Suikazura No Retsu #4, Oncology

Oncology

Good day dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you (maybe) know I am an oncology-nurse not the most easy job that for sure I can say. It's an everyday struggle for the patients I am caring for and that makes me sometimes sad and angry. As an oncology-nurse I am working in a local hospital at lung-unit and lately we see more patients which are diagnosed with lung cancer. Sometimes they have already COPD or asthma and some of them have cystic fibrosis or lung eczema. Mostly they have already a whole life behind them, but not so long ago we had a very young man on the unit. Not even in his forties. At such moments it's very hard to accept that, because, as you maybe know, my elder brother died almost 20 years ago of lung cancer. Not because he was a smoker, no he always lived healthy ... he had a juvenile kind of lung cancer which he didn't know of. As my brother died ... I was angry with the whole world and at God. "Why did He take my brother away?"
Until today I haven't found the answer, but I have learned to live with this loss and my parents also learned that. As I look back at the years we (my brother and I) were always together I remember only the nice things. We were not only brothers, but also best friends forever.
My brother became, and he didn't know that than, the one who made me decide to become a nurse and after a few years as a registered nurse I became also a registered oncology-nurse.
Oncology, all what has to do with cancer, isn't an easy thing. It's difficult to cope with it, but it's really a joy to take care of oncology patients. It has become my life and it made me who I am know.

Because of my job I needed a way out for my feelings and thoughts and so I started writing. Next to two novels which I wrote I became an internationally known haiku-poet and maybe, a haiku-master, but that's not up to me to say.
Haiku became a real way of life for me and it gave me the strength to be an oncology-nurse.

lady with the lamp
the source of my unconditional love
taking care

taking care
bringing joy and light to my patients
man with the lamp

© Chèvrefeuille

See you next time.

Namaste.