Heather Adamson and her husband retired to Arden about four years ago, and they have settled in and enjoy village life after spending their working lives in Toronto.

While her husband has had heart problems in recent years, aside from arthritis and some of the aches and pains of ageing, Heather has enjoyed good health. A few months ago, Heather was feeling some tiredness, and she checked her blood sugar on a glucose monitor her husband has been using since he had heart surgery in 2007. She found that her levels were elevated.

So, she had some blood work done at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team and found out that since she was last checked in 2008, she has developed Diabetes.

“It felt to me like a death sentence,” she said when interviewed at her home in Arden this week. “All I could think about were amputations, blindness and so on. I found out that there are things that can be done to manage Diabetes, but it takes a lot of work.”

Heather now has a soft cover case with charts, a number of general information books and cook books as well as a couple of log books. She tracks her glucose levels in one log book and marks down everything that she eats in the other book.

“It now takes me well over an hour to shop for food, because I have to read the labels in the store very carefully,” she said. “I have to eat lean meat, I have to watch out for potatoes, and I can't have cookies. There have been a lot of changes.”

Heather is also planning to go to dancercize classes that are held at the nearby Kennebec Hall twice a week, and although she was not particularly overweight, she has lost eight pounds since she was diagnosed and began to moderate her diet accordingly.

The staff at the Family Health Team have been encouraging, and tell her that she has kept her levels in a good range.

But the diagnosis is permanent.

“I asked the nurse about that. She said my levels were good, my condition seems to be manageable. But she said once I am a diabetic I will always be a diabetic. There is no cure.”

The condition that Heather Adamson has is known as Type 2 Diabetes, which usually occurs in adulthood. It occurs when cells throughout the body are unable to absorb insulin from the blood, or the insulin that is produced is not effective. Ninety percent of diabetics fall into this category. Type 1 Diabetes, which more commonly comes on in childhood, occurs when the organ that produces insulin, the pancreas, fails.

The incidence of Type 2 Diabetes has been on the rise in Canada for years, and in South Eastern Ontario there was a marked increase between 1996 and 2006. In the region, the population increased by 8% over that time frame, but the reported incidences of Diabetes jumped by 72%.

Part of the increase can be attributed to the ageing population in the region, and part to an increase in the number of people who are getting tested for the disease, but lifestyle factors such as increases in the rate of obesity and a more sedentary population are also cited as causal factors.

Jennifer Allen is a nutritionist working with Diabetes patients out of the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team. She took over the job early this past summer.

“Since I started working here in the summer I have taken an average of one new client each week. The numbers are growing and growing,” she said.

Patients like Heather Adamson, who treat their diagnosis as a challenge and are motivated to make the necessary changes in order to keep living a healthy life, make up a portion of her patients. Others require a more measured approach.

Jennifer Allan said that she develops an individual nutrition plan for each patient, based on their own lifestyle and family circumstances. “It is important to understand the lifestyle that people are leading, and their eating practices, so that small changes can be made over time to improve patient health,” she said.

Allan works with patients who are classed as pre-Diabetic, who are at risk of developing the condition, with the goal of keeping them from getting Diabetes. For her patients that have Diabetes, the goal is to maintain their health and keep some of the serious consequences from developing.

The potential health effects that Diabetes brings include: heart and blood vessel damage, kidney damage, nerve damage, blurred vision and more.

November is Diabetes month. In the coming weeks the Frontenac News will be looking at some of the services for Diabetes patients that are available in the region.

Photo: courtesy of Krista Fazackerley

Culminating their three-year effort in support of the redevelopment of the Cancer Centre at Kingston General Hospital, the Strokes Fore Hope golfing duo of Edward Goodfellow, 26, and Andrew Fazackerley, 23, made their final cheque presentation to representatives from the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation, KGH and the Cancer Centre of South Eastern Ontario at the Watkins Lobby at KGH on November 3. The final cheque in the amount of $58,500 brings their three-year total to $108,000.

For three consecutive summers Andrew and Edward participated in three 24-hour golfing marathons that took place at the Rivendell Golf Club in Verona, and with the help of a government initiative that matched their donations 9:1, the two young men have managed to raise over $1 million for the Cancer Centre.

Edward Goodfellow addressed the crowd gathered in the Watkins lobby and spoke about Strokes for Hope, an idea he dreamed up while on a family golfing trip. “Though Strokes Fore Hope will be no more, the memories will definitely stay in our hearts forever. Strokes for Hope has definitely changed us and made us realize that nothing is impossible,” he said.

He thanked the event sponsors, Corus Entertainment, Rivendell Golf Club, Krista Fazackerley, the generosity of the donors and of course, his best friend Andrew.

Edward's mother Cathy Goodfellow, who was instrumental in organizing the three-year fundraising event, spoke next and thanked the community, their sponsors and staff at the Cancer Clinic and the Hospital Foundation for all of their inspiration and support.

