Schedule = Suckage

Tell me what's wrong with this picture?

Meg's Work Schedule:

Sunday, June 7th: 11:30 AM to 8:00 PM
Monday, June 8th: 2:00 AM to 11:00 AM

On Sunday, the last bus leaves my work at before 5:30 PM, therefore I would have to bum a ride off of someone who was leaving work at 8:30 or 9, or I'd have to walk and expect to get home at just before 10 PM. My boss scheduled me for this pair of back to back shifts. Luckily, I managed to find someone to switch with me, so that my time between shifts won't be quite so terribly short, but in my opinion I shouldn't have to scramble to get someone to switch with me. And even my switched shift is really not good enough, as I won't be able to get as much rest as I'd like, as much rest as my body needs. But at least that is better than the schedule I was originally given.

I should not be scheduled such a terrible combination of shifts. In essence, in a time period of 23.5 hours I would've been working 16.5 hours, and had two half hour lunch breaks, leaving me exactly 6 hours to commute, sleep, eat, etc.

I "corrected" my work schedule to make it a more humane combination of shifts, but it is still a pretty bad combo of shifts. Let me just point out that 4 weeks ago I was scheduled to work almost the same shift I am now scheduled. I worked on Sunday until 4 PM and returned the next morning at 2 AM, and after the first 8 work hours of my second work shift went by, I nearly passed out. As in, too little sleep in too short of a period of time, two straight shifts on my feet the whole time, too much work an not enough rest, plus a heart problem meant I was no longer functional. I lost my ability to stand, I went deathly pale, I had chest pain, and had to spend 5 minutes sitting on the floor, as I was incredibly dizzy and felt like I was about to lose consciousness every time I attempted to even kneel, let alone stand. When, after 5 minutes, I was able to finally stand and walk, I could not walk in a straight line, I was so shaky and "off" that I felt like I was walking straight but, instead, kept crashing into walls. I had to be driven home from work when my shift ended half an hour later as I was too shaky still to be sure I could make it to the bus stop, and from my home bus stop to my house. It was incredibly scary.

If it happens again this weekend, especially if it happens when I am scheduled for an inventory shift I was not asked to do, an inventory shift which is one more shift than I was supposed to work (we're all required to work 3 inventory shifts at some point, and I fulfilled my quota last month), i.e., basically an inventory shift I would not have volunteered for, I will have to insist upon calling an ambulance and going to the ER. It felt that scary.

With my low ejection fraction, my heart problems, tachycardia, irregular heartbeat, etc., it doesn't pay to try to be a "good girl" and go back to work instead of getting it checked out if I have another episode like this. With my heart function being below normal, and yet my heart is already having to work super hard, harder than the average heart due to structural abnormalities, just to keep me alive, it doesn't do to put undue, extra stress on it. But, since I am required to put this extra stress on it, due to terrible scheduling of shifts I did not volunteer for, and cannot opt out of, I pretty much plan to raise a bit of a stink if I start to show signs of potentially serious health problems as a result. When you have lower than normal ejection fractions, serious heart problems like Non-Compaction Syndrome, plus tachycardia and arrythmias, the odds are way too high that you might not be able to push the heart back into a normal rhythm when it gets out of wack (hence the need to a defibrillator, as I mentioned earlier), so this is not something I am going to mess around with. If I feel like crap, I will demand to leave to preserve my health, and deal with the work-related consequences later, if necessary.

As it is, I am really, incredibly worried about how I am going to manage the "improved" schedule I have now that I switched with my coworker. It is not enough rest time/away from work time over a 3 day period, but the lack of rest/downtime between shifts is more evenly spread. In theory I should be able to handle it, but after last month's episode I am,understandably, a little freaked out and worried. This is what my revised schedule looks like:

Saturday, June 6th: 2:45 PM to 10:30 PM (then walk home, so arrive home between 12:10 AM & 12:30 AM)

Sunday, June 7th: 9 AM to 4:30 PM (no bus in the AM, and for my cardiovascular health I am not doing any non-manditory exercise right before my crazy shift combo, so I have to leave at 7:40 AM in order to catch a ride in to work with Nicole...and my bus home is at 5:26 PM, so I'll be getting home around 6 PM)

Monday, June 8th: 2 AM to 11 AM (my ride to work will pick me up at around 1:45 AM & she'll be giving me a ride home after we both work inventory, so I should be home at around 11:15 AM. That is, as long as inventory doesn't run significantly later than usual. I'mtechnically scheduled to work 2 AM to 10 AM, but we have been required to work until at least 11 AM each month so far, so I am anticipating that'll be the case this time as well...but it might be longer...)

Keep your fingers crossed that I'll be OK and will manage to make it through! I know people my age should not have serious problems with wacky schedules, and we should be able to work them and have the biggest problem be that we're really tired and cranky, but I am just not that lucky. And I am really worried about this combination of shifts. Even though my new beta blocker (Carvedilol, AKA Coreg, for those of you playing at home) is fabulous and makes me feel signficantly better, it is not a wonder drug. It will not make me become a healthy lady. I am still sick, and I still have to be extremely vigilant to keep myself healthy enough to get by.