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| Coquitlam Connection |
| From the� Editor's Desk |
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| From Actual Medical Charts... The patient has no past history of suicides. The patient expired on the floor uneventfully. Patient has left his white blood cells at another hospital. She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December. The patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant. |
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| Greetings Fellow Earthlings, I thought of a really great opening for this month's missive but owing to a lack of writing material and a poor memory I can only offer a faint shadow of those thoughts. I feel a little like Samuel Coleridge writing Kubla Khan - or perhaps I am giving myself airs. I do love the Internet. It helps one appear so erudite. I looked up the spelling of Kubla Khan and Coleridge so you guys couldn't catch me out! I did suffer a technological Coleridge as I started writing this. Our dog, who is terrified of fireworks, tried to secret herself behind my computer in order to escape the noise and managed to interrupt the power. Then in the process of extracting her I somehow managed to cut the cable on my keyboard making it extremely hard to type. The words just weren't appearing on the screen. So here I am an hour later trying to recollect my thoughts. Fortunately for my poor memory I had only written a couple of lines and was able to recall the gist. On the menu this month we have a lengthy article on the safe use of herbal "medicines" by Barbara Cadario. Barbara has a BSc in Pharmacology and - if memory serves - she gave a talk at the UOA Canada conference in Vancouver in 2001. Unfortunately I cannot locate my conference guide to confirm that, but those of you with better memories or filing systems can check up on me. The article covers much of the material presented at the conference including dangers of adulteration and the pitfalls of standardization. Continuing in that vein, the next article in one on caffeine and health. Don't drink the decaffeinated stuff. I read another article that associated decaf statistically with increased risk of cancer. It was speculated that the decaffeination process might have something to do with it. Switching menu topics the next two articles talk more directly about ostomies. The first is on diuretics and ileostomies. It offers some handy hints to take to your doctor. The second is on various stoma problems and the treatments you could expect to receive. For dessert we have a nice serving of Ostomy Humour. It's a bit like Good Humour ice cream only funnier. Included is a link to a web site where you can read more and even submit your own funny stories. Before you go, don't forget to check the bulletin board for upcoming events including the Visitor Training session on November 23. Also check out the call for study subjects for a new type of skin barrier notice and as always if you can volunteer some time short or long term we can always use your talents. Until next time Stay Well Bob |