Pethidine Pleasure

I hate the day after nights. It's all part of the process of resetting the body clock to a sensible pattern. I try to stay up as long as I can but after sitting down I just pass out. However while trying to stay awake, I reflect on the week that's just gone by. In my moment of thoughtfulness earlier, I was thinking about how I greeted many parents in ED - "Hi, I'm one of the doctors working the graveyard shift..." Now I realise that while many people refer to working night duty as doing the "graveyard shift", it's probably not a good way to refer to night duty when working in a hospital............ especially when a child has come in acutely short of breath...............