Currently Reading For One More Day By Mitch Albom see related

Well a belated Merry Christmas everyone...

So how was my Christmas??  It was alright...nothing too out of the ordinary I'd say.  Christmas is always a good chance to see friends and relatives that you might not otherwise have the opportunity to catch up with...and that happened.  I had a lot of fun playing with the little nephews and niece and of course there's always the wonderful food! 

And going completely away from usual Christmas-y type of activities...I caught up on some reading, namely the book you see above..."For One More Day".  Picked it up this past Sunday and read through it in one sitting in about 4 hours.  Excellent read and even though it's really short, it packs an emotional punch and it's well worth the price of purchase just because I would recommend and lend it out to anyone who's willing to take it on just the basis of what it says.  And earlier in the day, I re-watched "Walk the Line", and once again, I needed to be reminded of what the movie says to me.  I found both extremely therapeutic even though the circumstances and ongoing themes of which each title is set isn't exactly the most wholesome or festive. 

The last few weeks (actually the last couple of months) haven't been all that great to me.  I've felt a little worn and weighed down by a lot of stresses lately, both at work and in my personal life.  Working where I work, isn't exactly the most pleasant place to be some times.  The pace can be stressful and well, the patients aren't in very good shape in many cases.  I think I've lost track of the number of people who I've spoken to that have just received the worst news possible and end up breaking down in front of me.  Earlier last week, I was the one who ended up explaining to a 21 year old leukemia patient that his newly shattered hip was most likely because of the steroid medication he's taking as part of his treatment (and the fact that he hadn't been taking his bisphosphonate and calcium like we had been telling him to), and that he'd likely end up having surgery to replace it.  The thought of a 21 year old having to go through all this really really bothered me.  I felt for him...I really did.  I lost a lot of sleep last week just thinking about being in his situation trying to figure out what part of system failed him.  Later that week, I talked to two teenage daughters of a woman diagnosed with an untreatable meningioma about a form of chemotherapy that would merely extend her life by 'months'.  The girls were composed as I talked to them but you could tell in their eyes that it was a very bad situation and likely a lot of crying was already done beforehand.  It's just not fair.  I know that I really shouldn't get emotionally involved and that after a year of hearing these stories...it really shouldn't faze me anymore...but how could any decent person not walk away from these sorts of interactions even a little bit shaken?  And this is just how work's been like.  I won't even go into the unpleasant surprises that have popped up outside of pharmacy and all the rest of the stuff that never seems to right.  I guess dealing with situations which are so dire and terminal like I do on a daily basis, it's easy to transfer that feeling of futility and disapair into other parts of life.  It's okay though.  I think I just need some time and distance to sort through everything.  More importantly, I think I just need some hope.

And my apologies for such a downer of a blog entry during the holiday season.