Last Thursday was the day when I was given my badge and became a volunteer at the Isabel Hospice. I was officially welcomed on board and I have my first shift
there next Thursday as a bedroom assistant. I will be doing alternative therapies but for the first few weeks I will be seeing how the Hospice works from the
inside as I am told once I take on my role doing massage and reiki the patients, relatives and many other people will think I know everything about everything
and the only way to have the answers is to do all the tasks that a volunteer could be asked to do. First and formost I will be a person who cares, a person who
can listen , a person they can unburden thier unspoken thoughts and worries to. The therapist hat will have many responsibilities working closely with nurses
and consultants, and I am told that I will hear many confessions, and problems as the people suffering from cancer hold it together for thier relatives not
wanting to burden them with all the thoughts feelings and anxieties they have about thier treatment, life expectancy and all the other things that go hand in
hand with being a cancer sufferer.
I must not use the word treatment.......as treatment implies cure to some people, instead I will be doing reiki and massage sessions. The word healing is not used either as the patients at the inpatient unit will be at a point where they will be silently praying to be healed.........
I have much to learn.......but I felt today I had finally learned why two years ago I went to the college and learned massage knowing I would never be doing it as a way of making my living.
In a way I am facing my fear......this evil disease that so many dear members of my family and friends alike have suffered from in one form or another....
I am not sure what lies ahead, I would assume much sadness, but also much joy at being able to offer the people I come in contact with a way of maybe having a few moments peace. I noticed today they laugh and smile lot in the Hospice. It is not only a place of hope but also a place to come to terms with your own mortality, and a place to find the courage to pass to the higher life with dignity, pain free , surrounded by people who care.
Already I have felt the comradeship and warmth of the folk who make up the hospice family and I look forward to working along side the dedicated and caring people who I have had the priviledge to meet today.
xx
I must not use the word treatment.......as treatment implies cure to some people, instead I will be doing reiki and massage sessions. The word healing is not used either as the patients at the inpatient unit will be at a point where they will be silently praying to be healed.........
I have much to learn.......but I felt today I had finally learned why two years ago I went to the college and learned massage knowing I would never be doing it as a way of making my living.
In a way I am facing my fear......this evil disease that so many dear members of my family and friends alike have suffered from in one form or another....
I am not sure what lies ahead, I would assume much sadness, but also much joy at being able to offer the people I come in contact with a way of maybe having a few moments peace. I noticed today they laugh and smile lot in the Hospice. It is not only a place of hope but also a place to come to terms with your own mortality, and a place to find the courage to pass to the higher life with dignity, pain free , surrounded by people who care.
Already I have felt the comradeship and warmth of the folk who make up the hospice family and I look forward to working along side the dedicated and caring people who I have had the priviledge to meet today.
xx
