Chapter Thirty Four – "The Rough And The Smooth"

Admittedly, it has taken a lot longer than intended to write this update. As a result, I will miss out certain details, and provide you with a short account of main recent events.

The main news is that I am now finally working in a radiography job! The silence was broken, and I started working in South London (Kent) on the 21st October, having been taken on as a temporary staff member – although just how temporary that is, remains to be seen. The role had its difficulties at first, mainly arising from an apparent lack of confidence on my part, along with the expected feelings of settling into a new job (or starting a proper job for the first time, as in my case). To cut a long story short, six weeks in, my colleagues are a lot more positive about my work than they were initially, and I am able to work independently in most areas of the department. My manager even encouraged me, saying on one occasion “hang in there; you’ll be fine”, and another time, “that’s a beautiful x-ray” and “you’re a good radiographer; trust your instincts”. More recently at work, I have been working on the ‘pain lists’ (abbreviated to ‘pain’, which has prompted me to make a series of jokes along the lines of “I’m going to be in pain tomorrow morning...”), and it’s been interesting to see two doctors go about the same procedure in two completely different ways. I now feel comfortable and confident to carry out the imaging for both types of examination. In addition to helping with pain lists, I am also being sent up to the theatres as necessary. A few weeks ago, I conquered my fear of going up there unassisted – I just had to do it! Sometimes it’s a case of being thrown in at the deep end, to sink or swim, although in this case it was reassuring that there was a telephone to call down to the department in the case of an issue. Looking back, despite the challenges, I can see how much I have developed and learnt in such a short space of time. Consequently, I am enjoying my role of radiographer a lot more.

Last week gave me cause to think about the practicality of my living location with respect to where I was working. On Monday and Tuesday my train was delayed getting in to Waterloo, which meant that I was late (arriving at 0915, and 0945 respectively). I wondered if I should consider moving closer, although I am currently feeling so encouraged by my church family here, that I really can’t see myself being happy anywhere else. Even if it meant that work would be easier, moving away would make me feel lonely and cut off from those who I am really close to. Even so, it is something to pray about. The long journeys and early starts are beginning to tire me out; one of the reasons why I am particularly looking forward to my Christmas break.

A few weeks ago I went into my manager’s office to ask about the situation with working over the Christmas period. She immediately sensed that I was wanting some time off, and explained to me that I would be able to take off any days I wanted – the rota could be arranged taking my leave into consideration. After giving it some careful consideration, and wanting a break, but not taking too much time off, I decided on the period from Thursday 22nd December, returning to London on the 2nd January (a bank holiday). During my time back home in Devon, I plan to spend Christmas with family (although this year it is somewhat low key), catch up with Mark, walk the dog, and enjoy a slower pace of life for a week or so. I will share more about my holiday experiences in subsequent blog entries.

As we’ve moved onto the subject of Christmas (which seems to have crept up quickly this year), I am pleased to say that I have completed my Christmas shopping. On Saturday, when I did a lot of my buying, it was the day of our church’s ‘Bethlehem Experience’ event, encouraging families and children to travel back in time to the first Christmas, and hear about the real Christmas message. I was acting as a tour guide (although I apparently looked more like one of Robin Hood’s merry men), and took various groups of people through the different Bible scenes – Mary, the shepherds, the manger, king Herod, and finally Mary and Joseph’s house (with refreshments). I was feeling a bit apprehensive at first, thinking I would forget my lines or get confused about where to go next, but it went smoothly, with a lot of people coming to see the event. I initially saw the fact that our original venue had been double-booked as a problem, but God used the situation for His glory!

Finally, it should be said that there are many other things I could have shared in this blog entry, but I feel it would have taken a rather long time to talk about them all in detail. There were a lot of funny stories from the past couple of weeks at work, which I can’t go into in full, but so as to not deprive you totally, I thought I would briefly mention them in a list, and leave it up to you to figure them out.

· “This would make a good screensaver” (A consultant’s opinion of a gallstone he was removing.)
· “If you’ve seen the film, Silence of the Lambs, then think of Hannibal Lector” (On asking a colleague what a particular doctor was like.)
· “Radiographers have trouble distinguishing between ‘screen’ and ‘scream’” (This comment was preceded by an unexpected high-pitched yell by the consultant.)
· “My breasts are better!” (Myself, upon noticing that my handwriting was neater than my colleague’s – it was just a rather unfortunate word that we happened to be writing.)
· “What’s that on the knee? It looks like cauliflower” (Commenting on an x-ray image.)
· “X-ray request: Right hip please. Clinical indications: Office worker, no history of thumb trauma, now presenting with thumb pain” (Your guess is as good as mine on this one!)