Presidents message: March-April 2018 Happy almost spring. I sure hope everyone missed getting the flu. As usual, we have been quite busy behind the scenes; setting up nursing school presentations, setting up a “lunch and learn” session with the nursing school students at Regis (the instructor will be watching and if she likes us enough she will have us come speak at the their regular med/surg. classes like we do at CU),setting up presentations for the pharmacy students at CU, and attending to our beginning of the year “chores”. At the beginning of every year we have to complete these chores to make sure our support group can continue to function, which include; paying our dues to the UOAA, filing forms with the government so that we can keep our tax exempt status, renewing our contract with Porters, and reviewing our list of members to determine which members are dues paying and which are not, so that we can get our newsletter to the appropriate people. We have been promising for quite some time that we would have the visitor certification class after the first of the year. So as promised, the class will be at the March meeting. We are going to book 2 rooms for the two sections of the meeting; In one room will be those who don’t wish to attend the certification, and we will try to have a product representative for the first half and then Charlotte can take over and have an open Q&A session. In the other room will be the visitor certification class, and if you attend, please be prepared for it to last at least the full 2 hours and in addition, you must be a paid member to become certified. It is also important to understand that we do our visitations when requested to do so but that recently, we have not been called for any. This is definitely perplexing as we used to be called upon quite often. In trying to problem solve this situation, the only thing that I can come up with is that many of the doctors and WOCN’s that used to recommend us have retired and the new group doesn’t know about us. We tried sending out letters of introduction to more than 50 physician groups without any responses. Our guess is that our letters went straight into the circular file and the doctors never saw them. We the board believe that we need to start marketing ourselves. This is going to take time and volunteers. I am hoping to set up a meeting with all who are interested in helping so that we can make a list of doctors, directors of nursing at different hospitals, directors of nursing homes, anyone we can think of. This is such a valuable program that we offer. Everyone who has had a visitor has said how much it helped. Those who hear about the program but didn’t have a visitor have shared that they wish the option had been given to them. If you are interested in helping to make phone calls and join us in getting this rolling, please let me know. I want to start this ASAP. Please let me know if you are planning on participating in the visitor certification program so that I have enough books and forms available. It is with heavy heart that I now inform every one of the passing of two of our beloved members: Carol McClennan passed on Jan 10th of complications of ruptured gastric ulcers. Lloyd Eicher passed on Jan 31st. Lloyd has been a longtime member and has been quite active over the years in our group, having been a member of the board and a certified visitor. In the words of one of our board members and longtime friend of Lloyd’s, “Our meetings were always brighter with Lloyd. I will really miss him. He was one of the sweetest meant I know.” I couldn’t have put it any better; Lloyd will be missed. At the February 27th support group meeting it was so exciting to see so many new faces so welcome to our new members. Our sound system was not working properly for some reason but it is fixed now. I am sorry to everyone who was having a hard time hearing. Dr. Nandi gave an awesome presentation. He is a huge supporter of our organization. There are so many exciting things coming up in the next few months. Please look for my emails. We have been asked to participate in some surveys for the UOAA, more information to follow very soon. Thank you for all of your support and for being the BEST group ever You are all what keep us successful. Thank you to those who signed up to bring treats. I will send you a reminder before the meeting. If you find you are unable to attend the meeting you signed up for, no worries, there are many who will take your place, just give me some notice. Hope you all can take some time to watch our flowers starting to come in as spring comes upon us. Enjoy the snow that is expected to come in the next few month—this is Colorado. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting. Thank you for everything, Eileen Goldberg, RN President Ostomy Association of Metro Denver, Inc. 303-489-0636 ejgoldberg@comcast.net
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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