40:16

In high school I pulled many all-nighters in order to finish up long essays or big projects and presentations. As I entered college my ability to do this seemed to weaken, probably due to the fact that I was expending a lot more energy for school, work, and play than I did when I was in high school. I am again called to develop this ability as I am now working the weekend night shift (7:00pm - 7:00am, Fri/Sat/Sun) at the Homestead Assisted Living.

In transition to beginning my weekend shift at the Homestead and ending my work at the plant Nursery my capabilities of working for many long hours were stretched. There have only been a few similiar experiences prior to this weekend's work schedule that have called me to work for hours on end - most of which come from my time at Anasazi. But I have learned that sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. This weekend was nothing short of that.

I was scheduled to be trained for my night shift at the Homestead on Friday and Saturday night. Several hours before work I began feeling sick. As time went on it continued to get worse and worse. I went to work nontheless in hopes that the sick feeling would taper off. Only after a couple hours of being at work I had to take several long breaks where I needed to put my head in between my knees. My body would begin to rise in temperature and then drop - just as if I was suffering the effects of having blood drawn from me gone bad. That wasn't a good sign. Along with this my stomach felt very quisey and ached. I had no clue what was causing me to feel this way. My conditioned only seemed to worsen as the time ticked on by. I finally decided to go home because I knew I wouldn't be of any use.

I continued to feel sick the entire day on Saturday and was able to be excused from training that night, but was asked to work the Sunday night shift. Due to some unexpected events I was left alone to work the night by myself - untrained. Now, the night shift isn't as hard as the other shifts because it is mostly filled with cooking and cleaning while the residence are sleeping. I do put the residence to bed at night and get them up in the mornings as well. I have been trained to put them to bed, it was staying up all night and getting the residence up in the morning that was the battle for me.

I am happy to say that all went very well Sunday, mostly due to the help extended to me at the beginning and end of my shift. Plus, nobody died on me during the night either. Phew! The night was very tiring and I had difficulty keeping my energy level up to carry out the duties required of me. By 3:00am I was exhausted and my body was screaming at me to rest. I was blessed to have the energy to get everything done that was needed and have a few moments of down time where I was able to sit on the big comfty recliner chairs and relax. It would be great if I could text or call a friend who stayed up during these late hours to help me stay awake.

When the end of my shift came around I was dragging my feet and searching for toothpicks to use in order to keep my eyelids open. When my shift finally came to a close there was no rejoicing to be had. It became a race to run home, change clothes, and make it to my Nursery job before 7:30am.

I didn't know how or where I would have the energy to do an additional 5 hours of constant manual labor, but upon finding out that it would be my last day working at the Nursery I somehow discovered a resevior of energy still left in me to make it through those 5 hours of work. This reservior of energy was a lot more full than I had expected. Even though my physical strength had weakened my body became more awake and alive as I worked. I didn't feel the drag of lack of sleep as I had been feeling at the end of my night shift. What a tender mercy and answer to prayers!

I expected to come home and completely crash until the sun of Tuesday morning woke me up, but found when I arrived home the desire to stay awake in order to accomplish a number of things on my to-do list. Once I ate a good lunch and showered I was ready to get accomplishing!

I finally made it to bed around 9:30pm Monday night - having been awake straight for a total of 40 hours and working 16 of those. Talk about initiation! I'm grateful it was a one-time experience in order to get started and finish up between my two jobs! Even though it will still take my body time to adjust to the all-nighters on the weekends, I feel a bit more confident in my ability to make it through the nights.

I give big props and have a greater sense of respect for my friend who works these long, 12-hour night shifts! She's nothing less than AMAZING!