Uoa newsletter nov 2000

Antelope Valley
Ostomy News
atw@antelecom.net November
Local News…~ by Ann Wright, RN,
CWOCN, CNS, Editor Lancaster News
December 9th (Saturday)
Annual Christmas Party! Mark your
calendars now for the event of the season!
Our AV Ostomy Group Christmas party will November greetings, everyone! I hope you be held at the Hacienda Mobile Home Park are all doing well. As the season changes, it is now time to get ready for the “H” – word…yes, the holiday season is soon charity to support, and have a potluck feast! November 18 (Saturday
cordially invited to attend a party in honor of our friend Augusta May who will be celebrating her 65th birthday. Augusta is traveling back to Lancaster from Stockton for this special occasion. Augusta invites all her special Ostomy support group friends, January 21st (Sunday), 2007!
(old and new) to join us in the celebration! Happy New Year – We will have our
This potluck get- together will be in lieu of our regular meeting Sunday, Nov. 19th. The at 2PM in the meeting room at the Senior gathering will be held at the clubhouse at Ave. J-8 in Lancaster. The party starts at So!! We have lots going on. I would like to November 19th (Sunday) - NO REGULAR
to join us for our get-together November SUPPORT GROUP MEETING THIS
MONTH! We will reconvene at our regular
support group meeting on the third Sunday of January, from 2-4 PM at the Senior Center in Lancaster. Lancaster UOA Newsletter
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Anticipate the negative. There are negative Via: The Innermost News, Monterey City & the G.B. life with an ostomy (leakage, skin irritation, charge and live a happier life—despite happen if you didn’t have an ostomy. The overall health, happiness and productivity. Be a person, not a patient. Make this the CONTINUE YOUR SOCIAL LIFE WITH AN
person who has had ostomy surgery, not an Via: The Pouch, N. Virginia & GB News Review Your social life can be as active as it was patient is when you’re in the doctor’s office before surgery. You can enjoy all activities: see yourself living with an ostomy is an meetings, parties, religious occasions, or whatever you enjoyed before. The first time ostomy affects you and your life - Identify you go out of the house after surgery, you the ways that your ostomy causes problems may feel as if everyone is staring at your appliance, even though it is not visible and then determine how you’re going to appliance on your body, but no one can see Set overall goals for improving your life: it. Keep these questions in mind: Did you situation. Improve your coping style. Set stoma was located or what it looked like goals. Aim to regain control of your life. Do colostomies or ileostomies, you may also worry about your pouch filling with gas and less time with things you dislike. Enhance sticking out under your clothing. A quick trip participation in your social network. Improve pouch filling up immediately after eating at a social event, remember, people without ostomies often need to go to the restroom after eating, and nobody will think it is difficulties that you are having living with unusual if you do the same. You probably will find that you need to empty your pouch the left side of a folded piece of paper. On less often than you need to urinate. You may be wondering about your relationships with others. Now that you have an ostomy, you may feel that it will change your present you can. Ask others for additional ideas, opportunities for friendship and love. True friendships and deep relationships on any Lancaster UOA Newsletter
understanding. These qualities depend on you and other persons. You have the same 13. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his
qualities you had before surgery, and your ability to develop friendships is unchanged. 14. Circumvent (n.), the opening in the
If you care about yourself, others will feel your strength and will not be deterred. If 15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that,
when you die, your soul goes up on the roof friendship, a relationship, or even marriage, this relationship was not built on trust and 16. Pokemon (n), A Jamaican proctologist.
crumbled some time in the future anyway. A “SOFT TOUCH” ALL WINTER
Via: Los Ileos News & Hemet– San Jacinto, CA Winter skin problems can occur whether you are indoors or out, male or female, young or older. Here is some advice from several prominent dermatologists. * The dry skin syndrome affects only the top layer of skin, the stratum corneum. It is as thin as tissue paper and it is composed of flattened dead cells manufactured in the layer below. Water and body oil move from “WORD PLAY” ~Oliver Goldsmith (Sincere
the live skin to the outer layer. The oil keeps the water from evaporating quickly 1. Coffee (n.), a person who is coughed
and it is the water that makes skin moist. * Moist or dry skin is due, in large part to 2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how
3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever
skin. Oddly enough, winter skin problems 4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an
moisture, and draws it from every available source. The skin is a natural target. Here 5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.
