This isn't right. What is this highly intense light source? Why does it burn? WHAT DOES IT WANT FROM ME?
I became accustomed to the light soon and became a new living being. As if I rose from the dead. It was pretty amazing.
2. "BE HEALED BY THE POWER OF CHRIST!"
Another thing that was different for me was the patient care. Here I was already caring for patients who were awake, could wake up on command, or were at least functioning in some capacity.
Now I wasn't. Now I was waking people up from a slumber during which they were cured or fixed. It was like being Jesus! Sitting by their side, being the first thing they see. Telling them that everything went fine. Telling them that they were cured! Man, Jesus had a life...
3. Things actually exist during the day
No one exists during the vampire hunting time AKA the night. Stores, malls and other merchandise-carrying places are closed. Restaurants are closed after a certain time. Even bars stop serving alcohol after a certain hour. It is hard to find anything open 24 hours. Denny's, IHOP, Walgreens and your occasional Meijers (props to those who know what that is).
My favorite pastime is moseying through Walmart. I would walk around, view the people, try on clothes, play in the toy aisle. Early on my relationship with my boyfriend, when we were still just "hanging out" with each other, we played catch in the sports aisle. I would sit in the patio furniture. Oh and take random artsey pictures. No one bothered me there. Try doing that during the day!
When I switched to a day shift schedule, a whole new world was opened up to me. I was able to shop at the mall! I was able to eat where ever I wanted. People watching was AMAZING. SO MANY PEOPLE!!!!! Yet with this newly discovered attribute to the day life, chaos overwhelmed my brain. This many people really exist in one place? How do they all function together? How do they not bump into each other like ping pong flubber in a tiny glass box? I can't follow everyone! I can't seem to get out of their way! Amazingly, they seemed like they could. They navigated around and through each other's paths sometimes, without even looking up at the person. Wow...just wow. I adapted as quickly as I could to this phenomenon. I reach way back into the recesses of my mind to my pre-night shift coping skills. It was sorta like trying to ride a bike after having amnesia, not that I know what that is like.
So no more hiding in the shadows; no more fear of being melted away like the Wicked Witch of the West only with the sun rather than water; no more living the life of a vampire. I was now a new woman. I was a healer.
Just in time too! A couple months later and I moved to the Emergency Department...on night shift.
With all my love, my deliciously blood filled readers!
Magpie.
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