Simcoe County Insulin Pumpers' Minutes: March 10, 2003 This message is being distributed to all who left their email address on the sign-in sheet. A notice of the next meeting is below. We hope you will come again and in the meantime spread the word about the group and bring another pumper or interested person(s) with you. Meeting Location: Zehrs (Community room upstairs) 472 Bayfield Street North, Barrie Next Meeting: See & learn about the new Deltec Cozmo Pump! Monday, May 12, 2003 7:00 pm 9:30 pm Gail Thompson of Smiths Medical Canada will be showing us the NEW Deltec Cozmo pump! (http://www.delteccozmo.com/new/html/ ) This pump has many innovative features such as "remembering how much you bolus for certain foods"! Great for kids as they can call up a bolus for "10 animal crackers" and not have to deal with numbers or math! See our (your) website for Simcoe County Insulin Pumpers for meeting information etc.: http://homepage.mac.com/dp66/SCIP +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SIMCOE COUNTY INSULIN PUMPERS MEETING # 9 April 14, 2003 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm We had a total of 8 people attend. (Apparently we lost a number to the pre-JDRF Walk meeting and of course the Leaf's game)! As always there were refreshments and snacks. Thanks once again to Zehr's for their kind use of their Community Room! CDA Spring Forum Report Paul Beckwith gave us an extensive report on the CDA Expo and forum in Orillia last Saturday. Long time diabetes advocate, Paul reported he made good contacts with MPP Garfield Dunlop and others. As well the new insulin pump donated by MiniMed was auctioned off for $4,700! Member of SCIP lobbying Ontario Government for better coverage! Susan Gates reported on how the Ontario Disability Benefits do not cover pump supplies and that they have a very low cap on test strips. This is a dangerous thing for anyone on the pump and especially anyone who needs to test frequently due to hypoglycemic unawareness. Susan is working with the CDA on this. If you would like to join in this effort, please contact Susan at 321-2249 Feature Speaker: Pharmacist Pam Fogh of Shopper's Drug Mart on Essa Road, Barrie. We all had a wonderful chat and Q&A with Pam! Pam's Shopper's Drug Mart at 420 Essa Rd. (By Zehr's at the Essa / Ferndale intersection) carries a number of MiniMed insulin pump supplies. They do not stock all pump supplies but if you drop by and place your order (2 days or so for delivery for non-stocked items) they will continue to stock that item in the future! This applies to all pump models and brands. Prices are comparable or up to 10% less than retail in most cases. In addition, Pam has a better than usual program at her Shopper's whereas any regular customer can obtain, free of charge, a biohazard disposables container and return that container once full for disposal and they will look after it all! Pam learned form us more about the pump and has a keen interest i insulin pump therapy. She also talked about other programs like the vial of life (a good idea for any of us - not just seniors) and the "clean out your medicine cabinet program where they will take expired or un-used prescription drugs in and properly dispose of them for you. I am proud to say that today I am wearing "Dermal Therapy" compliments of the million or so sample packs Pam donated to attending pumpers! You can contact Pam's Pharmacy at 705-792-4342 if you have any questions. Thanks, Pam for your kind efforts and great information! You're a pleasure to chat with! Hope to see you at a meeting again sometime! Pump Bump Cream! Debbie talked about "Pump Bump Cream". It's a prescription cream which can be made up by any compounding pharmacy. It seems to aid in healing and eliminate scaring at sites! No one at the meeting had the recipe for it but we will try and obtain it and place it on our web site and the Insulin Pumpers Canada web site. Apparently the Orillia DEC has the recipe. SARS Update Karen gave us an update on SARS, as she is a CDE in a GTA hospital. Although the virus appears to be well contained she reminded us that people with Diabetes have a lowered immune system and thus we get hit twice as hard for twice as long by any bug! It is so important for us to try and avoid colds and flus more than for most of the population. Barter / Freebe Table We had a number of pump-oriented books, sets, pump cases, supply cases, log books, etc and etc at the table. Due top the small number at this meeting most of these will be available in May. (I managed to grab $70 worth of Comforts) :) :) :) Further Discussions: - use of pump remote control - reuse of pump supplies if needed such as cartridges etc. - meters were discussed extensively - many other topics were discussed in small groups and in larger ones as we said our goodnights. Needless to say, for a small group, we had a lot to discuss! Hope to see you all in May for the Cozmo Pump Presentation! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ideas, topics, issues for future meetings? email me: insulinpumper@sympatico.ca +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Diabetes Advocacy: Paul Beckwith is very active in advocacy. Paul is trying to get the Provincial Government to cover diabetes management supplies including pumps. If so covered this will make life easier for many of us who do not have private healthcare insurance and save the government billions in healthcare costs for diabetes complications down the road In addition please get a copy of his Petition (from our website) and get it signed and returned to him! If you have a few spare hours this year; please contact Paul - he needs your help! Paul: p.c.beckwith@sympatico.ca +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks once again to Zehr's for their kind use of their Community Room! Please feel free to volunteer your own special talent to this growing group! Drop me or Paul an email if you want to help, out for a few minutes a month! Please spread the word about our (your) group! CONTACTS: Paul Beckwith: p.c.beckwith@sympatico.ca Darrin Parker: insulinpumper@sympatico.ca Website: http://homepage.mac.com/dp66/SCIP Note: Simcoe County Insulin Pump Group and it's organizers makes no warranty nor implied warranty for any of the contents and information understood from it's meetings, speakers nor for anything contained within it's correspondence nor opinions expressed herein nor otherwise and does not intend for any information provided by it's presenters or participants at it's meetings and within it's correspondence to supercede in any way any advice from healthcare professionals. Simcoe County Insulin Pump Group does not endorse any brand, model nor manufacturer of Diabetes Management equipment nor supplies. -- __________ Darrin Parker Web Master Simcoe County Insulin Pumpers http://homepage.mac.com/dp66/SCIP