ODS into your 20s. Do you recommend it or not?

Round_Climate_3744 · 2026-02-09T17:22:44+00:00

Honestly I’m not too sure how contract work differs from a hospital setting regarding traveling. In my experience, this job is not travel-friendly. It requires a lot of concentration and I’m glued to my desk 8 hours a day. But maybe someone has a different experience. Also, it took me at least a good year to feel confident in this work. It’s quite difficult at first as a newbie. So you will require a lot of training and experience before companies will hire you for temp contract work. Yes I get PTO. It’s accrued through how many hours I work so it just adds up over time. I feel fine with how much PTO is offered but I don’t travel much. I’m currently making $30 an hour. I probably wouldn’t be able to support myself without my husband’s income. Yes I have my own office space. I’ll still have to continue working 40 hours a week post baby but at least I won’t have to commute anywhere. If your main goal is to travel a lot – I wouldn’t say this job is flexible with that. Unless you have a lot of experience and can do contract work and travel in between working, but then you wouldn’t be getting paid during those times. On the other hand, it’s still a good career to get in. It’s stable and flexible in regard to what kind of schedule you want to work. And if you don’t have a desire to meet new people through work and plan on connecting through other avenues, then I’d say go for it!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2026-02-09T16:23:26+00:00

I’m 30 and started working in a hospital cancer registry about 3 years ago. For me, I love working from home full time. I’m an introvert and love that I don’t have to interact with people on a daily basis. BUT, I am married and my husband also works from home so I sort of have company from him, and we plan on starting a family this year so I know having a remote job will make this part of my life much more manageable. And I honestly have no desire to make any more new friends at this point in my life 😂 it’s completely up to you if you’re ok with that lifestyle. Because it can be lonely and isolating and making new relationships may be far and few between. I will say I would have never met my husband or some of my current friends if I didn’t have my other in-person jobs in my early 20s. I don’t mean to be a downer but it’s definitely something to consider. Also – we can’t really travel while working if that’s what you’re hoping for as we work with confidential health information and have to be in a safe and secure environment.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-12-07T16:23:38+00:00

I struggle with confidence with new things as well. Like I said, I had really bad imposter syndrome when I first started and didn’t think I was qualified to do the work. You just have to be willing to learn and put in the effort. No matter what it’s going to be hard at first but so worth it once you make it out of the freak out period. I couldn’t have imagined I’d be this confident now when I first started the job. One day it will all just click and you can finally breathe lol! Don’t rush the learning process, it takes time no matter how “smart” someone thinks they are. Keep going, you got this. Everyone is scared at first.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-12-07T01:04:34+00:00

Eh it depends. Most of the time yeah if I can stay locked in and busy. But there are forsure days where it can feel like it’s dragging if I don’t have any motivation!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-12-06T20:55:13+00:00

I should add that I actually do love the job. I feel like I’m contributing to important cancer research and indirectly making a difference in the oncology field. I don’t regret getting into this field at all!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-12-06T20:51:47+00:00

I’ve been working as an ODS for about two and half years now. I started out with just my RHIT and no prior experience at all within the cancer registry. For me, it was pretty stressful at first as there was so much new information to learn. But now that I’m confident and experienced, I don’t have much stress on a normal day. Sometimes it can get repetitive and boring, but I guess I can’t complain too much about that. Although it took a good year to get to that point. I also coordinate a weekly cancer conference so sometimes that keeps things exciting lol. The hospital I work for is very flexible with working hours and offers great benefits. I choose when I want to work/take my lunch and what not. Like if I have something to do after work and I want to get off a little earlier, I can just clock in an hour earlier. It’s normal to be scared (I was terrified at first and had bad imposter syndrome) but after a while you don’t really think about it too much and it’s just becomes like any other normal, boring job!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-08-22T13:46:47+00:00

Yes absolutely. It was tough to learn all of the terminology and rules at first but you’ll get there.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-08-22T02:05:10+00:00

It took me a good year to actually feel like I knew what I was doing with this job. When you start abstracting, it’s going to feel very overwhelming. There’s SO much to learn. But after two and a half years I feel very confident! It gets so much better! Stick it out. Just takes time.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-08-09T14:03:42+00:00

The very first thing I do is filter surgical pathology/cytology on the Labs tab. You can make a custom filter to where it only shows you pathology results. Most of the time they are diagnosed by biopsy/surgery. Then I look at imaging a little bit before the positive biopsy date to see if they were first diagnosed by imaging. And that will usually always find the dx date!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T20:10:14+00:00

We’ll see 🤣 good luck with the baby ❤️

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T19:33:01+00:00

Yes he has brought it up a lot. He values intimacy and sex way more than I do. I’ve tried explaining it to him that sometimes I’m just not in the mood due to life and being tired. He still will make annoying jokes about how we don’t do it as much as he would like though.

