NEWSLETTER
of the
PITUITARY SUPPORT GROUP
Hope that you have all had a pleasant summer and some
enjoyable holidays throughout the period. In June Jim and I spent a very
enjoyable time at a Pituitary Group Training Weekend in Birmingham where we met
area coordinators from all over Britain. It was interesting to hear their
various stories - some very similar to our own. The only downside of the whole
weekend was that Jim left his coat, with house keys, car keys and mobile phone
in the pockets, on the bus from the departure lounge to the aircraft. He has
been unable to recover the coat or it’s
contents.
Our last local meeting was held at Ninewells on 26th
August 2002 when Dr Mark Garten substituted for Dr Patterson and spoke to us
about Osteoporosis. There were only six of us there so we were able to gather in
a small circle to hear Dr Garten’s very
interesting and informative talk. This was followed with the usual question and
answer session. We were pleased to welcome Pat McBride to our meeting. Pat is
our regional co-ordinator from the Piuitary Foundation.
She was last with us in August 2001. Pat left some rather nice small
paintings which we plan to raffle at our December meeting. As usual, Alison’s
baking was much enjoyed along with
our cup of coffee, and our thanks go to Alison for that.
You may recall in our last Newsletter that Cheryl was
hoping to gather items for a car boot sale. To this end Jim and I put the word
out to our neighbours and family. Having phoned Cheryl to arrange delivery of
our goods I told Jim:-
The Good News: “We
don’t have to go to Tayport on Friday”
The Bad News
: “We’ve
to hold a car boot sale too”
The Worst News: “We’ve to be at the Tayport side of the Taybridge
at 7.30 on Sunday morning”
Under Cheryl’s
command and Alison’s
assistance the two cars raised a total of £130.
This amount was generously matched by Lloyd’s TSB, Cheryl’s employer, bringing the total to £260. Our sincere thanks to Cheryl for
organising this event.
Our next meeting is at 7.00 pm on Monday 2nd
December in the Boardroom at Ninewells Hospital. The speaker will be Dr Das,
talking about Radiotherapy. We are hoping for a good turnout of members.
We wish to know whether you would like to continue
receiving the newsletter and would appreciate if you would return the attached
slip.
To finish I would like to pass on this poem which was
in a recent Area Coordinator’s
Newsletter:
SMILING
is infectious; you catch it like the flu
When someone smiled at me today, I started SMILING too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin,
When he SMILED I realized, I’d
passed it on to him.
I thought about that SMILE, then realized it’s
worth,
A single SMILE just like mine, could travel ‘round
the earth.
So, if you feel a SMILE begin, don’t
leave it undetected…
LET’S START AN EPIDEMIC QUICK, & GET THE WORLD
INFECTED.
Hoping to see you on 2nd December,
Joyce Lowden.
_____________________________________________________________________
Joyce Lowden
17 Geddes Drive
PERTH PH11QD
Please continue to send me the TAYSIDE PITUITARY
PATIENTS SUPPORT GROUP NEWSLETTER.
NAME:
ADDRESS:
Well, here we are again after the first meeting of the year and thankfully winter is almost passed, hopefully we can look forward to longer and warmer days soon.
It was nice to see all the familiar
faces again and especially nice to see some new ones. As usual Alison came up trumps with
the lovely homemade cake which was enjoyed by everyone.
The meeting took a very different
turn from normal by concentrating on two aspects of complimentary therapy.
The first speaker was Elly Hood who
introduced us to Reiki, which she describes as a simple hands-on, deeply relaxing and
holistic form of healing. After her
introduction a volunteer was offered a treatment session while the rest of the audience
tried hands-on healing within the group.
The second speaker was George
McKenzie whose topic was Bio-Energy Therapy. This
has many similarities to Reiki in that it focuses on the internal energy within the body
and how any blockage with this energy can produce illness.
Again a volunteer was given a treatment session and although this should be
on a one-to-one basis the audience were allowed to witness it, unfortunately some fool
left there mobile on (me) I hope it didn’t break anyone’s concentration.
It was emphasised that complimentary
therapy may not be for everyone, but can be useful for some people who are receptive to
it. It was certainly a very different aspect
of healing than we are used to considering.
After these two sessions there was a
break for refreshments, which allowed the members, to chat together, sharing experiences
and giving each other advice.
Cheryl again hopes to do some fund
raising for the group and is holding a car boot sale on the 16th June. Any item for sale would be greatly appreciated and
she can be contacted on 01382 541458 to arrange delivery.
Due to the great success of last years fundraising attempts we were able to
donate the grand sum of £500 to the Pituitary Foundation which was greatly appreciated.
