Greetings from Florida!
I sincerely hope Hurricane Ian was not too destructive for you. I know some people were out of power for a few days to couple of weeks, some lost their roofs, and our colleagues in Fort Meyers/southwest area lost everything. My thoughts and prayers are still with you as you continue to put your life back together. And if Ian wasn’t enough, along came Nicole. Are we done for this year?
Osto Group is collecting and distributing vitally essential ostomy supplies to those ostomates ravaged by both Hurricane Ian and Nicole. You can help by donating only the following ostomy supplies: pouches and wafers (all sizes, types, convex and flat), deodorants, pastes, rings/seals, and barrier strips/extenders. Any help you can give to those who have lost everything will be deeply appreciated. For questions, call Osto Group at 877-678-6690. Please mark your boxes in the following manner and send them to:
Hurricane Ian Relief
Osto Group
3500 45th Street
Suite 16A
West Palm Beach, FL 33418
SALLY MATSON, MS, BSN, CWOCN is retiring! Sally Matson has been around forever and has been an ET/WOC Nurse for 40 years. She has mentored many of us throughout her long career. After gifted a grant from the American Cancer Society, she attended Houston’s MD Anderson ET School due to her oncology background. Afterwards, she partnered with Gwen Turnbull, colleague, and dear friend, in a private ET Nursing consulting business during the dawn of DRGs, contracting with hospitals, home health, Mayo Clinic, and ran an outpatient clinic in the Jacksonville area in the 1980s. In the 1990s she moved to Orlando and started working with a large WOC nursing team at Orlando Health, with exposure to trauma, neonatal / pediatric care and outpatient wound /ostomy clinics.
She has been a strong supporter of the Florida Association of Enterostomal Therapists throughout her career. She states “The FAET organization has provided us all with the opportunities to collaborate with state colleagues in fellowship & education for many years. Many of you are dear friends to me.” She had many opportunities to share knowledge and experience through lecturing around the US and other countries, such as Austria & Brazil, expanding her perspective. As she nears retirement, she knows that patients will continue to be in the best of hands, dedicated specialty nurses who will think outside the box, push the envelope, forge new paths, and will remain WOC Nurse Strong! Sally, good luck in your new chapter. Enjoy the farm, the bee keeping, and those grandchildren. You will be missed.
If you have any news that you can share such as meetings, lectures you’ve given, posters, etc, please let me know. I love to brag about our Florida folks. (contact me here)