“I rarely fall asleep easily after a shift, especially if I’m working the next one, but now quiescence comes, pushing at the edges of my mind. My breath deepens and I feel the calm of oblivion begin to cover me. I will do this all again tomorrow and then there will be another shift and another and another. To be in the eternal present of illness and unease, never knowing the future. It’s where my patients live so I, ever hopeful, live there with them.”