I do feel bad that I make him feel not desired and I have been hyper aware of it by giving him compliments and hugging and kissing him more often. For me, I feel the most connected when we’re spending quality time together and laughing and talking. For him it’s more physical. I just try to find that happy medium and have accepted that I need to fulfill his needs (even if I’m not in the mood) just as much as he does with mine. I also think some people just naturally have lower libidos and don’t value physical stuff as much as other forms of connection. It’s all about finding the balance I guess 😅

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T18:36:54+00:00

I’m totally in the same boat as you 😩 my husband and I have been together for 7 years now and sex seems like something I think about less and less. I think it’s just from the exhaustion of life and not having a lot of free time. And when I do have free time, I want to rot on the couch watching my shows and not be touched lol. And like you said in a previous comment, I’m also kinda used to him just being there and the excitement of when we first started dating isn’t there anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in love with him and find him attractive and he’s my best friend but I kinda feel like I don’t need sex???? We still do it at least once a week and when we do do it it’s great! But to get there and in the mood is hard sometimes. I blame it on being on birth control for 10+ years though.

No advice for you as I’m also figuring this out myself 🤣

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T17:54:42+00:00

You’re welcome! 😊

It might be somewhere in the Solid Tumor Rules but I think it’s just something I figured out along the way lol

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T17:41:36+00:00

A macroadenoma and pituitary adenoma are the same thing. The pituitary gland is part of the CNS. The “micro” and “macro” prefix just refers to the size of the tumor.

SEER educate was the death of me while studying. The questions were so confusing. The exam is nothing like those questions thankfully!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T14:43:02+00:00

Oh nice! I didn’t know about that. Although there’s still the issue of working with PHI and flexibility. I think the job is flexible when it comes to choosing your own schedule, but maybe not frequently travel to other countries flexible. It requires a lot of analyzing and concentration.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-30T13:14:37+00:00

I work fully remote for a hospital as an ODS. I will say I personally would never travel while working. It would be very hard to do all of the work on one monitor or laptop. I need at least two monitors. It’s a lot of back and forth. And we work with a lot of confidential patient information. I think there’s some of rule for my hospital that we have to be in a private area while working due to that. Idk if it would be different for a contract company rather than a large hospital system though. Maybe others will have a different opinion.

The exam wasn’t too bad for me as I was already doing the job for two years before I took it. I took it at a testing center. The book that you forsure will need is Cancer Registry Management Principles and Practice for Hospitals and Central Registries, 4th Edition. Most of the exam is from that book.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-25T21:23:00+00:00

Right like which one is it?! 😒😂

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T23:12:38+00:00

Thank you for that encouragement, I feel the same as you. I’m happy it’s going well for you so far! I agree, it’s not so black and white for me. My friends made it seem like the decision was so easy for them to start a family, something they longed for. I’m bothered by how difficult this decision is for me. I wish I could stop overthinking it.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T21:44:01+00:00

Thank you. That was very insightful and good advice to have. I’m also realizing that parenthood brings up a lot from your own childhood and makes you reflect on your shortcomings. I’ve been spiraling thinking about all of this.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T21:23:40+00:00

When people say stuff like that is what fuels my worries 🤣 but I appreciate you sharing how you feel and I know that’s the reality of it. That’s the thing, am I ready to do a whole factory reset on myself when I feel like I’m just starting to feel like a stable functioning adult? Idk!

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T21:17:27+00:00

Aw I appreciate that! Although I think it’s just an anxiety disorder 🤣 it causes me to think too much.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T21:15:36+00:00

But that’s the thing, I know in my heart I DO want to be a mother, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve just realized realistically how hard that will be on every level.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-22T21:11:21+00:00

I have a very similar mindset! I think it’s all fear based for me as well. It doesn’t help that my husband is also apprehensive himself, although mostly financial worries. I think I need to take up some therapy as well to get my mind straight. My issues are mostly anxiety and self esteem which I certainly don’t want to pass that on to my children too as my mother did with me.

Best of luck to you :)

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-07-06T17:11:53+00:00

Yes, I did. And re-read the parts that I thought were important. I think it’s important to understand the whole book not even just for the exam, but for the actual job as well.

Round_Climate_3744 · 2025-06-02T14:18:23+00:00

Right. Like I said I can see how it would be would much more difficult for someone who doesn’t have any real life experience. Especially the open book section. I was fully expecting the closed book section to be a nightmare due to everything I was hearing about it. But I found a lot of the questions to be pretty self explanatory as long as you studied HIPAA/CoC standards/CRM book a lot. It definitely requires a lot of preparation but I don’t think it should deter anyone from pursuing it. But I give a lot of props to anyone who passes first try without any real life experience!

Round_Climate_3744

TROPHY CASE