This online survey is the second phase in a consultation that is seeking the views of a broad range of stakeholders, including patients, carers, user groups, health care professionals and the public.

Hurry! This survey will be available here until Friday 12th March 2010.
https://web.questback.com/royalcollegeofnursing/flgc0ec6ds/

  Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 Jason D.

The disadvantages of this must surely be a risk of leakage if the tube is dislodged. But – if it works – the advantages would be a much greater choice of where to attach the bag. Maybe it could be adapted to move the bag simply to a more convenient place on the abdomen, or even a night drainage system. It could allow raw skin to heal.

You can view the application here:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2010/0022975.html

The drawings in the PDF document give a much better idea of what it’s all about.

Is this the future? What do you think?

Despite the name of the programme, the aim of the piece was to portray ostomies in a positive light, and that a lot of the preconceived ideas people have about colostomy patients is false. The piece showed the young lady swimming with her pouch, as well as showing the viewer what today’s average colostomy pouch looks like, and also a colostomy stoma.

On the whole it was a very positively represented piece, and worthwhile viewing for anyone whom is awaiting ostomy surgery.

In case you’ve missed it, here is the full 3 minute clip for you. I’d love to know what you think about the programme’s portrayal of a stoma. Was it positive enough? Should it have featured more than one ostomate? Maybe an Ileostomate too? Or maybe it should have also shown some of the negative issues some ostomates experience after surgery, such as leakage? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to use the comments system at the end of this post.

If interested phone Tann Research (xxx) and ask for Hailey, or email Annette.

Update: This study has now closed so the contact details have been removed.

  Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 Jason D.

As promised today is the day I’m launching v2.0 of the wiki. The links on the menu on the left hand side have been updated, and you can also click here to go to it. As with all wiki’s this is a project that is a continual work in progress, it isnt an exhaustaive Ostomy encyclodpaedia… yet. And also like other wiki’s YOU (yes you, the one reading this!) can add and edit pages. Full instructions are on the wiki homepage. If you do create a page, dont worry over the formatting, I’ll tidy it all up if anything goes wrong. Just have fun playing with it.

v2.0 of the wiki contains almost 250 pages of ostomy related health and product related information. Thats over 100 pages more than it’s previous incarnation.

Version 2 of the Wiki brings a software upgrade with lots of new features and ease of use-updates included, and  a brand new graphical design which makes the whole wiki far more appealing to look at, and less clinical than the current one. Also, there is a major content update which will see v2 of the wiki launching with over 250 pages of ostomy-related material which is an increase of approximately 75 pages over the current wiki.

The new wiki is now in final testing and the last few pages of new content is being added and edited. But even with the launch, the wiki will be an ever evolving feature with new content forever being added to it. In the meantime you can find the existing wiki here, and as a sneak peak of the new wiki, here’s a few screen shots to whet your appetite…

Fig1	Fig2

Fig3

Key:
Fig. 1 = The new wiki’s homepage
Fig. 2 = A sample page from the new wiki
Fig. 3 = The content categories covered in the wiki

As a special thank you to all our members for their support and friendship over the last year, I’d like to offer you this Christmas gift of an Ostomyland Christmas screensaver. It’s a 1.15MB download, and works on Windows (unfortunately I dont have the system or software to create Linux or Mac screensavers). It comes with an uninstall system too if you should wish to remove it after it’s been installed, and it also has a built in RSS Reader to bring you the latest Oland website and board postings direct to your screensaver.

You can download the screensaver from here:
http://www.ostomyland.org/xmas2009ss/oland_xmas2009.exe

And if you wish to preview the SS before downloading you can see a video of it running here:
http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stU0NdREBIR19fQ1pfWV9dU1ZX

Merry Christmas one and all. I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Best Christmas Wishes,

Jason.

Features in this issue include:
The Stuff of Legends
News from the Branches
Salts Brothers in Cook-Off
Take a break with Breakaway
…and lots more.

The magazine is available free to all Salts mailing list members, and is also available to UK ostomates by phoning the Salts customer care team on 0800 626388

I’d like to offer all the winners my very hearty congratulations, and I’m certain they will all be excellent ambassadors for the Ostomy world in their respective specialised areas. I’d especially like to congratulate Robert Azevedo Gilbert, (Chairman and founder, Inside Out Stoma Support Group) especially heartily as he has won the award that myself, O-land favourite Jules Bastin, and Barbara Andrews were nominated for. So congrats to him! Robert is a VERY deserved winner.

For More Information:
http://www.ostomyawards.org
http://www.ostomylifestyle.org.uk/

The operation was carried out by Professor Norman Williams at the Royal London Hospital. The surgeon also used muscle that was cut from above the man’s knee and then pulled back to his groin

It’s a fascinating article, and goes to show that in the future it might just be possible to reverse the so called “permanent” colostomy. This certainly takes us one step closer to that dream!

The article was printed in todays Sun newspaper, and you can click on the link below to read the full article over on the Sun website.

Read more: http://bit.ly/sunbionicbottom