PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MAY/JUNE 2018 WOW!! What a busy and exciting 2 months we have had. Announcements -I am so excited and proud to announce that our very own Charlotte Popovich has been awarded the WOCN of the year 2018 by the United Ostomy Association of America. Nominations were sent in from all over the country and our Charlotte won. This as a well deserved honor and we are so fortunate to have such an incredible person as our own WOCN. She will be presented with the award at the 50th National WOCN Convention June 3rd-June 6th in Philadelphia, Pa. Congratulations, Charlotte! -I am happy to announce that Sam Swears has agreed to take on the position of VP on the board. Welcome to John Vasu and Maureen William as the newest members to the board. They are a great addition to our group and we feel lucky to have them on the board. -Debbie Conaway has stepped down from the board effective April 30, 2018 and she will be sorely missed. Debbie has served the last three years with dedication and love to the board and all of our members. She leaves behind big shoes to fill. She promises that she will still give hugs at the support group meetings. -The
Ostomy Association of Metro Denver, Inc. has always had medical advisors who
have been available to speak at support group meetings and are available to us
to answer medical questions. Dr’s Brown
and Sellers have been our medical advisors for at least 10 years. I have contacted them and they would like to
continue as medical advisors and Dr. Sellers will be setting up a time to come
speak to us. I am very excited to announce that Dr. Santosh
Nandi has agreed to come on as a medical advisor also. In addition, Angela Waliszewski, Registered
Dietitian has agreed to be a medical advisor.
We are honored to have them join us. -We have established a committee to handle revising our visitor program. We will be revising it to make it more user and presenter friendly. Thank you to Jay Boscoe, John Vasu, Maureen Williams and James Kroner for volunteering their time to help with this. Please be patient with us, while we get things established. We will be getting more opportunities for visitations when we are done with this process. -Support Group formations:-CU med center is in the process of forming a support group. It is backed by their doctors and will be administrated by their WOCNs. Patty Smith and I met with them and are helping them with this process. -Boulder has established a support group which is experiencing great success. I will be their guest speaker May 17th and I am very excited to support their group. -Longmont has a support group also. They contacted us for some assistance in obtaining speakers, so we will be helping them as needed. B Braun is a company that produces ostomy supplies, and they have been in Europe for 40 years. They are in the process of trying to get into the USA market. Gloria Martinez from b Braun came to speak at our last support group meeting. If you would like to receive free samples of the product please send me an email and I will get you connected with them. An RN will call you and get you set up with the best product for you. -Additional presentations that we have been involved in over past 2 months: Patty Smith, Jay Boscoe, Sam Swears and Wendi Shattil gave the CU nursing school presentations in April. As always, the feedback was quite positive. The next proposed presentations will be in the fall. We are working our way down the list of people who would like to be presenters. -WOCN monthly meeting: Sam Swears, Tracey Sloan and I gave a presentation to the WOCN monthly meeting. So many of the WOCN’s don’t know about us and this was a great opportunity to introduce our support group and visitor program. We were very well received though we definitely needed more time. They are planning on having us back at another meeting where we can have the entire meeting to speak.
-CU school of pharmacy: we are supposed to be giving a presentation to pharmacy students at CU school of pharmacy May 1st.
-Swedish Hospital Nursing Staff meeting: Maureen Williams RN and I are scheduled to give a presentation to the 8th floor medical staff on May 16th at 7am as to what its like to be an ostomate and how the nursing staff can help us.
