Our Next Meeting Will Be Tuesday, Feb. 14th.
Our special speaker for this meeting will be Samantha Wellman, who suffered man years from Crohn's Disease and had ostomy surgery in 2008. Using Pilates exercises and nutritional studies, she worked to regain her health. She will share her learnings with us. She is the owner of Samantha Pilates Studio, located in San Jose.
What Happened at
our Jan. 10th. Meeting
Our webmaster, Paul, presided over our January 10th, meeting. Our President, Peggy chose to not expose the rest of us to the virus that she was fighting, but we missed starting the new year with her at the head of the table.
Seventeen people attended the meeting, two of whom were ileostomy patients who were attending the group for the first time. After a time of introductions, the group spent the rest of the evening responding to questions and concerns raised by those present at the meeting. It was a good meeting, punctuated with a fair amount of laughter.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex, But were Afraid to Ask
A new feature in coming issues of Phoenix Magazine, is to be a column responding to questions about intimacy, raised by Ostomy Patients. Robin Handiboole will be preparing the column for the magazine. If you have questions (or stories) related to intimacy, you can share them with her at 708-343-3279 or at rccrusoe@yahoo.com.
Free Ostomy Supplies for the Uninsured
 It is Osto Group's mission to provide these limited donated supplies to those with no insurance coverage or reimbursement of any type. We will ask you to verify non-coverage upon entering the program and to re-certify it each time you order from us. We do this to assure that we are serving those who are truly in need and not just those who are looking for savings. Learn more by clicking on image to the right.
Should Ostomy Patients Use Public Swimming Pools?
This is a question that was raised in one of our earlier meetings, when a member reported that when he checked at the local community center as to whether he could use the pool while wearing an Ostomy appliance, he was denied use.
Your webmaster, through the UOAA, found a very helpful article in the June 2006 issue of The Aquatic Therapy Journal. The Aquatic Therapy Journal articles are peer reviewed to insure the highest quality information. One of the key conclusions from the article is the fact that, "Individuals with stomas are far less likely to cause contamination of swimming and therapy pools than are those who are anatomically intact."
Having read this article, it would seem that ostomy patients who do as the article suggests should have no fear of using public pools. This may be a case where the best policy is, "Don't Ask & Don't Tell." Or, if you are denied use, you might want to print out and share the article with those who set the rules for the pool.
Here is a link to The Aquatic Therapy Journal article.
A Time Tested Odor Control Method
We are all familiar with the old advice, "take two aspirin and call me back in the Morning." Well, aspirin is also an effective cure for pouch odor. But you don't take it by mouth. Instead, after emptying and wiping the pouch, you simply drop one or two aspirin into the pouch. The next time you empty the pouch the odor will have largely gone away. This method has been around for quite a while, but maybe we need to remind people of this time tested odor control method. Try it, it works.
For best results, use cheap, generic, uncoated aspirin. Use the kind that dissolve quickly.
Travel Information Cards
This is provided to travelers in order to simplify communication with federal Transportation Security personnel and airline flight attendants, at those times when you wish or need to communicate in a non-verbal way, as is your legal right. Download and print cards
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