Documenting my journey through the mental health system

I am finally back at work at the VA tonight. We’ve been evacuated because of the fires and the patients are still away at area hospitals and adult family homes. It’s very weird being at work with no patients. My coworker is going to leave early. I might too. I haven’t decided – I burned through so much leave last couple months; I want to build it back up. We’re expected to clean, organize, stock… and we are already done. There are little details now, like cleaning the cupboards around the nurse station that get filled with crap. I don’t know what else to do with myself. The floor looks satisfactory to me. I’m gonna need coffee.

We went to Arby’s for a bunch of junk food and ate that. I’ve been here for three hours now. I guess I can read. I can watch something. It is surreal. No patients.

It’s official, I’m leaving at 0230. An 8-hour shift, and a lot of it will be spent twiddling my thumbs.