(Apologies to a random poster in marysues for stealing your line for this post title.)

How can I get the tired out of my brain?

Today... oh, man, there are no words for the sheer mindfucking exhaustion that today has stirred inside of me. But I am going to try, because ranting LJ posts are a great way to unwind after a hard day's being stuck in an ITU full of things that go beep and whoosh and whir and ssssh. And with a patient who just wasn't coming round from the anesthetic as well and who we ended up shoving full of scarily fast-acting light-sensitive inotropes. I left with a bastard of a headache and exhaustion coming out of my ears and, after I eat something, I am going to collapse into bed and then get up bright and early in the morning and go back and do it all again.

(Except not, because I'm spending from 10:30 until 3:30 in the pre-admissions clinic.)

Of course I only have myself to blame for at least some of my tiredness. Check the timestamp on last night's little emo trip. And then consider that I have to get up at half past five and then work a twelve and a half hour shift. The clothing made of lead didn't help but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Remind me never to say anything bad about any radiographer ever again, even if they knife me in the guts and steal my shoes. I spent the first part of the day in the cardiac cath lab, which was interesting up to a point, would have been much more so if I hadn't been wearing a tabard full of lead to protect my vital organs (which seemed to include pretty much everything in my body from my jaw down to my knees) from X-ray exposure. And which after about the first ten minutes was causing me a WORLD OF PAIN.

My shoulders ache like crazy now, and I blame the clothing full of lead for it. Ever tried wearing lead-lined plastic tunics? If you never have - lucky you. And if anyone ever offers to let you try doing so for more than about five minutes, say no and run away very fast. It's funny how a weight which is perfectly bearable, if a little weird, when you first try lifting it (with your entire body) becomes WORLD OF PAIN when you're stuck with it for hours at a stretch.

Humankind was never meant to wear lead-lined skirts.

I now have the deepest respect for radiographers. Wearing all that stuff day in, day out and actually managing to do a decent job of work whilst wearing same looks to me like a task on a par with the labors of Hercules. I was only watching today, and I have aches in places I barely even knew existed. How in Hell do people manage to wear these things five days a week and not spend the weekend flat out with utter prostration?

... some sadistic impulse is wanting to push my terminally unemployed brother toward a Career in Radiography. I keep wanting to recommend potential career paths for him so he does something with his life other than sit on his ass at home, but I'm such a healthcare junkie that just about everything I can come up with has something to do with our dear National Health Service. Though curiously enough it was my dad, not me, who suggested he got a job as a hospital porter. Though I did think it was A Great Idea and was rather surprised he rejected it outright. I guess I just like working in hospitals.

And on that note I need to go rest up so I can put in a decent day's work tomorrow. Two days off after that and oh I can't wait. Maybe I'll actually manage to finish my random sadistic SchuKen fanfic in that time--

Damn you, LJ spellchecker. There is SO such a word as 'inotrope'!