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Greetings Fellow Earthlings,
Every couple of years I feel obligated to explain my salutation and that time has come again. It is a play on the acronym of those longsuffering caregivers for our group, the ET nurses. ET's - Earthlings... enough explanation already. Of course now they are known as WOCN's but that is a little tougher to find a counterpart to. Of course my greeting is not meant to exclude ET/WOC nurses. After all they are people too and us ostomates displeasure them at our own peril. 'Nuf said.
I would like to mention the conference. It was a blast as these things generally are. People who overcome adversity really know how to throw a party. Of course the conference had its serious side and the sessions were in-treating and informative. Mind you there was this one session on Gas (no not petroleum products)...what is it about some bodily functions that make you want to giggle (more on this later). The presenter, Lisa Abel (WOCN/RNET) has a great sense of humour, something I look for in an ostomy nurse.
Kudos to the conference team for putting together a great presentation and to Jim Degeer for heading up the show. Jim and his team worked hard and he was awarded the Maple Leaf award for his efforts both in helping to organize the conference and his work for this chapter. Congratulations Jim!
At this time I would like to mention our website. Our website has been running for a year now and contains the articles from the newsletter as well as meeting information and links to other ostomy sites. I have mentioned our site before and the site address is printed on the front page under the newsletter title but just to make sure here it is again:
WWW.GEOCITIES.COM/COQCON
(Of course if you are reading this here you already know that)
I expect the next time I check the stats on this page to see a BIG jump (thanks!) in the hits (visits for web neophytes) and make sure to sign the guestbook.
As I promised earlier, we are not finished with gas. In the spirit of Lisa Abel's presentation our feature article this month is about a doctor who dedicated years of research to the subject of flatulence. This article is from a newspaper report and deals with the subject in an informative yet lighthearted way (how else, after all, 'gas' rises).
The next several articles are mainly for new ostomates but may remind us veterans where we came from. The Phases of Surgical Recovery is adapted from the classical phases of loss. It may seem peculiar to compare losing your intestine to losing a loved one but the psychology is very similar. The next article is a story of inspiration from former Vice President and urostomate, Hubert Humphry. In it he reminds us that adaptation to life with an ostomy is an ongoing process. All of us struggle from time to time with the psychological effects of our operation but we progress by looking forward to new possibilities not backward to what might have been. Next we have a compilation of advice for ostomates of all types to help cope with the challenges of life with an ostomy and finally a personal story of possibility achieved by our own Ev Zaklan.
Let me close by offering my apologies to those persons who were trying to find the picnic at Evelyn?s place last June. It seems the third and fourth numbers in the address were transposed. I copied it from Jim's column - I swear. I guess I should have known better since the previous time I did that he left out a number AND I MISSED IT! Oh well, better luck next time. For future reference Ev lives between King George Highway and 132 Street.
Until next time, Stay Well
Bob