Monday, July 24, 2006

Another orientation...Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my orientation at XYZ Cancer Center. I am really excited. I will find out what I will be doing. They have opportunities to do different things with varying levels of patient interaction. Obviously, give me all ya got! A friend of ours (in her 80s) volunteers at a hospital in a different area of the state and she works in the recovery room. I would love that. I wanted to do something a little different than the typical "volunteer in the E.D. at XYZ Hospital" and it was between XYZ Cancer Center and Hospice. They don't even call it "hospice" in many areas anymore, now it is "Palliative Care." I think anyone who has had experience with this service still refers to it as "hospice." My father-in-law underwent hospice care. While I never knew him, I do know that it was a horrible experience for all involved. This however is not the norm. The nurse that was assigned to his case was pretty rotten from what I understand and had little regard for the actual feelings of my father-in-law and my husband's family. My husband, in his line of work, now deals regularly with people under the care of hospice. Many go in an out of the care, which is why they sometimes tend to refer to it as palliative care. This is positive in every way. People getting better, going home...what's not positive about that. Wait...let me rethink that...maybe one day I will get into the nasty and painful discussion of caregivers. Especially, adult children caregivers.

I am really pumped about tomorrow. I look at every new opportunity as a step in the right direction.

I'll post how it goes tomorrow. Oh, and for the person waiting to see a pic of my big puppy... here she is:I have had her since she was 9.5 weeks old. She is now 7. Gosh, I love my dogs. It's amazing to consider the relationship between pets and their owners. I could NEVER be a vet.

Until tomorrow.

1 comment:

Sara said...

Your dog is very cute! I can't wait to hear what you will be doing at the cancer center.