I would like to share a short story about how an innocent mistake brought much joy to my workplace.
A few weeks ago, one of the patients I follow ended up in hospital. This patient was relatively new to me, though not new to the cancer care system. He had been followed by a colleague for many months prior. The patient did not have any standard treatment options left so he was referred to our phase I clinical trial team to see if he could participate in one of our early drug trials. That’s when I met him.
At our first meeting, I introduced myself by my first and last name. I gave him one of my cards in case he needed to contact me. A few weeks later, after documenting he met all inclusion criteria for one of our trials, he started on an investigational drug. I had seen him three times at this point. I knew and recognized his name by then. I thought the same was true on his end.
About a week later, this man got admitted to a neighboring hospital. He was bleeding. He was in kidney failure. A CT confirmed his bleeding and kidney failure were from rapid growth of his cancer. His cancer was growing in all the wrong places.
The joy in this story comes from how the staff at our cancer centre were informed of his hospitalization. Somehow, like an amazing twist from the old game “telephone” that some of us might remember playing when we were kids, this patient and his wife got my name wrong. Instead of calling me Dr. Spratlin, he told his admitting care team his current oncologist was Dr. Sparkles. So, both the wife of this patient and the doctor looking after him called our cancer centre looking to speak to Dr. Sparkles.
Our phase I team and my administrative assistant immediately took a liking to this innocent mistake. One of our nurses called me giggling to inform me the entire clinical trial team thought this name was fantastic. She said Dr. Sparkles brought much joy to their day. My administrative assistant was just as elated with the error. I could hear her chuckling away the afternoon from her desk a few feet outside my office.
It wasn’t but a few days later I arrived at my office at the beginning of a workday to find a new name tag on my door, bedazzled no less, courtesy of my still giddy administrative assistant! This cracked me up on the spot and has since brought a few passerby’s to enjoy the sign and the story behind it.
I think I might just keep that sign up until I retire. It will be a reminder to try to find joy wherever we can, even in a stressful work environment. It is also a fabulous reminder that mistakes sometimes bring wonderful consequences that ripple out to affect more than just one person.
I thank my patient and his wife for getting my name wrong. I thank my colleagues for taking that mistake and running with it. It is truly a beautiful thing to have inside jokes and comradery around the workplace. It is so important in my life to have people I love at work, who I know love me back. We can count on each. We can smile, joke, and laugh together – even on the hard days. Thinking about this part of my job delights me. I hope it delights my colleagues too and continues to bring the lot of us shared pockets of joy.
Author Notes:
I believe finding pockets of joy is essential. I think in many ways, I’ve always been a seeker of joy, of things that delight the parts of me that can’t be seen by others. I’ve come to learn I have a funny bone in my soul that can be tickled by joy quite easily. Simple things, grand things, even in-between things can get me smiling from the inside-out with inspired happiness.
For parts of my life, I missed out on joy. Some of my joy sabbaticals were of my own making. These were times when I didn’t listen to my heart songs, or when, for one reason or another, I wasn’t being open-minded or living gratefully. There have also been periods in my life where I allowed people or situations to act as joy thieves. A work in progress, I think these joy-squishing experiences have taught me to cherish joy even more.
I know how joy feels inside me now – like a ball of cozy fire in the centre of my chest. When my joy fire crackles, it fills my lungs with a deep breath, lifts the sides of my mouth into a smile, tilts my head back, and makes me mouth the words “thank you” to the universe.
I am curious to know, reader, what delights you? How does joy feel for you?
