Christmas nibbles and a social agenda

Some of you will have been aware of the Christmas morning tea we had last Saturday. It was a bit short notice, so apologies for that. Anyway, the idea was to try a new and experimental or favorite tried and tested gluten free goody. It didn't matter if it was a home baked or shop bought. Despite there just being three of us, I think it achieved it's purpose!
Sian rustled up some yummy chocolate muffins using a Basco mix, I made cheese scones using Healtheries baking mix and also Ruth Pretty's Christmas cupcakes (recipe to follow) and Paula brought some chocolate dipped ginger cookies from Eat Right

Sian and I were thinking of arranging the odd 'social' thing to run alongside the more formal meetings. Maybe another morning (or afternoon) tea, perhaps a weekend brunch at your favorite cafe, a trip to yoga or even just the cinema. Please let us know what you think and what you would like to do.

Sian is working on the details of the next meeting, which looks likely to be towards the end of January. Details to follow.

Keep well and hope to see you soon.
Annie

November Wellington Meeting round up

Well what can I say! We made sure this meeting will be remembered for some time. I am still trying to recover from the shock of the bad timing and the one a million chance of having a fire evacuation on the one night our meeting was booked for!

Anyway, to those of you who came thank you so much. It was great to see such a good turn out, I think there were between 20 and 25 of us, and for everyone to stay and help out during the unplanned relocation was excellent, thanks for the support.

I was so pleased to find everyone chatting in groups like you'd known each other for ages, in our case, the ice breaker was a fire!

I was so pleased to be able to introduce you all to Deborah Bush, as one of the founding members of Endometriosis New Zealand, which started with three women in Palmerston North as a support group, I find Deborah inspiring every time I see her and was so glad you got to meet her too. I especially loved the fact that Deborah came and spent time with us on such short notice. Thanks Deb.

While I'm saying thank you I would also really like to acknowledge the people who helped make the meeting a success.

Thanks to Natasha for your clear headedness in a crisis and a great venue space for us to use on absolutely no notice!

Thanks to Nik for bringing delicious Gluten Free Pates to share around. They were lovely and it was great to try something different. They are available from Common Sense Organics in Wellington CBD on Wakefield St for future reference.

Thanks especially to Rebecca from Thoroughbread for her generous donations, Rebecca made a gorgeous gluten free loaf for every member who came to the meeting (and for some who didn't make it) Rebecca makes all her bread herself by hand and put a lot of love and care into making sure Wellington Endometriosis felt special!
Rebecca works at local markets and is available at Paraparaumu on Saturday and Willis St in the CBD on Sundays. If you want to make contact with Rebecca her email is thoroughbread@gmail.comThanks again Rebecca!

Thanks also to Dean Young of Radiant Health Centre who came to talk to us about Ortho-Bionomy. If you want to hear more about what Dean might be able to do for you, please contact him on. 04 473 7318.

The next meeting will be planned for January sometime around the 2nd or 3rd week of the month. Can you contribute something or do you know someone who could be a guest speaker? The guest speakers I know of include the following:

Diet, Nurition and Exercise
Accupuncture
Yoga Instructor
Massage Therapist
Surgeon

If you can let me know how you want to make sure we get the best of each speaker I would really like to plan these guests in as it would be great to keep having new and interesting people speaking at our meetings, but I'm open to suggestions as to how many we should have.

If you haven't been able to make it to one of our meetings and would like to get in touch please note the change of email address. We would love to hear from you.

More Great News!

Yes, we've managed to get the confirmation of three special guests at our November meeting!

We will have the pleasure of introducing the delights of "Thoroughbread" a range of Gluten Free Bread, and it's owner Rebecca will bring some tasters with her so you can sample excellent quality, homemade gluten free bread that will give you back your love of bread!!

We are also delighted to offer the services and expertise of an Ortho-Bionomist - for those who don't know (like me!) Ortho-Bionomy is a gentle, non-invasive, osteopathically-based form of body therapy which is highly effective in working with chronic stress, injuries and pains or problems associated with postural and structural imbalances. The practitioner uses gentle movements and positions of the body to facilitate the change of stress and pain patterns. A strong focus is placed on the comfort of the individual, no forceful manipulations are used. The practitioner also suggests home exercises that individuals can do to further facilitate the neuromuscular re-education process begun in the session. Ortho-Bionomy is very effective in helping alleviate both acute and chronic pain and stress patterns by reducing chronic muscle tension, soothing the joints, increasing flexibility, improving circulation, and relaxing the entire body. please see the following link for more information: http://www.ortho-bionomy.org/

We also have the fantastic support of Kelly Rastovich to give you ideas for nutrition, exercise and diet options that will help alleviate your symptoms. Kelly is a qualified personal trainer and works with a nutritionist for her work as a competitor in competitions such as Body Sculpting. Kelly has a great fascination with understanding diets and how she can help you with getting a good diet that will work with endo's "special requirements"

So with all this excellent advise and expertise on offer, how could you resist coming to see what we're all about? You'll meet like minded sufferers and get an opportunity to share your top tips and get more in return. We'd love to see you, so come and join us on:

Tuesday 4th November at Hudson offices, level 6 of the State Insurance Tower, 1 Willis St, Wellington CBD from 5.30 onwards.

Please contact us at endometriosiswellington@gmail.com to confirm your attendance as we will provide some catering and need to know numbers a week before the event.

We look forward to meeting you.

Best Wishes

Sian, Jo and Bernadette.

Great news!

We are now able to confirm our next meeting in November.

Date: Tuesday 4th November
Time: 5.30pm onwards for a 6pm start at

Place: Hudson offices, Level 6 of the State Insurance Tower, on 1 Willis St,
Wellington CBD.

