{"id":883,"date":"2012-10-21T18:30:38","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T01:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/?p=883"},"modified":"2012-10-22T19:09:47","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T02:09:47","slug":"after-a-wonderful-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bizidi.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/after-a-wonderful-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"After a Wonderful Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Last Friday, as I was getting ready and I had a couple of appointments that day and a new client to meet also. I was very excited about the new client because it was a lady I met through the Women’s Networking, and also I had met her briefly when we used to have our dogs–she only lives two blocks from us. I always hoped that she would call me to take care of her two Schipperke<\/em>s. They are absolutely darling little dogs<\/strong> and they took to me right away. I am set up for Thanksgiving for that job. I am very happy about that. The woman already knew I had been battling cancer because it was announced when I had to give up going to the Women’s Networking because of the cancer treatments. I look forward to starting that up again, and if it works out for next month I may go. It will be doing my radiation treatments, but maybe I can reschedule the times where it will work.<\/p>\n

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I attended a get-away called the “Creative Healing Retreat<\/em>” sponsored by Enhancement<\/a>, an organization that has activities for cancer survivors and patients. I was very happy that three of the ladies attending were from my support group! When I got to The Inn at Morro Bay<\/em> where the retreat was being held, one of the girls and I requested to be roommates, but they had them already assigned. The woman at the registration desk looked up my name and found that we got assigned together anyway! Is that a God thing<\/em> or not? It worked out perfectly! We were very happy. Jennifer and I were roommates, and Denise and Monica were upstairs from us. We four hung out together and also had others that joined us. We met many ladies with different stories and different treatment plans. It was good to hear it all.<\/p>\n

Friday evening, we had dinner first at the hotel, and then had our meeting in one of the conference rooms for a getting-to-know-each-other session. We went around the circle and shared our stories. It was the heaviest night since it was difficult for many to share, and caused tears and emotions to flare up. We were all in a safe place and there is really something special to be able to tell your story and have others know<\/em> what you are going through. I have to say it was a very different experience from anything else I have ever experienced.<\/p>\n

Saturday morning at 7:30 am, we had a yoga session that was designed specifically for therapy for breast cancer patients. It was perfect. The instructor did many of the stretches in the chair to make it gentle for us who have had surgeries.<\/p>\n

Breakfast on Saturday morning for some reason was awful<\/em>. The hotel didn’t have their act together, and the food was cold, and there weren’t spoons for the oatmeal, or any coffee, or many things. It was too expensive of a hotel to do it so badly, so we all complained. The salmon and bagels were good. You can’t mess that up too badly.<\/p>\n

After our disaster of a breakfast, we had a creative meeting making collage journals by going through magazines to cut out pictures for our journeys. Everyone really got into it. We enjoyed sitting around and finding what worked for our stories, and we chatted and got to know one another better. It was rather a relaxing and fun activity.<\/p>\n

Then we walked (for those of us who could walk) to the wonderful Bayside Cafe<\/em>. Monies were donated for the lunch and even the staff donated money for us to be able to order whatever we wanted for lunch. So we did it up. Many of the women hadn’t been out much, so it was an opportunity for them to feel comfortable to be in public without feeling self-conscious. We were so happy to be with one another<\/em>. I had grilled fresh albacore on salad with all kinds of vegetables. Many of the women ordered hors d’oeuvres and shared them, and then we shared desserts. I had the berry cobbler without whip cream, and it just so happen that the lady sitting next to me was also lactose intolerant, so she was happy I ordered that. What are the odds of that having her right next to me? It was good to have someone to share my dessert as well as my journey.<\/p>\n

The rest of the afternoon on Saturday was free time, so we hung out at Denise and Monica’s room and took our journals and magazines to cut out pictures and talked. Some ladies from next door also joined us, so we got to share more things and other treatment options and discoveries. It was very informative as well. Doctors don’t always remember to tell you everything, and they are not always aware of other options that they haven’t learned as well. It is good to hear and see the different journeys and choices.<\/p>\n

At Saturday dinner time we had a very good dinner and a great speaker. It was one of the younger oncologists who is with the group I am at, and he informed us of upcoming new treatments that will eventually eliminate chemotherapy<\/strong> with the loss of hair and nausea and all. It is all in the clinical trials. It doesn’t help us now, but it is exciting to see that those who follow us will have a better time with less sickness with cancer treatments.<\/p>\n

\"\"After dinner we went to Morro Bay and had a percussion therapy<\/em> session. A musician taught us different music with various percussion instruments and we all participated and played music. It was wonderful. We had a great time. Very healing indeed!<\/p>\n

After we got back to the Inn, we were all exhausted, but wanted to hang out some more, so the four of us continued to work on our collages and talked for a long time. When it started to get close to midnight, Jennifer and I decided we better get to bed to be able to get up for yoga at 7:30 am. As I was washing my face and brushing my teeth, we had an earthquake. I heard someone walking upstairs and thought at first, “surely that person wasn’t walking that hard to make the room shake”. Ha. But then we realized it was an earthquake. We found out the next morning that it was a 5.3 with the epicenter in King City. That is about one and one half hours away.<\/p>\n

The next morning on Sunday, we did another session of yoga which really gentle stretching, then had a better breakfast. It was all the same buffet items that were served on Saturday morning, but they had their act together this time. The food was hot, but there still wasn’t coffee<\/strong> offered, but I brought mine in from the conference room.<\/p>\n

Our meeting was a choice of the percussion again, or our collages. All my friends wanted to do their journals, but I wanted to do the music–I wanted to do something that I wouldn’t have opportunity to do again. It was like going to school and learning, but I wanted to stretch myself. It was actually very fatiguing, because I had to really concentrate, but it was good to learn something new. Using my mind and learning new skills is a healthy thing as well.<\/p>\n

After that, we said our good byes after a couple of other activities, and went home. I felt like I made many forever friends and I suspect I will be seeing many of them again. What an incredible experience! I am so blessed.<\/p>\n

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