An education
If you have never worked with a family battling cancer, you are both fortunate and unfortunate.
Fortunate in that, if you haven’t, you’re surrounded by people free of the disease, which is excellent! The more research that is done, the higher the number of people who can claim that rises. On the other hand, families dealing with cancer–especially the kids diagnosed with the disease–are flat-out amazing. Not just in the “oh, what a brave little dear” sense they push on television, but in terms of their honesty, their endurance, and their optimism. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the world rarely gets to see how hard they work.
As I was negotiating the contract for my next travel assignment over the past few weeks, I found myself getting seriously bogged down by minutia. I didn’t get the very specific terms that I wanted. I had to deal with too many people. It was taking too long to get a response, and when I did, it wasn’t the one I requested. I hit so many little walls and survived so many surges to my blood pressure that when I finally did sign, it was kind of anticlimactic. Sort of, “It’s not perfect, but it’s done. Whatever.”
Beware of office politics, guys (and here I thought I was avoiding them by traveling!). They can eat your soul.
You know what I was pouting about all those weeks? The relatively insignificant details of a PEDIATRIC BONE MARROW POSITION. I.e. my chosen specialty. I.e. the type of dedicated unit I’ve been trying to get a position in for ages, but haven’t been able to because they rarely hire travelers. I.e. a really kick-ass job. Which I had been offered. And here I was, whining about whether my Christmas vacation would start on the 18th or the 19th. Priorities.
Don’t worry. Now that I’ve given myself a swift kick in the pants (it is possible if you angle things just right), I’m actually really stupidly excited about this one. If there’s one thing working in units not solely dealing with heme/onc patients has taught me (okay, in reality it’s taught me a boatload of things, but this was the sticky one), it’s that I really miss dealing solely with heme/onc patients. When that was all I did, I was a little worried that I only felt like I loved my job was because I was used to it. Now that I’ve done some other things, I’ve realized that the reason I felt like I loved my job was because I loved my job. So to be given a chance to go back, to start on a fantastic new unit and learn lots of new things in what really is my field? Yep. Definitely fortunate.
(Coincidentally, September has been declared Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Donate or volunteer if that’s your thing, or just make a point to hug the healthy kids in your life. Here’s to making even more of them that way.)
