No, not the movie with Julia Roberts, but the “Pelican Brief” newsletter published by Pelican Healthcare UK and distributed free to it’s mailing list members and customers.

In the latest issue – #17 – Oland receives a nice feature in the “Web Watch” section. Other features in this 4 page, A4 newsletter is a Q&A session with Specialist Care Nurse Jane Cadogan from University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff (theres lovely now…), as well as a feature on World Ostomy Day 2009, the latest products from Pelican, and a list of some local Ostomy support groups or Open Days for various locations including Southend-on-Sea, Wythenshawe (Manchester), Newcastle, Merthyr Tydfil, Ipswich, Harrogate, Newport, Norfolk and Birmingham.

For your free copy of the Pelican Brief give Pelican Healthcare a call on 0800 052 7471. Please note that although Pelican’s products are now available worldwide thanks to a deal with Eakin, I think their newsletter is distributed to UK only residents.

Hey folks! Fuzzbutt here again with another one of my top tips but this time instead of being a top tip about physical care for your stoma and ostomy, I’m offering you a digital tidbit for your consideration!

Try as we might here at Ostomyland to be the only Ostomy site you need, we do realise that we dont have all the information for all sections of society or for all countries. And this is what my top tip is about – where to find information/support on the topics you need from other ostomy sites!

If you are looking for information about Ostomies, be it on rarer or specific aspects of an Ostomy lifestlye, or even your common-or-garden topics then you could do far worse than to visit Ostomy Links.

Ostomy Links has just been given a brand new makeover but continues to aim to provide links to as many, if not all, the many various Ostomy websites, MSN/Yahoo Groups, single-pages and full blown Ostomy communities on the net. Whether you are looking for info on rare health conditions that lead to a Stoma in their treatment, or specific less-featured lifestyle aspects of Ostomy support such as Gay and Lesbian Ostomate support groups, or the desire to find a support group in your local area wherever in the world you may be, then you really should give Ostomy Links a visit.

Useful Links:
Ostomy Links – http://www.ostomylinks.co.uk
Ostomyland’s Own Web-Links Page

Pelican Healthcare have been in touch and have told us that their products are now available worldwide thanks to a new distrubution deal with it’s parent company Eakin! So if you are interested in their products but live outside the UK, don’t worry, as you can now get hold of them too!

Pelican also has a new ostomy product available. The Pelican Perform Solidifying Agent is designed for those with high output stomas and can help minimise the risk of leaks, especially at night, reduces odour and improves filter performance for ostomates.

Samples are available by phoning them down in Cardiff on Freephone 0800 052 7471 and I’ve updated their page on Ostomyland to include the new product and the great news that their products are now available worldwide instead of UK Only.

Useful Links:
Pelican Healthcare Website
Eakin Website
Oland’s Pelican Page

I’m delighted to be able to announce that the new Ostomyland Community message board is now live. You can access it via the links on the left hand side menu, or by visiting us directly at the new link of http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/

Thanks to everyone for their patience over the last 48 hour during our message board downtime. I hope you enjoy the new board with it’s many new features such as free blogs, integrated chat and integrated photo galleries. And of course we’ve not forgotten the Ostomy Support forums which are still there as always to offer advice and support from ostomates for ostomates.

The new blogs feature is going to be a great resource for ostomates to chart their progress since the operation, and to let future ostomates read what to expect pre-and-post op. And of course the blogs can be used for off topic blogging as well, I’m not limiting the use of them to ostomy-only content.

The galleries will feature all our members photos that they want to share with us, and will help future ostomates see how life goes on post op, and that having an Ostomy is not the end of the world.

The integrated chat room access link is a great boon to the board, giving members a simple one click access into the channel. When you are logged in you just need click on the Chat Room tab on the message board, and you’ll be taken directly into the room, with your board username as your chat room nickname.

There’s a lot of new features to the board, and I appreciate it’s a lot to get used to. To try and help members adjust to the new features I’ve created a series of “How-To” help videos, showing you how to use the new features of the board. You’ll find the videos in the board’s “New Board Tech Help” forum, the link to which is here:
http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?/forum/2-new-board-techie-help/