'Tis the Season

This week has been a super hard one at work. Saying Merry Christmas to our patients as they leave the clinic knowing that this will probably be their last is rough, to say the least. I never had the desire to work with cancer patients, it kind of just worked out that way...When I first graduated from nursing school I took care of all kinds of patients: medicine, surgery, urology, renal, some oncology but not many...

When I decided I was ready to leave hospital nursing for the promised land of the clinics I imagined pleasantly greeting patients, coordinating appointments, wearing cute,colorful scrubs, etc...and we do that here, just with a different vibe. Somehow, at some point during the last year and half, I became an oncology nurse... I'm grateful for each one of my patients because they keep my life and troubles in perspective for me. True, I have some medical issues that seem like the end of the world to me, but in comparison are nothing to the challenges faced by these people. I need a good , stiff slap in the face sometimes...