Addressing her son and his best friend Andrew she said, “These two have dug deeper than even I thought possible and have accomplished something truly amazing.”

When asked about their initial motivation for starting up the event, Edward responded, “The cause is one that I have always been really passionate about. We just really wanted to try to make a difference, and after touring the new facilities here and seeing what a difference they are making in so many people’s lives, it has really made this all extremely worth while.”

“Everyone has been affected by cancer in their lives in one way or another so it just made sense to us to try to do our bit to help out,” Andrew added.

Edward said they decided to bring the event to an end because “we have always made public our $1 million goal and we have reached that goal so we are just really happy to be stepping down on a real high note.”

That high note was later topped when immediately following the cheque presentation Michelle Miatello, president of the South Eastern chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), an organization that honoured Edward and Andrew for their volunteerism in the community last November, announced that the two young men had recently been chosen from a list of hundreds of nominees world-wide as winners of the “Changing Our World/Simms Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy, Ages 18-23”.

The announcement was a complete surprise to Edward and Andrew and they were overwhelmed by the honour.

The award will be presented to Edward and Andrew in March at the AFP International Conference that will take place in Chicago.

Miatello then read a letter from AFP president and CEO Paulette Mahara, which said, in part, “Philanthropy knows no age limit and Edward and Andrew have proven that everyone can make a difference if they are truly inspired. We are honoured to be able to recognize them for their extraordinary work.”

Photo: Tony Polonio, ”The Training Medic” at Northern Connections in Sharbot Lake

Laughter erupted numerous times during a First Aid/CPR training session at Northern Connections in Sharbot Lake as Tony Polonio of Belleville, a.k.a. the Training Medic, got down on his hands and knees in order to show five trainees the in and outs of proper CPR.

Don't get him wrong: Tony takes his job very seriously but he also brings to his classes a sense of humour that keeps those who attend attentive and interested. Polonio, who also worked for years as a paramedic, is an emergency training specialist, an authorized provider of HeartSafe EMS, an approved First Aid Delivery Organization for the Ontario WSIB and the HRSDC-Labour Program for basic, standard and advanced First Aid. He holds a certificate in Adult Facilitation and has over 17 years of medical experience and training, including a Registered Practical Nursing diploma from Sir Sandford Fleming College and an Advanced Medical Care Attendant diploma from Centennial College.

Though the regular HeartSafe clientele list does not usually include the general public, Tony happens to be just one of four out of 400 nation-wide HeartSafe instructors who was granted permission to teach the general public under his own company name. Polonio teaches over 100 classes a year and is a pro. His jovial personality helps to make what might otherwise be a somber and dry information session into a rather uplifting hands-on experience.

On Nov. 18, five people took part in a one-day training session he offered at Northern Connections Adult Learning Centre, which covered all of the First Aid /CPR basics. In the first part of his class he covered the heart and stroke portion of the class, which included heart attack recognition, intervention, CPR (the newest standards), choking intervention for adults, children and infants, as well as stroke recognition and interventions. The afternoon was dedicated to the First Aid portion of his class, which included bleeds, fractures, bone and joint injuries, burns, seizures, diabetic emergencies, anaphylactic shock, asthma attacks and EPI pen administration.

The hands on segment of the course included recovery position practicing, abdominal thrust positioning (formerly known as the Heimlich maneuver), CPR compressions and breathing and as well as demonstrating how to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). Tony’s goal is to “turn out confident, competent first aiders”. He knows first hand from working as a paramedic that “most of the time when we respond to a call, there is already someone on the scene.”

While he sets high standards in his own classes, he is also very aware of the overall poor showing by Canadians as trained first AID/CPR responders. “Unfortunately Canada is the worst country in the western world for the number of people trained in CPR and First Aid, with only 5-10% of the population trained. That pales in comparison to a country like Germany where in order to be granted a driver’s license and before you can purchase a car you must have CPR/First Aid training and where it is mandatory to have a First Aid kit in your vehicle.”

Asked about the bottom line when it comes to saving a life Tony mentioned the factor of time and spoke of the Chain of Survival. “We push the Chain of Survival in a big way in my class, which boils down to one word ‘Early’: Early 911, Early CPR, Early defibrillation and Early advanced medical care.”

He states a few stats to back that up. In the Province of Ontario someone who suffers SCA (sudden cardiac arrest) has a 3-5% chance of survival. In the City of Ottawa the rate is almost double that. In Ottawa, because of all the levels of government there, there is a higher concentration of people who are trained in First Aid/CPR; there is more access to defibrillators, advanced care paramedics and other reasons. According to Tony that rate jumps to 75% if you happen to experience a SCA in a Canadian casino. “It's because of the Early factor. In casinos you are monitored every single minute and chest compressions on average are started there in under one minute and defibrillation in under two minutes.”

