No, not Crime Scene Investigator unfortunately, but Centre for the Southern Interior - a part of British Columbia's Cancer Agency. As I settle into a semblance of a life, most of you who know me know that I am not one to twiddle my thumbs... So here I am volunteering at CSI Kelowna with fellow volunteer, Ron . It's great because I get to meet fun people like Ron, and also feel like I'm doing something worthwhile too. Most of our chores consist of dishing out tea and coffee and big smiles to patients waiting for treatment. I have been doing enough shifts now (about 2-3 per week, each shift is 3-4 hours) that I recognise the patients and have fun - at least with some of them. As you can imagine it is a tough place to be for cancer patients, but on the whole, I think it succeeds in being a very welcoming and upbeat place considering the circumstances. Our job as volunteers is to make a difference and hopefully make the cancer clinic a nicer place to visit.
One of my other regular shifts at the Cancer Agency is working in ACU - the Ambulatory Care Unit - basically where patients come and visit their oncologists before, during and after their chemo treatment. I essentially act as a middleman between the patient and the doctor/nurse (whomever they are seeing). So I keep all the rooms tidy and ready for patients, I greet them, weigh them, show them to their consult room and then inform the doctor they have arrived. I enjoy it because it is challenging and keeps my organisational skills in shape - I have to juggle the logistics of 5 or 6 doctors all seeing their patients every 20 minutes. It's also quite different to what I used to do ... seeing cancer from a different perspective: I've gone from the intellectual challenge of trying to find a cure for cancer - to seeing patients get their treatment - the results of hard work (and blood, sweat and tears) of scientists, like myself! * Mush
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