Hey Ya!

You'd think that as a sleep physiology technician, I'd understand how important sleep is to the body.
Nah ah. I can be as obliviously thick-headed as the next.

There was a stage pre-2011 that I'd do anything up to 55 hours a week of shifts.


I wanted the money, the unit needed the man-power (or maybe I should say 'woman-power' as most of us are of the female persuasion), combined with the passion I have for my job, the great people that I work with and the pleasure I get from helping others, all made for (and still does at times) a lethal cocktail of 'yeah sure, can do'.

My body hinted with little things, but I ignored it - I was on a mission to be the best completely reliable  we-can't-do-without-you-type-of-person.

"You don't wanna listen, you silly woman," it muttered into my I'm not listening ears, "it's time to REALLY get your attention."




And it did so with a wallop that had me flat out for more than two weeks with the flu - the REAL flu. No energy, no appetite, the simple task of walking to the bathroom completely flooring me.

Three days into this I decided enough was enough and took a walk with Greg down to the town centre - which is maybe a 5 minutes. I didn't get far before I was so wobbly and exhausted, I had to sit down on a bench and wait for Greg.

I had no choice but to acknowledge, even though it felt like a prison sentence, that my body was now in charge and it wanted REST and lots of it.

Since then I've been very careful about how many hours I work and most important of all, how many night shifts I do.

But you know...I do forget sometimes and that part of me that goes I'm indispensable popped up last week without me realising what I was doing. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it :-) - so I landed up covering for another and within a few short days I'd clocked up 36 hours, then wondered why I was feeling so knackered.

Even after two decades of understanding how energy works and seeing the medical side, I still push the envelope of sheer stupidity on occasion. But having said that, mostly I have a good work/life balance...it's just every so often it sorta...slides.

I can be my own worst enemy. Geez - wrote 'enema'. Lol, that actually might be a more appropriate word!

A song has been playing in my head for days now - Hey Ya! by Outkast - rather appropriate wording about my relationship with myself, eh?

*Sigh*

The upside is that we've decided to go away for a long weekend this weekend...erm, sandwiched between two night shifts - didn't say I'd learnt, did I?