Five Jobs I Have Had

1. Convenience store clerk for three years in highschool. My starting wage was $2.15/hour. Does that make me old?

2. Nurse's aide in a chronic care hospital during summer throughout college. Very heavy, hard work, but I met my husband there, so it was worth it. (No, he wasn't a patient...He was in housekeeping throughout university. I always tell people he swept me off my feet).

3. General medical unit as a new registered nurse for five years before I had kids. Good overview of nursing. I learned to work hard and get organized. Don't know why I stayed there so long...This was where I realized I wanted to work with the oncology population.

4. Chemotherapy Day Unit. Three months of agony. Assembly line nursing, over 130 patients per day, it was all a blur to me. I even developed heart palpitations because I internalized my stress. I hated to go to work, for the first time in my life, so I got out of there as soon as I could.

5. Current job: in-patient oncology. I have worked on a unit with autologous bone marrow transplant patients, malignant hematology (leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and blood disorders). Now I'm on a unit with surgical, medical and radiation oncology patients. The best job in the world. I hope I never have to leave. It's a great unit, generally healthy patients in for overnight surgeries or chemotherapy, so dealing with death is rare. I've had more than enough of that. It has great hours (no weekends).