What Drugs Are You On?

Today Colleen and I went to our first support group meeting. There were 4 other women with breast cancer there plus a facilitator. The room was set up much like someone’s living room. I had a feeling that maybe this wasn’t going to be for me as soon as the facilitator started. She said that she likes to have someone light a candle at the beginning of each meeting…something about having a small light during what can be a time of darkness. Ok, I don’t mean to be disrespectful but I almost turned to Colleen to ask when they were going to bring the Ouiji board out but I knew if I made eye contact with her, I would burst out laughing.

The meeting then went into introductions and then focused on feelings. We were paired up for four minute conversations with each person and were given topics to discuss i.e. What are you afraid of? What do you need? How has the diagnosis changed your life? I can see this forum as being very beneficial for some of the women in the group because they feel that they can’t express their true feelings to their friends and family. I, on the other hand, really haven’t held anything back from anyone so I didn’t feel that that part of the meeting was very beneficial for me. At the end of the meeting, the facilitator had everyone stand together around the candle then had someone blow it out. Again, no eye contact with Colleen.

I guess I was hoping for more conversations like, What drugs are you on? What kind of tumor did you have? Who’s your oncologist? How are your kids coping? Maybe we’ll get there. I’ve decided to give the group another try next week.

me