{"id":882,"date":"2021-03-23T13:03:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T13:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/?p=882"},"modified":"2021-04-16T19:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T19:05:48","slug":"robert-dekker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/robert-dekker\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Dekker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Robert Dekker<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nuclear Medicine Technologist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Diagnostic Imaging can be hectic and fast paced. I compare it to working at a very busy restaurant. There\u2019s so many things going at once and you\u2019re trying to keep everything running. It would be nice to have the time to spend that extra minute with a patient and just talk to them, like they do on television, where they stop and have a deep profound conversation. I try to do my best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nuclear Medicine, we inject radioactive tracers into patients and do things like taking pictures, bone scan imaging, stress testing, thyroid imaging, renal scans, brain imaging \u2013 a variety of things. Since the pandemic, infection control is a big factor. When the patient leaves, you have to clean and sterilize everything. All the camera and equipment needs to be wiped down before the next patient comes in. We were doing that before, but now it\u2019s to another level. It\u2019s time consuming, and of course the mask, gowns and visor took some getting used to, but it\u2019s a routine now.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our team here is small \u2013 there are three of us and everyone looks out for each other. I have gotten closer to my immediate coworkers because we end up interacting a lot more. It\u2019s like a little work bubble. But I wish we could get out and socialize with the rest of the department more. We are no longer going to the cafeteria and catching up with people in CT and MRI. I miss those conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We went from seeing each other pretty much every weekend and now it can be months between visits.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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My mom died three years ago and I think about the amount of time she was in the hospital. I can\u2019t imagine her going through that without us around. I think about that all the time, especially when I see the inpatients who are here day in and day out, with nobody with them. It must be so isolating when you\u2019re sick and feeling terrible. We\u2019re all isolated to a certain extent in our personal lives, but this is the next level. We\u2019re fortunate my mom didn\u2019t have to go through this now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID has really affected me. I get hit at work and at home too. I\u2019ve been in a long distance, cross border relationship for over six years. We went from seeing each other pretty much every weekend and now it can be months between visits. We didn\u2019t get to see each other for the whole summer, about five months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made it across right now and he\u2019s with me for three months. We\u2019re not sure what the future is going to be. The border is tighter and he has to go back in a couple months. I\u2019m not sure what we are going to do. We hope COVID is going to get better, but you just don\u2019t know. But, of course, I can\u2019t take my patients with me and work remotely. It\u2019s unfortunate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s certainly more lonely these days with COVID. It\u2019ll be nice when things are back to normal. I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Dekker is a Nuclear Medicine Technologist in the Diagnostic Imaging department at St. Joseph\u2019s Health Centre.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As told to Natalie Leung. Photos by Katie Cooper. This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Dekker Nuclear Medicine Technologist Diagnostic Imaging can be hectic and fast paced. I compare it to working at a very busy restaurant. There\u2019s so many things going at once and you\u2019re trying to keep everything running. It would be nice to have the time to spend that extra minute with a patient and just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}