We will aim to meet the needs of as many members as possible and it would be great to see you all there.
For those of you who came last time, we'd love to see you there again and feel free to bring a friend!
For those of you who couldn't make it, we're starting a little later, and giving a bit more notice, so we hope you can make it.

Please be aware the lift access to Level 6 stops at 5.30 so we will have someone waiting downstairs from 5.30 to 6 to give access to the meeting room.

We will be providing nibbles and drinks, so please email us at endometriosiswellington@gmail.com confirming your attendance before the 24th of October. (It would be great if when you email, if you could please confirm your full name, as some email addresses are quite anonymous! Thanks)

We are lucky enough to have two guest speakers on the night, as well as the opportunity to talk to women who can genuinely understand your experiences and offer their tips on how to live your life with endometriosis!

One of our guest speakers will be providing tips on nutrition, diet and exercise so please feel free to bring questions, and if she can't answer them on the night she will take your details and get back to you.

Our second speaker will provide some insight into alternative remedies available to you.

So come and join us, we'd love to meet you!

Don't forget to let us know that you can make it, by the 24th October.

We look forward to meeting you all,

Stay Well,
Bernadette, Jo and Sian

September's Meeting

Hi All,

Thanks to those who joined us for our first meeting in September. It was great to finally meet members who have been patiently waiting for us to get the meetings back going again! Thanks!

It was a good meeting, everyone who came benefitted from hearing that she is not alone with symptoms, or feelings caused by endometriosis!

We used the first meeting as an opportunity to understand what our members want from the meetings, and the blog site. Here are some of the topics we discussed.

You want to hear about:

• Diet
• Nutrition
• Exercise ideas
• Alternative remedies
• Recipes
• Myths
• Other symptoms
• and want to talk to other sufferers, to hear their stories.

Some of the topics covered meant that we shared secrets of what we each use and swear by, these included:

• Yoga, Pilates for keeping fit and allieviating symptoms
• Flaxseed oil, either ground or grind yourself and add to food daily
• Omega 3
• Chinese herbal remedies
• Other symptoms includes IBS and cystis
• Try removing either wheat or gluten from your diet
• Some people recommended removing sugars and dairy.

We shared the names of the specialists in Wellington we would recommend using:

1. John Tait
2. Rose Elder
3. Hanifa Coya
4. Mike East
5. Vassu Iyengar

We decided to hold our social meetings one every two months, and therefore our next meeting will be in the first week of November.

Watch this space for confirmation of the date and venue. We will aim for a 6pm start to give people time to come after work, or get into the city. We will make sure we have at least one guest speaker, with tips and advice on the preferred topics, as above for each meeting. Our next meeting will hopefully include a speaker on nutrition, diet and exercise! (tbc)

We hope these tips are useful for you, and if you have any tips you would like to share either add them here, email us or leave a note on our facebook page, or make sure you come to our next meeting, we would love to see you there!

Keep Well,
Sian

IMPORTANT AMENDMENT TO LAST POST!!!

Hi there,
I've made a slight error in the details of our meeting.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 2nd September 2008
at SOLNET HOUSE, level 4, 70 The Terrace Wellington.

See you all there at 5pm :)

Regards,
Jo

Endo Support Wellington meeting

Hello all,

The much anticipated Endometriosis Support Wellington meeting has been scheduled for:

Tuesday 2nd September 2008 at 5pm
Meet us at: Solnet House, Level 4, 70 The Terrace, Wellington


The meeting will be held in the training room at the motorway end of the building which will be signposted so you can find it with ease :)

A chance to meet others with Endo, share information, learn about endo health and your local support network.

Looking forward to seeing you all there and feel free to bring along your friends with Endo. Spread the word as it would be nice to get some new faces along.

See you there,
Sian, Bernadette and Jo

Fertility Seminar in Wellington

Hi All, thanks to Annette from Hamilton support group for sending this information. This may be a very useful seminar!
FREE Fertility Information Seminars
Fertility Associates regularly hosts free fertility information seminars. These seminars aim to provide information and options to couples experiencing difficulties in achieving pregnancy. At each seminar a fertility doctor, counsellor, embryologist and nurse from Fertility Associates are all available to answer any questions you may have about fertility issues.
The next free fertility information seminar is:
WellingtonTuesday July 8 2008, 6.30-8.00pmThe Quality Hotel, 223 Cuba Street, Wellington

To register or for more information please call Fertility Associates on 04 384 8401 Ext 0 or email faw@fertilityassociates.co.nz.

Welcome to the new support group!

Welcome to the new Endometriosis Wellington Support Group blog!

Sufferers with endometriosis know that an important part of managing the disease is being able to share your experiences and feelings with people who understand. As a support group we are able to provide our members with the opportunity to talk to other sufferers, share stories, exchange tips and ideas for coping, and most importantly, realise that they are not alone.

This blog, our email address and our facebook page are all there to help endometriosis sufferers in the Wellington region, to get the support and help they need to live with this painful and damaging disease. Not just that, but we aim to have regular support group meetings to enable members to meet face to face and from time to time, to hear from expert guests who will give their advice on how to live a great life with endometriosis.

We know we are not the experts, and we therefore welcome all feedback from our members, so feel free to post your comments here, or email us at our email address to add a post of your own.

Membership is free and we will continue to use this blog and our facebook page to post articles we think might interest you. Our group is managed purely by volunteers and we would welcome any members who want to join in behind the scenes.

Our first meeting will be announced soon, so we look forward to meeting our members, and hope to have your continued support.