This week I had my new employee orientation, just one month after my first day. I thought it was a little delayed, but I met some new friends who had been working for 3 MONTHS and finally were at their new employee orientation. The orientation talked about a lot of guidelines that will protect us and that we need to follow. We went over all of the perks and (minimal) downfalls.
I learned a lot about the organization that made me a proud employee. I mean our #1 business goal is to cure cancer... how awesome is that? It's funny when I tell people about my new job, they all respond with "Oh, that must be so sad..." or "Wow how depressing," or "What are you going to do when they actually cure cancer?" But if you know me at all, you know this is my ideal organization to be a part of, so those who know me responded in a much more positive manner.
Part of the orientation consisted of a patient and caregiver panel, which is the part where they break your heart and remind you why you're there. To make the lives of these people as simple as their lives could possibly be under these circumstances. Every smile, door opened, question answered, or "normal," look, not a look of pity, is what THEY are thankful for. The patients are doing everything in their power to feel strong and normal. They have their moments of weakness, as we all do, but their lows hit miles deeper than ours, and they take every small moment like we do our big moments.
Having several family members go through this journey, some fortunate enough to have won the battle, some who lost, I feel drawn to them. I understand that being a caregiver can be just as hard as being the patient. You are with them every step of the way and you have to pick them up and carry them when they can't carry themselves. Console them when they're scared and celebrate with them when they reach their milestones. Hearing the stories of these patients and caregivers puts your life into perspective. Everyday we wake up, we get into our morning routine and go on with our day, while these patients wake up thankful to be alive another day, thankful to have found a match for a transplant, thankful to not have to be admitted.
The patients seen on my floor are SICK, very sick. They are blasted with chemo and radiation, their immune systems are hardly existent, and are receiving bone marrow transplants, in hopes that it will take. You can only receive a handful of bone marrow transplants (3 I believe, but don't quote me on that, I'm still learning). Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Even those that work can cause complications down the road. It is very important for these patients to stay away from those who are sick because it is very easy for them to quickly turn down a bad road by coming in contact with one doorknob touched by a person recovering from a cold. It is EXTREMELY important for me to NOT come to work if I am feeling sick. Even if I am feeling SYMPTOMS of something, I am NEVER to come to work. One flu bug could kill a patient.
Boy oh boy, after hearing Infection Control's speech at the orientation I have turned into a complete germaphobe. They handed antibacterial soap/purell to every other person at the table and had them shake hands with someone who didn't receive the soap. THEN they walked around with a black light to show you how many germs were ALL OVER YOUR HANDS. It was DISGUSTING. Let me just say to all of you who are grossed out by public bathrooms, guess what, I guarantee you your toilet at home is full of more germs than public bathrooms. Public bathrooms are cleaned daily... many of them are cleaned multiple times a day. Cell phones, work phones, doorknobs, keyboards, and computer mouses are the DIRTIEST and most germ filled things we use everyday.
And seeing how many people walk out of the bathroom with their phone in the hands makes me pray to God that they washed their hands with some extreme friction before grabbing a hold of their cell phones and put them to their faces.
Interesting fact from Infection Control: Antibacterial soaps like purell are better than using regular soap. Regular soap washes off the germs but does not kill the germs, while antibacterial soaps kill the germs.
Three big lessons this week....
1. WASH YOUR HANDS after you do anything you can think of :)
2. Be thankful for your life you have :)
3. Tell the cancer survivors you know that they kick ass... and those who didn't make it, you can still tell them they kick ass... they'll hear you :)
No comments:
Post a Comment