Course on Living With or After Cancer at Montebello Center

Last week was a wonderful course called "Kreft - en ny hverdag". It was a week long, intense course with an over-arching plan that built from "What do you expect from this week?" to "How were your expectations met?"

I asked my oncologist to send in the request for me about a year ago, and was so happy when I got the notice that I was in! Montebello is in Mesnali, Norway. It's just southeast of Lillehammer, known for the 1994 winter Olympics, and then the TV series Lilyhammer. I was looking forward to NOT cooking and cleaning for my lazy self. The weather was cold, about 2 degrees C average, plus or minus 3 degrees. Snow covered the ground. We were lucky to have blue skies the first two days, and only one brief snow shower during the week.

Montebellosenteret

We had sit-down auditorium sessions with PowerPoint slides that my Google camera could translate for me if I didn't understand some words. Then we had 10 break-out groups of 5 people to discuss topics and report out. Our group named ourselves "Glede" - "Happiness". We had a lung-cancer doctor talk one day. He reassured me about my upcoming chemotherapy. Yes, I can still hug people!

Here's the most geeky slide of them all, from the lung cancer specialist, and, for you, dear readers, it's in English. There is so much progress happening now! Please don't shutter cancer research, USA.

I enjoyed the "food-talk" session in the kitchen training room. I loved their cauliflower-sweet potato soup! I have already cooked it here at home. They said we should make a weekly plan for 3 meals a day, buy the supplies and follow it. That was one of the first things (after laundry) on my to-do list! 

Soup topped with toasted pumpkin seeds, coriander and lemon juice

There were brochures, if we wanted them. You know me, paper is my friend! I picked up ones on the issues around dying that I wanted to understand, which were not directly addressed in the lectures. I also got a couple on sexuality, just to balance that out! We learned relaxation techniques and when I asked if I could buy the recording, Veronica got a doubtful look. She said, "If you have a CD player." I said, "I'm old, of course I have a CD player!" I've used the relaxation CD once since I've been home. Probably should move my CD player closer to the bed, though. ;-) Going even more paperless, I learned about a Facebook group for Tagrisso users, and joined it.

They made us exercise, too! We had a session of walking around the very hilly neighborhood, stopping at intervals to stand on our toes, do knee-bends or learn other types of movements. The next neighborhood walk was longer. We ended up at a graveyard where Sigrid Undset, a Nobel Prize-winning author from the 20s, is buried. Another day, we alternated using stretchy bands on the terrace with walking  up and down the entry road. I was quite sore after that one. There is a very good gym in Montebello Center, too, which I used a couple of times. 

We had evening events that were fun. One was a sleigh ride! The sleigh had wheels, with torches at the four corners and furs on the seats. We walked down the road. The horses were very calm. When a garbage truck drove by us, not one of them spooked!

Another one was a Lavvo Evening. A lavvu or lavvo is like a tall yurt that the Sami people use in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. Samis are similar to our Native Americans. They are most known for herding reindeer. The lavvo has a fire pit in the middle and a smoke hole in the roof - very cosy. They hung a big pot over the fire to boil water, then made what they call "real coffee" by pouring the grounds into the pot and stirring it with a stick from the fire. I declined.  The next day, we had an outdoor lunch outside the lavvo, with the same "real coffee". I still declined. Where's my cappuccino? 

Our final dinner was quite nice. We could even buy alcohol: wine or beer! 

Many thanks to our two wonderful leaders, Veronica and Jane!