The next meeting will take place on
August 26th. At the moment we have
not decided on the speaker but I am sure it will be of the same high standard as usual.
Look forward to seeing you all either
at the clinic or at the next meeting.
Take Care
Ros Marr
First of all, can I just wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very happy and a prosperous New Year. I really hope you all have a pleasant time.
I apologies for not making the last meeting and putting the additional burden of preparing a newsletter on the already very busy Monica. I noticed she also apologised at the start, but her letter was every bit as good and indeed many of you may not like my corny jokes!! Anyone brave enough to say it to my face?
It was great to turn up and see so many familiar faces and even more refreshing to see several new ones.
It’s hard to believe that we are over two years down the road now and we have made great progress for what I believe is a tight, friendly and informal group.
As was the case last year the December meeting incorporated the carrying out of a small A.G.M. I stress again that these restrictions are set upon us by the Pit-Pat Foundation and hopefully don’t put too many of you off.
Anyway, Monday saw some 20 members turning up to hear from Mr El Jamel who was talking on Pituitary Surgery. This proved to be a very popular talk and saw him present what could be an unsavoury subject to some, in a pleasant and simplified manner. Starting off by saying that the Pituitary Gland is a bit more than just the conductor of the orchestra, he continued through this interesting subject, touching on the function of the gland, the effects when it malfunctions, the type of operations available and culminated with what may be available in the future.
Having given a vote of thanks the official side by way of the A.G.M. took place and saw myself and Monica remaining in position.
As regards the position of treasurer, this again remained the same with Ros (Marr) willing to carry on, however she did decline to continue as Area Co-ordinator due to other commitments. This was appreciated and thanks were expressed with regard to her help and experience in setting the group up.
Taking the place of Ros as Area Co-ordinator is Joyce Lowson of Perth and our thanks go to her for taking this on board.
Ros gave a report in relation to our current financial situation and this is a lot better than last year. Mind you anything was better than last years situation and it sees us with a grand total of £698.75. The majority of this money has come from the fund raising efforts of Cheryl Caird who has gone out of her way to generate this amount by carrying out a boot sale and business linked efforts. It was agreed that a sum of £500 would be sent to the Pit-Pat Foundation as they have requested funding before and we have not been in a situation to do so.
Cheryl also attended the national conference along with her partner Ray and a short account was given and it would appear that the time spent there, although hectic was well worth it.
Please remember to make this newsletter more interesting, please try and contribute, whether it is by submitting a small story of your situation or a questions answered section. Remember that’s within reason of course. I’m no Agony Aunt!
Anyway always keep in mind the access for our web site TAYENDOWEB.CO.UK
This is a great facility and should be used.
I can be reached as before on irenew@irenew.f9.co.uk So if there is anything I can help with please do not hesitate to contact me.
DATES FOR 2002
April 8th
August 26th
December 2nd
We’ve moved them slightly so that they don’t coincide with local holidays. I
hope this is in order.
-----------------
Unfortunately Iain wasn’t able
to attend the last meeting so it seems to have fallen to me to put together a newsletter.
I apologise in advance if it doesn’t come up to his high standard, especially
the jokes.
Firstly, a thank you to everyone who
attended our last meeting, it was good to see you all again and for those of you who
didn’t manage we hope to see you next time. A special thank you to Alison for
the delicious cake, which we all enjoyed greatly.
One person we were delighted to
welcome to the meeting was Pat McBribe who was visiting on behalf of the Pituitary
Foundation. Pat is the Regional Coordinator for the north and is employed on a part
time basis offering support to all the area coordinators. Her post is funded until
October 2002 by the national lottery board, so its nice to know that even if we don’t
have a win at least we get something for our money. Pat told us a little bit about
the role of the Foundation and what happens at other support groups and she gave us a few
tips on running the group successfully. Some of you may not be registered with the
Foundation so if you want an application form just let me know and I will get one to you.
One of our group Cheryl Caird and her
partner are making the trip down to Birmingham at the end of September to take part in one
of the training weekends organised by Pit Pat. Cheryl will report back on this trip
at the next meeting and I am sure will be full of great ideas we can use to improve our
group. Have a nice time Cheryl and don’t work all the time.
Speaking of Cheryl, she has decided
to do some fund raising for the group so will be having a car boot sale on our behalf on
Sunday 12th August, it will probably be too late to give donations when you
receive this newsletter but should you actually see her on the day please buy something.
Remember one persons junk is someone else’s treasure.
Our next meeting will be on Monday 3rd
December in the Boardroom in Ninewells Hospital. Mr.Eljamel will be talking on the
subject of Pituitary surgery. Hope to see lots of you there. If anybody has
anything they want included in the newsletter please let me know and I will do my best to
include it.
