News Archive

End-of-Season Meeting, Ice Cream Social, and Election in June!

Please join us on Tuesday, June 2, 2009, for the last meeting prior to our summer break. Rather than our normal meeting with a speaker, this month we will be holding an Ice Cream Social: (Jen is bringing the ice cream, everyone else brings toppings) AND Elections will be held for President, Vice President, and Secretary.

Check out the new Newsletter Layout!

Thanks to Jen Higdon, the online newsletter layout has been reworked so that as you read it, the pages appear in correct numerical order (i.e. you'll see pages 2 and 3, then 4 and 5, etc. Prior issues were being delivered in the form to be printed and mailed, but it made it hard to read the newsletter online. Jen is now creating two versions, one for print, and one that is easy to read online.

Welcome to 2009!

Well, it's cold outside, but we keep the meeting room warm, so join us for one of our monthly meetings. Our vendor night is coming up on March 3rd, so that would be a great meeting to join us for the first time, or the first time in a while! Of course all our regulars are welcome as well. See ya then!

Summer Break is Over, Back to the Fun!

Our summer break is over, and our next meeting is Tuesday September 2. That's right, the day after Labor Day, so don’t let it sneak up on you. We have a great discussion meeting planned. Read the latest issue of the newsletter for more information.

Contact Request Form Fixed!

We had a problem with our contact request form earlier in the year, and I thought I had fixed it, but I was wrong. As of today (August 29,2008) it is once again working. If you tried to send a contact request and received an error, please try it again.
I would like to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
— Ed

Schedule Change

Our May meeting is our annual Vendors Fair. Please attend and take the opportunity to see the new products being released and to ask questions about your current vendor, products you use, or products you are interested in trying.

Schedule Change

Due to the New Years Holiday, our January 2008 meeting has been postponed until the SECOND Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 7:30. Please join us then.

Starting a New Season Right

Congratulations Jen!

As the 2007-2008 season gets started at the Triangle Ostomy Association, our trusty vice-president is showing us how to kick things off right. See the newsletter for her report on the UOA conference. On top of that, she had time and energy to apply for and win TWO scholarships so she can start graduate school this fall. More on that in the newsletter too.

THANK YOU TOM

by Jen Higdon

The Triangle Area Ostomy Association would really like to thank, Tom Rinkacs, our speaker from last month. He had a very inspiring story of living with Crohns and an ostomy. If you missed this meeting, it was a great one.

When Tom was here, he spoke about Marvin Bush (Former President Bush�s son) who has an ostomy. Read more about that on page 4 of this newsletter. For more of what Tom had to say, please see our Minutes on page 3.

Thanks again Tom for a great presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Newsletter "News" ???

We're two months into 2007 and this is the first "News" update of the year.

In case you hadn't noticed, our Newsletter has been written by Jennifer Higdon since March of 2006, but the News page hadn't been updated to reflect her work. I'd like to offer an apology for that oversight on my (the webmaster's) part, and a Big Thank You! to Jennifer for all her hard work on the newsletter.

Now, I've finally gotten busy and done some updates to the website, so I hope all of you will get busy and write up some contributions for Jennifer to use in the newsletter. She's always looking for helpful hints, interesting events, unusual experiences, and uplifting reflections. So please send her your tips, articles, stories, and ideas.

(You can use our Member Mail page if you don't have Jennifer's contact information.)

New Name, Same Great Group

With the dissolution of the United Ostomy Association in September of 2005, our group needed to change its name. At the January 2006 member meeting, several possible names were considered and after a vote, the name Triangle Ostomy Association was chosen along with the tag line Serving the Ostomy and J-Pouch Community.

New and Improved Newsletter

Thanks to the help of a new member (Anke Gassen) the newsletter for our chapter has been completely revamped. Anke has taken the good work that Jennifer Higdon started with our newsletter earlier in the year and added quite a visual punch. In addition to the improvements to the printed version of the newsletter, there is a parallel HTML version for easy web reading. The contents are the same, but the HTML version is easier to read online. If you want to check it out, go to our Newsletters page where you can find links to the downloadable version of the printed newsletter in .pdf format and the new HTML format as well.

If you loved the newsletter as produced for so many years by Ms. Lula Mangum, don't worry, the heart and soul of the newsletter is still there, it's just been given a little pick-me-up.

Thanks again to Lula for producing the newsletter for so long; thanks to Jennifer for keeping it going when Lula stepped down from editorship; and thanks to Anke for taking over monthly production of the newsletter. Jennifer will continue to help Anke produce the contents of the newsletter, and we might even sweet-talk Lula into contributing some copy as well on occasion. Of course, Anke and Jennifer will always be looking for other contributing authors, so if you have any ideas or content for the newsletter, please contact one of them. (You can use our Member Mail page if you'd like.)

J-Pouch / Ileoanal Pouch Support Group

The Raleigh Chapter of the United Ostomy Association would like to announce the formation of a new support group for people with J-Pouch or other types of Continent Diversions such as Kock pouch, BICR pouch, and other related internal pouches. This group will meet on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30pm. Meetings will be held in Raleigh, in the Surgical Waiting Room near the main entrance to Rex Hospital. This is the same time and location as the regular UOA Raleigh Chapter ostomy support group meetings. The two meetings will often be held separately but on occasion will be the same meeting as member interest and speakers vary.

All individuals with J-Pouches or other continent diversions, caregivers for those with continent diversions, potential candidates for continent diversions, or others with an interest in the subject are welcome to attend these meetings.

Please note that while the main UOA chapter does not meet during July or August, the J-Pouch / Continent Diversion Network group intends to meet each month, year-round.

For more information, please contact:

Dan Wiley: 919-477-8363

Lora Edgar: 919-451-1624

Flyers

We have recently added a number of flyers for the Raleigh Chapter of the UOA, the UOA Continent Diversion Network, and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. You can find these documents on our Resources page.