night float

so i'm night-floating at christ. there is something very different about being on night float.
first of all, the hospital shuts down. of course, not literally because there are still patients, but it's like no one else is around. and it totally gets quiet, although not totally silent. it's amazing what noises are present once everything quiets down. like the pharmacy machine hums and lights hum and you can hear monitors beeping. it's eerie. combined with the eerie halogen radiation of teh lights, which are either dimmed for patient relaxation (not nurses or doctors on) or made brighted to keep us all awake. either way, the light at night is always off, artificial, strange, burning. the temperature drops, for some reason, maybe, to keep patients in bed under covers discourage random midnight wanderings around the hall. great for patient safety, bad for me because i freeze on night shifts, like, fingers turning blue shivering freeze. which is worse when i repeatedly have to check women's cervices...with freezing fingers. eekk.
it's amazing what people request in teh middle of the night. i've had request for sandwiches. why you would want a hospital sandwich at 2am, AND bother everyone around just to get one...when you're specifically not supposed to be eating, i have no idea. family members hang out and want more family members to come up. this is especially problematic when there are children involved because suddenly little kids are trying ot get onto the floor, in the middle of hte night, only to crash on the awkward pull out couch with 3 other family members there. it bothers laboring patients, who should be asleep if they're not contracting too much because, god knows, comes morning, they'll likely to receive more medication to make their contractions strongly and then they'll really want that nap.
late night tv is also always great. i like to check out what people are watching when i walk into their room in the middle of the night to check them. yes, mid of the night tv sucks in general, but some people make weird choices. i walked into a room of a patient watching prostate cancer infomercials in spanish..the patient was definitely not spanish speaking. married with children is a great hit, as are 'let's lose weight with these scary diet pills which are really probably just meth". i guess you'd want to lose weight after pregnancy, but i'd be bored with infomercials in the middle of the night, ... and sleepy.
wait, i do get sleepy. at like 4am it hits you no matter waht. you get stupid and exhausted adn all you want to do is close your eyes, for a sec, seriously, just a sec and then you'll be totally awake, just a sec. but i survived. all 4 weeks. and i would like to thank all my friends, family members, adn complete strangers for calling and texting me and wanting to make plans and checking up on me and reminding me of my dental appointments, in the middle of the day, when it's my night and i so totally need to be sleeping. :)