My Reach to Recovery Training
This past February has been filled with good news of several births (a Brandeis Univ. friend plus a former employee of our restaurant had babies) as well as a number of deaths. The year of the rat (starting on 2/7) doesn't seem very auspicious. After visiting a Chinese temple in Honolulu, my mom recently gave me some good luck symbols to place in my wallet & car -- we all could use more luck. My brother's step father-in-law died on Valentine's Day from lung cancer (he was only 54), my former monkey kung fu instructor who was living in Texas also died that day in a car crash -- he was married & only 37. Pete's uncle & a cousin on Oahu also passed away a few weeks ago. A breast cancer volunteer I had met in 2006 passed away after her cancer had spread -- she was only 40 with 3 children. Plus other losses of family members of a former employee & current employee...a lot of sad news.
On 2/23, I woke up around 5 am to catch a flight to Honolulu with Sally, another survivor, for an all-day volunteer training for Reach to Recovery (R2R), a program of the American Cancer Society. Pete was able to take off from the restaurant to watch Kailee as well as my brother's kids. There were only 2 of us from the Big Island who attended this all-day new volunteer training at the Queen's Medical Center. Trainers from the mainland were there to train about 15 survivors to conduct outreach to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. The training went well -- it was great to see other positive survivors in one room. We learned about guidelines on how to communicate with patients & did some role playing -- there were questions about how much to talk about our own experience & that we had to emphasize that we were there to offer factual info to help them make future choices regarding their care & recovery, but not to offer medical advice. The main goal of R2R is to provide personal contact to someone who may need info, hope & reassurance to get them through the early stages of their breast cancer experience. Although I am a bit nervous to take on my first contact, I hope I can be of help to someone in the future. I still remember how overwhelming it was to try to find & digest all the info needed to make the best decisions, plus not personally knowing survivors (especially around my own age & similar circumstance). I'm the type that needs to research & analyze before I can feel OK about going forward -- maybe I over analyze at times, but that's just me.
Still debating about organizing our family & friends for a team for the Relay for Life overnight event happening July 19-20, the weekend right after my 40th bday. Might be a lot of work fundraising & dealing with logistics. But it'll be a great cause & something totally different & meaningful for our family...
On 2/23, I woke up around 5 am to catch a flight to Honolulu with Sally, another survivor, for an all-day volunteer training for Reach to Recovery (R2R), a program of the American Cancer Society. Pete was able to take off from the restaurant to watch Kailee as well as my brother's kids. There were only 2 of us from the Big Island who attended this all-day new volunteer training at the Queen's Medical Center. Trainers from the mainland were there to train about 15 survivors to conduct outreach to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. The training went well -- it was great to see other positive survivors in one room. We learned about guidelines on how to communicate with patients & did some role playing -- there were questions about how much to talk about our own experience & that we had to emphasize that we were there to offer factual info to help them make future choices regarding their care & recovery, but not to offer medical advice. The main goal of R2R is to provide personal contact to someone who may need info, hope & reassurance to get them through the early stages of their breast cancer experience. Although I am a bit nervous to take on my first contact, I hope I can be of help to someone in the future. I still remember how overwhelming it was to try to find & digest all the info needed to make the best decisions, plus not personally knowing survivors (especially around my own age & similar circumstance). I'm the type that needs to research & analyze before I can feel OK about going forward -- maybe I over analyze at times, but that's just me.
Still debating about organizing our family & friends for a team for the Relay for Life overnight event happening July 19-20, the weekend right after my 40th bday. Might be a lot of work fundraising & dealing with logistics. But it'll be a great cause & something totally different & meaningful for our family...
posted by goforsushi @ 4:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home