Is it finally over?

Two weeks ago, I did not want to go to work. I was so tired. Even after six days off, I dreaded going back to work. Not that I hate my work. I just knew how burned out I'd feel after only a few hours of dealing with the surge. 

I knew that, during the pandemic, work meant hours at a time of being on your feet. And hours at a time being at the top of your consciousness. You had to be at the top of your game for an entire 12-hour shift. 

It was nice in a way. It was nice to utilize our skills in ways we haven't done here in years. We are a small-town hospital. Normally we package people up in the ER and ship. But, during the pandemic, there was no place to ship to. So, we were keeping all covid patients, including those who required intense critical care treatment. 

And we thrived.

Still, there was a time when we had over 10 covid patients. I was the covid therapist, for lack of a better term. I'd take all the admitted covid patients. I'd put on my PAPR, gown, and gloves and would go from room to room to room, visiting one covid patient after another. The only thing I'd change between rooms was my gloves. And I'd wash my hands and move on to the next room. 

My coworker had erred. She had to handle it on her own while I took care of the floor patients, covid, and noncovid. And the ER was swamped. And she had no choice but to handle it on her own while I was tied up. And, of course, when I had a free moment, rather than taking a break, I found myself in the ER helping her out. 

So, racking your brain, and staying on your feet, wore you out. At the end of the day, your brain felt like mush. Your feet hurt. Your body felt like a wet noodle.

But, making things worse, you had to keep going, and you had to keep going with your head in the bag that a PAPR is. OR, you had to keep going with a mask over your face, constantly rebreathing your stale breath. It was hot. It was uncomfortable. And you had to do this for 12 hours. 

And, of course, you got done intubating, and then you had to settle your nerves so you can do a stupid outpatient procedure. You are stuck in a covid room intubating, then you wash your hands and face and move on to doing an outpatient EKG that another department used to do. This is so hard to do. Ideally, after intubation, you get to take a break before moving on to your other RT chores. During the surge, this wasn't a possibility. You had to keep going and going and going -- like the energizer bunny. 

Now that is over. We are down to only a few covid patients. We have only a few other patients. It is back to normal here. Now we are back to complaining about breathing treatment orders to treat heart failure. Now we are back to sniveling about trivial things. And that is fine with me. 

Now we actually have downtime again. We have time to read a newspaper or check out Fakebook. We have time to converse. Heck, sometimes we even have times to watch a show on Netflix or a movie on Hulu. Back to normal here at the RT cave. How about where you work?