Night shift has further proven to not be my friend during this last two weeks. As I got further and further into my shift I found the physical stress on my body to be more and more dehabilitating. My knees were swollen, and I was feeling the pain within the back of my legs, my right hip which has been an issue for me in the past was also enflamed and I was feeling femoral nerve irritation....not to mention neck and back irritation.
I felt as though my hours of sleep were sufficient, but I didn’t feel refreshed went I woke up. For me, night shift takes a huge adjustment; from day to night transformation (sleeping with ear plugs and blackened out windows and only seeing a couple hours of sunlight each day), eating schedule adjustment, dark/light adjustment (always staring into equipment lights and or a computer...in the night), and very little exercise...I can’t forget about the camp expansion construction that is taking place while us night shift guys are trying to sleep, fun stuff! After roughly 14 hour shifts I had a tough time getting to the workout facility, I felt exhausted in the morning after my shift and didn’t feel much better when I woke up, which didn’t help my mental state any. I felt that if I’d attempted the gym that it would have created more damage.
Once I returned home for days off, it took me 4-5 days to get out of my nocturnal state and to start feeling half way mentally normal, but my knees and hips still didn’t recover even after 11days into my days off. I had undergone an acupuncture session 6 days into my two weeks off, for general stress relief and hip treatment. The hip treatment wasn’t successful, but the stress relief always feels good....the lift in endorphin level is always welcomed.
My rejuvenation during this shift change was rough and I chose to sit out on my first Friday black belt class, but after coming to the realization that this was not in my best interest I joined in on the trio of Friday classes on my second weekend and felt a million times better mentally and without excessive physical strain (progressing wisely) my body responded well and did me good.
I know my mind responds well to physical activity and for that I need to maintain consistent action with this while I’m out of town. While working out of town, I will need to reschedule my time around my work hours to ensure that my physical needs are being accounted for, otherwise my days off will continue to be consumed with rehabilitation. It’s kind of like crap in crap out... because there are always repercussions to an individual’s actions, even if not intentional....the result is similar.
Darcy Regier
http://darcyregier.blogspot.com/
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