Saturday, October 6th is a day for people who live with ostomies to educate others and celebrate life with peers around the nation and world.
On Saturday, join a Virtual Picnic hosted by the United Ostomy Associations of America, Inc., the national organization of ostomy support groups, at its Facebook Page .
Local ostomy support groups will be hosting open houses, picnics, educational meetings: The UOAA has published a partial list of events and advocacy actions occurring around the nation here.
At its annual Clinical Congress this week, the American College of Surgeons announced a new Ostomy Home Skills Kit for patients, including a sample to practice with, and for providers, a Skills Education Program providing evidence-based knowledge, checklists and skills training so patients can be prepared before surgery.
Read “Living Life to the Max With an Ostomy” with a sidebar by Kate Murphy—an ostomate who swam daily–in Fight Colorectal Cancer’s Spring 2012 Newsletter .
And you might want check in with nationally known speaker, book author, comedienne, rectal cancer survivor Brenda Elsagher, at her website .
About 100,000 ostomies—including both temporary or permanent—are created every year for people having several types of cancer and bowel diseases. As Kate Murphy wrote about having an ostomy, “When necessary, it can be both life-saving and livable.”
Sources: United Ostomy Associations of America, Inc.; and Oct. 4 2012 Daily Edition News, Clinical Congress Annual Meeting of the American College of Surgeons.
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