Nurses. How are you managing the exhaustion?

[Doublefaced]

Cos there ain’t no exhaustion like this exhaustion

I am literally working, sleeping ( badly) working and repeating.
Normally if I feel a but down or a bit run down I can push myself to do a bit more exercise but I literally can’t get my legs to work when I’m off duty.
I know it’s not physical because when I’m at work I can go 12 hours at full throttle.

How the hell are other people managing-it’s a pretty common theme in my team so we’re not really much use to each other in terms of advice! My diet is probably crap. My skin is awful and my house is a bit grubby ( I don’t even get stressed about the housework any more )

Thank you to all of you for everything you do. You are incredible human beings.

‘
We need to link this thread to some of the covid denial happy clappy ones though.’

Nooooo it makes no difference.
You only end up with people pretending to be nurses or pretending they know 14 nurses who are having a jolly old time of it.

It’s just good to reach out to others who totally get how things are at the minute

I feel like a Zombie after 13hr shifts. During my days off I drop my daughter off to school and catch up on my sleep

@letsmakethishappen

I feel like a Zombie after 13hr shifts. During my days off I drop my daughter off to school and catch up on my sleep

Mine are teens but full of guilt about neglecting their schooling totally!

Me again, I was deployed during the first wave and struggled when I returned to my day job. As I said in my previous posts walking and meditation have helped. Another available avenue to take is from Silver cloud which is available to nhs workers it is CBT therapy and has provided me with coping mechanisms. I wax flippant in my original post regarding the red wine. The point is you are doing an awesome job and need to remember that. Not every nurse gets it ,I know that from recent experience. Hope the compression socks work. Above all be kind to yourself.

*was

Not a nurse but a radiographer.
Our dept are dropping like flies. I mainly do ultrasound now but was called into CT today as they're so short.
It was so, so busy and every single patient had covid.

I've been told I'm being redeployed to itu next week along with other radiographers and I am shitting myself.
I don't think I've slept properly since March. I have reoccurring nightmares and can't quite switch off to feel rested. Back in tomorrow for another long day and I could just cry at the thought.

What does help when I'm not at work is staying off social media as it just pisses me off, bubble baths, board games with my DC and watching gogglebox .
Oh and wine.

Not a nurse but a doctor on a covid ward
Things that have helped me:

• not pushing myself to exercise outside of work apart from walks. If I don't get that run in it's ok! It's more important that I don't exhaust myself even more
• long baths with a good book
• early nights, switching my phone off early and again reading before bed
• avoiding the news
• talking through tough cases with colleagues really helps

Thanks so much to you all ❤️

I don't use the word hero lightly, I think its thrown around far too much, but what you are all doing at the moment really is heroic. If it weren't for people like you, I'd have died this year. Not of Covid - I have severe mental illnesses that had been fairly well under control until this year. You wouldn't know it to look at me - unless I'm a period where my anorexia is especially bad - because I have 'good', 'respectable' career, a 'high functioning' life...and so on. Anyway there was an episode this year where I ended up in ICU and I've also needed A and E treatment. Things aren't great, but I'm only 33 and I'm not ready to throw in the towel, and I think my family would also like to keep me around a while longer. Your efforts during this time are heroic.

I’m not a nurse but I am working about 80 hours a week. Today is my second day off since Boxing Day. I’ve made a few changes which have been life changing (and probably saved my marriage). DH is NHS and working a lot too.
Food- COOK meals. They come ready made and frozen (we bought a chest freezer), you can buy the side/veg cooked as well, they are really healthy and taste homemade. We peaked before Xmas at 13 takeaways in 14 days. DH had gained 3 stone 😱 a friend recommended them and we’ve not looked back - they do calorie control and vegan meals where you get most of your 5 a day. It also means you don’t need to worry about a big food shop (I do an online shop every
fortnight).

House - we now send our laundry out, which means that we only have to focus on cleaning. We try to tidy as we go and once a fortnight run the vacuum round and mop up. Not going to lie, it doesn’t look great most of the time but no one sees it and we’re not in much so I’ve just dropped my standards.

Hobby - I crochet, I’m making a baby blanket for a friend, we also have a dog who during the first lock down got used to one walk a day and we haven’t gone back. So I go out for a walk usually with a head torch. It can be really nice being out on your own after a stressful day.

I wouldn’t worry about what time you do things, if you’re out walking at midnight or cleaning at 6am, just do what you can when you can. Each day is a day closer to the end of lockdown/pandemic/summer - whatever you are looking forward to.

For me when I do have free time I don’t want to spend it cooking, cleaning, washing and food shopping so this is the stuff I tried to get rid of!

How do you deal with the nightmares? I have them every damn time I sleep, it wipes me out completely! It’s like I don’t sleep at all, they’re so vivid!!!

@BuddhaAtSea I've started sleeping with soft headphones, playing white noise - it works for me. I don't have actual nightmares but very very vivid dreams that leave me feeling anxious and disturbed. Usually a work situation where I feel both helpless and hopeless.

@MaelyssQ thanks, I’ll give it a try. Yes, those kind of dreams, where you lose your registration 😂.

Not a nurse but an operational manager in an acute trust. I'm knackered too, just had a major bereavement and I'm going to have to take some time. I just feel broken. It's hard to see light in the tunnel right now, we've been reorganising and replanning for so long, it's just one 'and they've got Covid' and 'there's a rota gap' and ' this is wrong, fix it' problem after another. I love problem solving and I'm good at it but I'm at the limit now.

