Comfort Zone

We are back in hospital today , Scott is having a blood transfusion and then an iron transfusion ...I'm just having a rather tasty piece of chocolate cake  ( tiny but delicious , small enough to have hardly any calories) .

We are in the brand new, shiny and sparkling Peter Mac Cancer Centre aka The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre , this just opened a few weeks ago and is so much brighter and lighter than the old Peter Mac.

I used to , in a previous life, be a nurse and that sound training and grounding we had back in the olden days never leaves you. I've not actively nursed in 14 years but can still do hospital corners, can usually make the diagnosis on Casualty and Holby City before the doctors do and can hold my own in a converstaion with real life doctors over here!

So, to be here , has an odd comfort factor for me...don't know about Scott, he just very easily , goes with the flow. He puts up with being poked and prodded, photographed ...don't know how many doctors have a photo of him on there iPhones by now! He is stabbed with needles , attached to drips , strapped to a blood pressure monitor and just lets it all happen. He is a very patient, patient.

I, however, am a very inquisitive patient's wife. I like to know exactly what's going on, why its happening , when it's happening and usually along the way I'm asked ' are you a nurse? ' ...ah, I was once! I occasionally tut , under my breath and think that we would not have got away with this or that back in my day but I think that basic nursing care is the same the world over. All the nurses we have met here are so happy and friendly and genuinely seem to enjoy their jobs....as a patient /patient's wife this is encouraging.

Every other patient here is going through cancer, some will have a positive outcome, others will not but here we are all the same. No one is staring , no one is judgemental, no one is bothered . There's  an air of upbeat -ness, banter with the staff, an encouraging smile at each other across the room, a cheerio on the way out, grateful that treatment's over for another time. So , if we have to do our palliative treatment anywhere I'm glad we are doing it here. *

*free cake may be a contributory factor.

Always living , loving and laughing