-Crohn’s/Colitis Foundation Take Steps Walk:
-Once again, we have been invited by the Crohn’s /Colitis Foundation to participate in their run/ walk event which will be held May 19th at Coors Field from 7:30am -12:00pm. They are giving us a booth so that we can introduce ourselves to the community. We will have lots of pamphlets, handouts and volunteers to answer questions. Please let me know if you would like to be a volunteer. You can volunteer at the booth only, do the run/walk only or both volunteer at the booth and do the run/walk. You can register for the run/walk now. Please contact me if you would like to register for the run/walk. Registration is free. Donations are encouraged and tax deductible. We did this last year and had a great time. Once I know who is volunteering, I will send the information as to where to park and where our booth will be. This is a worthwhile cause and a good way for people to connect with us. Last year we actually had a person “in crisis” with her ulcerative colitis whose doctor wanted her to get a colostomy but she was scared. After talking to us she said she thought she was going to call her doctor and get it scheduled.
-THE PICNIC: EVERY YEAR WE TRY TO HAVE A PICNIC SO THAT WE CAN GET TOGETHER ,EAT, DRINK AND SOCIALIZE WITH OUR FAMILIES, CARE GIVERS CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN. IT IS ALWAYS A GREAT TIME.
THIS YEAR IT WILL BE JULY 29TH AT CLEMENT PARK FROM 2PM-6PM. WE HAVE A SHELTER NEXT TO THE BATHROOM AND NEAR PARKING. FOOD, WATER, LEMONADE WILL BE PROVIDED FROM DONATIONS FROM MANY OF OUR PRODUCT REPRESENTATIVE AND COMPANY REPRESENTATIVES. FAZOLI’S WILL BE CATERING OUR FOOD AND DRINK. PLEASE MARK YOU CALENDAR FOR THIS VERY ENJOYABLE TIME. IF WEATHER COOPERATES WE WILL TRY TO HAVE
SOME GAMES LIKE CROQUET AND VOLLEY BALL. MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW. PLEASE
RSVP: WITH NAME AND NUMBER BY JUNE 30TH. LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE.
-FYI: All speakers for the meetings are set up by the board. The usual process is that if you have someone in mind or would like to speak that you contact me and I run it by the board. We have specifics guidelines that we are expected to follow per the UOAA.
-THE BOARD RECENTLY LOOKED BACK AT ALL THAT OUR GROUP HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE PAST YEAR. WITHOUT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, WE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH ANY OF THIS. THANK YOU FOR MAKING OUR SUPPORT GROUP A SAFE PLACE FOR OSTOMATES TO RECEIVE SUPPORT.
Hope everyone is well,
Eileen Goldberg RN, President
Why come to a meeting? Quotes from members- “From the first meeting I went to before my surgery I have been so blessed to meet such open, honest and caring people. People who I can share my worries, concerns & triumphs of my ostomy. I can't imagine going through this journey without all of them. One can't possibly go to a meeting and feel like you don't fit in. Not only does it feel good to go and get advice, but I think it feels even better to go and give to someone just starting out on the journey.” Tracey Sloan (member) "One of the most important things that helped me was the magazine for ostomates called The Phoenix, (I was sent home from the hospital with an issue, but too afraid to even open the folder that would tell me of ‘all’ the things that, at that time, were disgusting to me). I didn’t open that folder for over a month after my surgery. When I did open it and begin to read ‘everything’ that was in it, I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t believe all this information was written down, and much of it was exactly what I was feeling! I read that issue of The Phoenix from cover to cover, and then went online to the UOAA. So much information was available to me! I called the local support group, and talked to Steve Johnson, (the President) who took at least 45 minutes of his precious time to talk and share with me. He, too, had a colostomy. Hearing him talk openly of something I was so ashamed of was very comforting. He encouraged me to attend a meeting, and meet others who have also been there and who are currently there. The support group was invaluable to me! Debbie Conway (member) See her entire article Several years ago, during a visit with my physician, he asked me, “What kind of exercise are you getting?” I said, “I’m playing on a softball team for guys 45 and over.” To which he replied, “Softball! That’s not exercise….that’s’ a social event!” I couldn’t really argue with him and we both chuckled about it. Not long after this humorous exchange with my doctor, I came down with a very nasty case of Ulcerative Colitis. Jim Folsom article (member) See his entire article
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