When it comes to having the know how to potentially save a life it looks as though your best bets are 1) getting trained and 2) not hesitating to put what you know into practice.

For anyone who missed the course, St. Lawrence Employment Services will be holding a First Aid and CPR course on December 15 and 16

Andrea Dingwall is a graduate of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto, where she completed a four-year course after doing her undergraduate work at Trent University. She will be accepting patients at a shared location with Chiropractor Sheldon Cook at 3161 Rutledge Road (next to Silverbrook Gardens).

Andrea Dingwall lives in a rural property near Moscow, where her carpenter husband is building a house, and she has been looking for a location to set up a practice. The clinic was a suitable location, and her services complement those offered by Sheldon Cook.

“I really like Sydenham, and this location is ideal for me,” she said.

She will be offering the kinds of assessment and diagnosis services that people often receive from primary care physicians but with a focus on lifestyle changes, the use of supplements, botanicals and acupuncture treatments.

“One of the big differences between what a doctor does and what I do relates to the amount of time I can spend with patients, and the relationships that develop,” she said.

Diet is a major factor in people’s health and is a treatment option, according to Andrea Dingwall. She can supervise patients in using a number of diets to improve patient health.

Among the kinds of issues she deals with on a regular basis are gastrointestinal issues, women specific problems, hormonal conditions, weight loss, pain and nerve problems, and more.

She does not see her practice as a challenge to the medical establishment, and said that over the years the practice of medicine and naturopathy have moved closer to each other.

“Diet and lifestyle are taken more into account than they were in the past and Naturopathy has become more oriented to evidence-based treatments at the same time,” she said.

As she starts up her practice Andrea Dingwall is offering a free 15-minute meeting for patients (normally her rates are $40 for 15 minutes). A first session usually lasts about an hour and subsequent sessions are shorter.

Details about the service offered are available at the website natural-route.com.

In addition to accepting new patients, Andrea Dingwall will be conducting free talks about health care issues.

The first one that she has scheduled is coming up on November 22 at her clinic. It is called “Avoiding the Cold and Flu - Naturally” and will focus on how to avoid getting sick this year, touching on diet, lifestyle, the flu vaccine, supplements to take and supplements to avoid.

To contact Andrea Dingwall, call 613-876-2855.

No news is not necessarily bad news on ambulance base front

By Jeff Green

When the agenda came out for the Frontenac County Council meeting this week, it did not include any reference to the proposed joint ambulance base/fire station in Ompah.

A motion proposed by North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton at a county meeting in August was deferred until September for county staff to consider its implications after meeting with North Frontenac township staff.

That meeting did not take place before the September County Council meeting. Since the matter was still not on the October agenda, the News contacted North Frontenac Township Chief Administrative Officer Cheryl Robson to find out whether the meeting had taken place.

Robson said that a tele-conference took place last week, and progress was made.

Paul Charbonneau, the Chief of Paramedic Services for Frontenac County, will prepare an administrative report based on what was discussed at the meeting.

The report will go to the North Frontenac Council meeting on November 14 and the Frontenac County Council meeting on November 17.

“If everything works out, there is plenty of time to hire a project manager and put everything in place for construction next spring,” said Robson.

A motion was passed by Frontenac County Council in February of 2009, directing staff to develop plans for a joint fire-hall ambulance base in Ompah.

The project has been delayed ever since, as the county and the township have not been able to agree on a cost-sharing agreement for the construction and ongoing maintenance of a jointly owned, dual-purpose building.

(Frontenac County Council met on Wednesday, October 19, too late for a report to be included in this week’s Frontenac News.)

In an effort to increase the awareness, prevention and early detection of cervical cancer, the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team (SLFHT) will be offering pap tests to sexually active women of all ages, whether they are regular patients at the clinic or not.

The tests are in support of Cervical Cancer Awareness Week, which is hosted by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) and the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC). The hosts have invited family physicians from across the country to participate in the National Pap Test Campaign by hosting public pap test clinics during the week of October 23-29, 2011. Their goal is to “encourage all women to have regular pap tests by a health care professional (family physician, obstetrician-gynecologist, registered nurse or midwife),...since knowledge, screening and vaccination are key to help reduce the number of women who are impacted by this largely preventable cancer. “

Every year in Canada 400,000 women receive abnormal pap test results and of these, 1300-1500 are diagnosed with cervical cancer. Of those diagnosed almost 400 will die of the disease.

Brenda Bonner, the nurse practitioner at the SLFHT, is also a member of the SOGC and said a pap test is “really the only way to detect abnormal cells in the cervix which, if left undetected, can cause cancer and lead to needless deaths.”

