Teal Rose Society

This past weekend I attended the Teal Diva retreat in Boone, NC.  It was at a beautiful place called The Art of Living.  The food was all vegetarian without garlic or onions, as they said they were dark or something like that.  It was pretty good, but we all agreed we like a little meat in our diet, hence the tray of chick fil a nuggets we devoured the last evening.

The Teal Diva retreat involved 14 mostly OVC, but a few uterine and cervical cancer survivors all diagnosed under the age of 40.  Some were even 15 and 16 when diagnosed.  Only 2 of us were having treatment and only 3 of us were actually currently not in remission.  There were also 3 ladies who were on the Teal Diva Board and one who is a NP at Dana Farber whose mother and sister both passed with OVC. 

All of these ladies are amazing and their stories are incredible.  I came away from this retreat fully energized, full of hope and a desire to keep up the fight.  One of the girls had a mother and sister diagnosed with OVB and passed away before she was 16.  On her 16 birthday she underwent surgery for OVC.  Unbelievable.

For the most part we spent the entire time relaxing.  The time went by so quickly.  Nick took me to my friend and fellow nurses Kendra's home Thursday morning.  It was so good to see her.  She had a re-occurrence in April and had her first chemo treatment 4 weeks ago.  We had such a great time together and I'm so happy she was healthy enough to attend even though she had times when she didn't feel well.  We drove together and met the other ladies in Boone.  There were 3 of us in each room.  After dinner we gathered together and one of the girls talked about writing about our experiences.  Um, yeah, I think I have covered that.  But I did write about something that I had been wanting to for a while and this gave me a chance.  (I still need to work on it before I publish the post.)  Saturday evening we gathered and shared what we had written over the past few days.  Every single one was amazing.  I especially appreciated the NP's.  She talked about what a typical day is like when she has to tell a patient that they aren't in remission anymore.  I could totally relate.  Remember the lady I had to tell this to just after I started chemo again in MVY?

Each evening we would gather together and talk or have a presentation.  When anyone was talking, they would have to speak into the Teal Rose (which is more of a joke that anything.)  Hence we dubbed us the Teal Rose Society.  We all stayed up late and got up rather early.  Needless to say I didn't sleep much, but it was worth little sleep.  

We each had a time where we took a pottery class.  I'm so not into art like that, until I got working on it.  I actually had so much fun and can't wait to receive my finished product in a few weeks.

We also had an amazing massage.  I had a lot of time to relax, read and enjoy Boone.  One day we went to Woodlands BBQ, my very favorite in Blowing Rock.  It being blackberry season, we stopped to I could get me some Carolina blackberries, yum!

All in All we had a fabulous time.  I can't wait for the next one!

The sunrise was beautiful!