Ahhhh.... the week I anticipate all year is over. I am overwhelmed by a sense of camaraderie, exhaustion, joy, hope, and a great will to live. My life has been blessed to get to know so many amazing people with CF, and also "normies". This year our group was lucky enough to welcome about 10 new comers. We had 5 new CFers, all MEN! For the first time the females were outnumbered! We had so many people with CF this year. Often we are about even with how many non-CFers we have, who we need to help with our cross-infection guidelines and strategies to keep us all safe and germ free. But this year Monica and Jessica worked their buns off as there really were not as many as we have had in the past. Not everyone was there for the entire week, but we had great attendance this year. It gave me a lot of hope that this group will continue for years to come! The other amazing thing about our group was at one point we had 9 people with transplants... next year I will make it 10!!!!!
It was a strange experience for me to meet all these new people at this stage in my life, as i am not quite as spunky or energetic than i once was. I drag around Oxygen, and i cough a lot more and spend more time doing treatments. However, I am proud that I participated, had a good attitude, and enjoyed myself. It was so nice to escape the mundane-ness of my life on the list. It was the only safe place i could go to spend a nice week long vacation.
We had great rap sessions, arts and crafts, stress management, yoga, volleyball, wiffle ball, improv, and a wonderful one man show. We were honored to welcome Jordan Herskowitz to perform his one man show Jordy Pordy, which he performs to raise awareness for organ donation and cystic fibrosis. It was absolutely an amazing show. It was very close to my heart and my sister's heart as we are struggling through the same experiences that he has been through in his life. Lets just say there wasn't a dry eye in the audience by the end, and Sara and I made a ridiculous scene of the real authentic Ugly Cry. It was good for us to process and experience this together. We were both thankful that during the show we did not end up sitting next to each other because we would have been a blubbering mess!!! His show was not just touching, but also hilarious. He really combined the comedy and drama perfectly.
For some of the activities I had to sit out, to rest and nap and treatment instead. But i felt completely included and loved and that I made a great contribution to the community. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows how important each person at retreat is to me. They all teach me lessons about life, and to be happy to be alive, and give me the will to get to next year!
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