I hope you all enjoy the rest of the
summer, and I look forward to seeing you either in the clinic or at the next meeting.
Best wishes,
Ros Marr.
Monday the 9th April saw a less than normal turn out (in numbers not personnel) but this was probably due to Cheryl Caird (Cairdie) out delivering her Census forms while the rest of you were still on holiday. Must remember to make it later in the month next year, away from the holiday period.
However 15 of us were treated to a very enlightening talk from Dr Carrie McEwan who is a resident Consultant Ophthalmologist (and that wasn’t easy to say when I introduced her). As I say this was a very enlightening talk and she took us through various eye problems related to the Pituitary Conditions. She stressed that visual loss or disturbance is rare and that visual reversal (e.g. damage repair) usually occurs to an acceptable level. It was further explained that double vision could occur due to the pressure of the tumour in the Chiasmal Channel causing lack of information to be passed to the rear of the brain. I myself get the same effect from too much alcohol!!! But that’s another story.
Anyway after this talk, which was accompanied by a very detailed overhead show, a brief vote of thanks was given whereupon tea and coffee were partaken of. Now, this was the good bit because it did not cost us anything this time as we seem to have our act together now on the catering front with home baking being brought in along with items being donated by Monica. All this was further supplemented by a jar of coffee, a supply of tea bags, sugar, sweeteners (oh yes sweeteners as well) paper cups, plates, milk and wait for it…..napkins. Trey poshe or what? A container to store all this in was also on hand and the perishables were taken away. By the way the fruit loaf was lovely. (Thanks to Alison Ferguson & Catherine Haggart).
The prior mention of money brings me onto my next topic and relates to the aforementioned Cheryl Caird, who through her contacts managed to get us a charitable donation of £200, the cheque for which I accepted at a small presentation on Tuesday the 10th. This now sees us with a nice cushion and also sees us in the position of being able to make a small donation to the parent support group if and when they ask. They asked last year and we were unable to help. These donations go towards helping to print their newsletters and information pamphlets and is therefore a worthwhile cause and it will be nice to be able to help.
Towards the end of the informal part of the evening several items were discussed the following of which is a brief résumé.
It is hoped to have a car boot sale on either Sunday the 20th or Sunday 27th May 2001 at Errol. Cheryl, yes that woman again, apparently loves these things and has volunteered to go. So if you have anything suitable that will fit in a car boot and want to give it to us, you can contact Monica, Ros or myself and we will make efforts to uplift same and have it stored somewhere. Again this would be an easy fundraiser and we may end up positively flush.
It is also hoped to have a quiz night later in the year when the nights get darker again, say about November time. This would take the form of a social get together in a local hostelry with various teams being entered at a small fee whereby the resultant effect is that everyone has a jolly good time. So we’ll keep you posted about that and if you want to find out more just ask around at the clinic or phone as below.
Lastly, the parent group has an annual conference each year in April and we were asked if anyone wanted to go down. However due to the timing of notification we failed to send anyone. It is open to two persons, whether it be two singles or a couple it does not matter, either would do and expenses are catered for, although in answer to Andy Haggarts question as to whether it stretched as far as the drinks ……. Unfortunately No! (Sorry Andy).
DATES FOR THE YEAR
Sunday 20th or 27th May Car Boot Sale
Monday 6th August meeting Boardroom Ninewells talk from Dr. Fiona Green on
Hormone Replacement Therapy.
November Quiz night date to be fixed.
Monday 3rd December meeting Boardroom Ninewells Hospital talk from Mr El Jamel
on Pituitary Surgery & AGM.
CONTACTS
Iain Wallace 01241 856476 e-mail irenew@irenew.f9.co.uk
Monica Hodgkinson 01575 540291 e-mail mhodgk0306@aol.com
TAYENDOWEB.CO.UK
THANKS
Many of you are aware that my long-suffering wife Irene has been undergoing Chemo Therapy for Breast Cancer and have expressed concern and sent their sympathy. This has been greatly appreciated and a word of note to the effect she is doing well. She inevitably lost her hair and is as bald as myself, if not better. We do a very good impression of a couple of light bulbs when we pull the duvet up at night. You’ve got to laugh!!!
PARTING SHOT
A small thought from one male to all you poor misunderstood fellow beings out there.
Picture the scene. You’re sitting down stairs with your good suit on ready to get out
on the town when exasperated, you shout up to the better half "Are you ready
yet?" only to be met with "I’ve been telling you for an hour…I’ll
be ready in a minute".
Come on admit it. We’ve all been there.
Iain Wallace.