are some easy to follow hints to make life 6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition
7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.
humidity can protect your skin. If you have 8. Gargoyle (n.), an olive flavored
central heating, you can add a humidifying 9. Flatulence (n.) the emergency vehicle
humidifier for your rooms. They are very that picks you up after you are run over by helpful in bedrooms and can keep you from 10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding
3. Substitute a quick shower, or at least a short warm bath for a long hot soak in the 11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on
tub. Take it easy with the bath soap in the winter. A luxurious lather feels good to the 12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified
Lancaster UOA Newsletter
touch but is bad for your skin because it care will become just a normal part of your washes away the skin’s own protective oils. 4. Apply a moisturizer to the skin right after * Basic management skills can be learned, the bath or shower. (Ostomates, omit the product you really like and use it faithfully. and managed as they occur. With time and The only part of the skin that dries out is the say. Of course, you know to drink enough * You are alive! You will get better and stronger. Give yourself time to get over 5. Invest in a good pair of rubber gloves ostomy surgery and to adjust to this body and use them for those cleaning agent and solvent jobs. Wear gloves when outdoors. If your hands are extremely dry, sleep in cotton gloves after putting on cream. 6. Avoid too tight clothing. They rub against dry winter skin; it itches, you scratch, the THE FUNGUS AMONG US!
By Kathy Dahn, RN, Riverside HealthCare Via: With frostbite, warm the area with blankets, My patients frequently tell me how good it outdoors. Have a happy comfortable winter. itchiness at that point is normal. What is not somewhere that itching dry skin can be helped by putting some oatmeal in a small wearing it. There can be several reasons cloth sack and let it stand in your bath for this but one of the most common is a water. It seems to relieve the itching. fungal infection. This is not a cause for panic!! Many people worry that having a POINTERS FOR THE NEW OSTOMATE
Via: Big Sky Informer & Hemet-San Jacinto, CA not clean and that is simply not the case. * There is no answer for “Why me?” but it is normal to ask the question and you do need dark and moist—a great description of the * Each person’s ostomy is different, even as The peristomal skin (the skin around the stoma) will usually be a “hot pink” or strawberry-red when a fungal infection is there may be places where the top layer of * It is your ostomy; learn to manage it and wound which is red and moist (and tender). don’t let your ostomy manage you. In the beginning, it is normal for your ostomy care in different ways with the main difference to be the center of your existence; however, with time and practice your ostomy and its Lancaster UOA Newsletter
cream product. Regardless of whether you you remove the paper backing. There is no will probably not adhere for as long a period special amount of time that you will need to say, “Fore-warned is fore-armed”, so If you have had your ostomy for years and (Mycostatin) powder is a product that will areas which are open and moist. To use the efficient as we age. In addition, increased skin well, then apply a light “dusting” of the the “bad germs” but wipes out our normal flora– the “good germs” that normally can place your appliance directly over the live in our body. Our normal flora help to keep the “bad germs” in check so when over the powder to help achieve a tighter the normal flora is decreased; the fungus seal. Another method is to apply Lotrisone can take over—sort of a “when the cat is away, the mice will play” scenario And of is a combination product with clotrimazole (steroid) to decrease the itching. By the perspiration. I hope this helps to clarify some of the confusion about “the fungus fungal infection, they are frequently so that we elect to use the Lotrisone to give Directions to Marty and Gerry’s:
Hacienda Mobile Home Park
you’re probably thinking….but Lotrisone is a slip right off.and you’re right! To help the Lotrisone with a “second skin” - Extra 20th St east, turn right. Turn left on J-8 and then right into the Hacienda mobile home just what it says it is—it is very thin and it park. The clubhouse is directly in front of Ave. K exit, turn right. Go east on Ave K to 20th street east and turn left. Stay in right edges of the Duoderm can be secured with lane and turn right onto J-8. Then right into using the Extra Thin Duoderm: if you are directly in front of the entrance. Marty and accommodate your stoma, you will need to cut the hole smaller than usual as the

Source: http://www.avosg.org/newsletters/avosg-news-nov-06.pdf