Mr. Sunshine

I came up with a name for him by my second day of work, "Mr Sunshine".

He's a tall man, I would gauge him to be at least 6"4 in his late 30's. His outfit of choice is a pair of running shorts, white sneakers and any assortment of t-shirts that have seen better days. He sports a shaved head, whether that is from chemo or by choice I don't know; his face swathed in a permanent five o'clock shadow.

Every patient that comes through our doors is bound to be having a tough time; going through the kind of struggle that I can't even fathom with my cancer-free body. The surprising thing is how friendly and jovial 99% of them are, it blows me away. They come up to my desk always ready with a joke, or quip, all smiles and hellos. Mr Sunshine draws a severe contrast.

You can feel the air change when he walks through the door, his posture hunched and angry, his eyes scrunched up in a permanent squint. He slams his booking card down on the counter and grunts, avoiding all eye contact if at all possible. I am lucky if he sticks around long enough for me to give him the time for his next appointment. Any communication he has is through hoarse whispers, and finger pointing.

I figured he must have laryngeal cancer or something to that effect. The strange thing is that his wife is lovely; a petite brunette with a willing smile and caring demeanor, any of his tainted interaction with the outside world seems to roll right off her.

The other day when I was checking him in, I took a closer look at his diagnosis, I was correct in guessing laryngeal cancer, I looked over to one of the other columns on my computer screen and saw the word, palliative. I guess if I found out I had in incurable cancer and was dying I would be angry too.

I still don't relish the thought of dealing with his sunny disposition on a daily basis, but at least I understand a bit better where it is coming from.

The brain is a muscle one must exercise frequently...

Sorry...I know I promised imminent updates on the new job, unfortunately my poor under-used brain went into overload and almost crashed from all the learning!
I think I'm going to like this new job; there is a plethora of computer programs to learn, but as soon as I get on top of that, I think it will be fine.

My favourite part so far (and I think will continue to be) the patients. The majority are 60-plus, and they are really lovely, always smiling and joking. Everyone becomes a quasi-family in the department because the patients come in everyday for usually around 6 weeks for treatment, so they get to know one another and us. We were inundated with Easter chocolate given by the patients today, I left with a whole bag full!

The toughest part has to be seeing the children. Little five and nine year-olds coming in for treatment. There is one little girl, who is just adorable, short little brown ringlets and as shy as they come, such a cutie..I can't imagine how hard it would as a parent to watch your child go through that.

Anyways, this post isn't as exciting as I had hoped; I have the next four days off over Easter, so hopefully my brain will get a chance to decompress and I will get some stories up about some of the characters that I have met.

Back and better than ever..well, I'm at least back

Bonjour,

I apologize for the gap in all things blog related, I just had to go travel around NZ, and move ALL the way to Australia.

Now that I have found myself a new job as a Radiation/Oncology booking officer I shall have new fodder with which to feed you. I know it probably won't be as exciting as my daily life in the ER, but hopefully there will be enough to sustain you until I get back to my old job!

I start bright and early Monday morning....and I will let you know all the dirty details