Atm? Badly. I’ve been redeployed to ICU, so it’s mentally and physically exhausting and I’m struggling.
It was bad enough the first time round. This time it’s far, far worse. More patients, they’re much younger and far more poorly. It’s devastating.

I want to cry, but if I start I don’t think I’ll stop for a long while.

[quote BuddhaAtSea]@MaelyssQ thanks, I’ll give it a try. Yes, those kind of dreams, where you lose your registration 😂.[/quote]
I lost my registration in my dreams months ago. Boris took it from us all!
Now it’s all about water and drowning!

@Squiffany

I want to cry, but if I start I don’t think I’ll stop for a long while.

I can’t really get tears to come. I actually think it would be a relief and a release in some ways.

I lost my registration in my dreams months ago. Boris took it from us all! Now it’s all about water and drowning

In the first wave I kept dreaming about tsunamis. So far this time I’m just not sleeping.

@Squiffany

I lost my registration in my dreams months ago. Boris took it from us all! Now it’s all about water and drowning

In the first wave I kept dreaming about tsunamis. So far this time I’m just not sleeping.

DH picked up some Nytol today. Going to try that tonight.

I feel for all of you. I want to help but realistically the best I can do is work my arse off at my job and keep my friends and family safe and away from hospital.

I am not a nurse but as a government worker who is in safeguarding i can fully get the no let up. We're on overtime hours every weekend. Working 10- 12 hour days 5 days a week and then again on weekends. We're under intense pressure and scrutiny to keep up with the demand this pandemic is causing. We're dealing with Crisis cases hour after hour and as many have said its the no let up. No escape. It's none stop eat sleep work repeat day in day out and we are also dropping like flies because of the mental and emotional toll.

We have the option of home working so any periods of isolation are expected to be worked. Core hours have been removed and we're frequently starting at 6am and still going into the night. It's just unreal!

I am not the same person I was 6 months ago. I feel and look about 90, my body aches, my digestive system is shot and it's a battle between what breaks first, lockdown or us.

Things I do to help, fresh air and sunshine whenever I can. Audio books for escapism and they're easier than reading because I just have to listen, essential oils, baths and very very good friends to talk to. I've cut out caffeine but did it in November. I'm not sure I could now and trying not eat well but buy easy food and not turning to alcohol even though my head wants alcohol all the time.

Ive tried to get holiday but at the moment it's being declined due to work demand.

Alot of us will be broken by this.

A nurse married to a nurse here. We are broken. I am eternally thankful to be married to someone who is in the trenches with me. Some days we come home and just sit in silence because actually we cannot talk about it. Some days I sit and cry. I cannot achieve the standard of care I want to, the staffing is shocking and there is just so much death.

I think it would be manageable, I have always worked in high dependency, very busy areas, if it wasn't for everything else. I dream of meeting my friends for cocktails. Of going away and turning off my phone. It's the everyday that's killing us. Homeschool, lockdown teens, cancelled exams, cancelled trips, lockdown birthdays. It's relentless.

I understand the need to regulate the alcohol, we are quite strict on it because it can become a crutch. We spend far too much on nice food instead.

I have started leaving the ward for my breaks (rather than not taking them or doing paperwork), making sure I do rest on my days off when I can and getting out for a walk every day off. But the house is being kept at bare minimum levels and eventually it will catch up with us. I'm trying to prioritise me, as much as it goes against every grain of every nurse I know.
Because if I don't no-one else will.

I want to cry reading about you all, just wish we could help somehow. My sister is a nurse so I totally get what you are all saying. All us civvies can do is sit tight and not see anyone to try and get the numbers down.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️❤️❤️ xxxx

Just asked my sister who is struggling at the moment, she said:

Lots of fluids on days off and when home from a shift, she marks how many glasses on an app on her phone as she is out of the habit of staying hydrated and she said it makes her feel quite a bit physically better. Also a multivit everyday.

Peppermint body lotion for legs after a shift (she said to point out it is one of the best feelings in the world)

Headspace app whenever possible, and 15 mins of yoga before work even when it's the last thing she feels like doing and the thought of it sometimes makes her want to cry it really helps her.

Meal prep on days off so the freezer is full of stuff ready to go so not expending extra energy on cooking, but know you have a nice meal every day.

She talks to me sometimes about work and I am always here, but she usually declares chat time work free zone, she said especially with friends it's really great to hear about general life and forget about her job even for a second.

Her DH is absolute gold, and although he works long hours as well in a different sector, he has taken on more around the house and with the DC which she says makes a huge difference because she does not have as much of the mental home load as usual.

She is a very positive person overall, growing up and up until I would say 9 months or so ago, annoyingly and ridiculously so! The kind who would have one leg hanging off and be ah well I still have one left, but she is not the same person at the moment. I really hope once this is 'over' she can come out the other side and be back to herself, but I fear that wont be the case for many.

Please let your family know what you need, tell them, we don't always know the right things to do or say, but we are here.

Carer in a nursing home here working 13 hour shifts. On Friday we had 9 positive resident tests come back and three positive staff. We are literally fire fighting at the moment. Dealing with very frightened residents who don't fully understand what is happening to them who are being shut in their rooms with staff coming in in full white suit ppe and we don't have the staff or the time to sit with them and provide the company they desperately want and need. Plus we are trying to keep the same staff going into the covid rooms all the time which is draining for those staff. We are also contending with covid positive wandering dementia patients who can't be confined to their rooms and are touching everywhere and it feels like we are fighting a losing battle. I'm risking my life for 8.72 an hour and I'm beginning to wonder if it's really worth it anymore despite the fact that I love my job.