Surprisingly many Canadian women do not get screened. According to statistics, 15% of sexually active women have never been screened and 30% have not been screened in the last three years. Bonner says that women should be screened every year consecutively for three years and if no abnormalities arise then just once every three years after that. “Cervical cancer develops over time and a simple pap test, which takes just a few minutes, can prevent hours, days, months and years of suffering, surgeries and treatments.” Those wanting a test need not be a regular patient at the clinic and should call the Sharbot Lake clinic at 613-279-2100 to make an appointment. The tests will run there on October 25 and 26 from 1-4PM, October 28 from 8AM- 12PM and October 29 from 10AM-12PM. Patients need to bring their health card and the clinic will provide the follow up.

County Tackles Public Health:

During her four-year term as the Frontenac County representative to the board of directors of Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski often expressed her frustration over what she saw as a lack of transparency in the way the organization does its budgeting.

She is no longer the County rep to the Board, having been replaced by North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton for the current term of council, but she has briefed Clayton about her concerns.

She has also proposed, and Frontenac County Council has approved, a motion asking that KFL&A Public Health transfer some of the savings that have been realised as the Province of Ontario has increased its contribution for some shared provincial/municipal programs from 63% to 75%, back to the municipalities.

The motion also asks the KFL&A Public Health not use municipal money “to subsidise 100% funded municipal programs.”

Finally, the motion reads that, “The County of Frontenac is asking that the KFL&A Public Health Board’s budget process be fully transparent and that all use of municipal funds be identified throughout the process.”

“I don’t know if I’ll survive the Public Health board meeting next week or not,” said Bud Clayton after the motion was passed.

“Doctor Gemmill [the head of the KFL&A Public Health] will be attending our own meeting next month,” said CAO Liz Savill.

When interviewed after the meeting, Janet Gutowski said that “80% of Public Health boards across the province have decreased their municipal ask in recent years after the province uploaded some costs, and most of the other 20% are located in regions that have had large increases in population. The population is stable in this region, and yet we have paid increases of 2% every year. That’s why I brought this motion forward.”

Lennox & Addington Council has decided to seek a new home for the Northbrook ambulance base, and a request for proposal for a piece of land located on Highway 41 between Northbrook and Denbigh will be set out this week.

That was the easy part for the council.

It was also relatively easy for them to decide to stop sending the Northbrook ambulance to Tamworth on standby when both Napanee cars are out on calls, a practice that resulted in only 2 service calls last year and 5 in 2009.

It will be more difficult, wrenching even, for them to come to grips with the recommendation of a consultant’s report to close the Denbigh base and replace it with one in Loyalist Township, halfway between Kingston and Napanee. That recommendation will be considered at a meeting in late October, at the earliest.

The Denbigh issue was front and centre at last Wednesday's (September 14) Council meeting in Napanee.

In a presentation to L&A Council, L&A Emergency Services Co-ordinator Mark Schjerning pointed out that more than half of the calls that were answered by the Denbigh ambulance emanated from outside of Lennox and Addington, and while L&A recoups money for those calls through a cross-border agreement, that money is minimal as compared to the cost of keeping the base up and running.

L&A receives about $400 for every cross-border call it makes out of Denbigh, and their cost per call is about $3,500.

Shjerning also pointed out that the paramedics stationed at Denbigh spend a lot of time waiting for calls that do not come.

“In 2010, all told, about 1/3 of the shifts at Denbigh were what we call empty envelope shifts; in other words, over a 12-hour shift there were no calls to the station,” he said. “When this is expressed on a cost-per call basis, each call becomes very expensive.”

The preferred alternative that Schjerning presented, according to the report that was prepared by the IBI group out of Toronto, is the consolidation of northern services in the Northbrook/Cloyne area and the establishment of a new base in Loyalist Township. Currently, most of the calls from Loyalist Township are answered by the ambulance operated by Frontenac County, which is housed in a base on Justus Drive in the western part of Kingston.

“We cannot guarantee that the ambulance will be waiting at the base on Justus Drive to come to Loyalist,” said Shjerning, “it can be moved to downtown Kingston on standby.”

The impact of a new Loyalist Township-based service would be to cut response times from an average of about 20 to about 10 minutes per call for the 1,000 or so calls each year in that region.

On the other hand, closing Denbigh would result in over 80% of the calls in that region taking between 30 and 60 minutes for a response,” according to the IBI report.

County Warden Henry Hogg, who is also the Reeve of Addington Highlands, took a look at some of the mapping provided by Shjerning, and said that many response times will be even longer than the 30-60 minute window envisioned by IBI. He asked Shjerning what speeds were used to project the response times.

“We based those estimates on an average speed of 100 km/hour,” said Schjerning.

“Having driven the roads around Denbigh for the past 35 years, I challenge anyone to average 100 kilometres an hour, so your response times are not accurate,” Hogg said.

A middle ground proposal was also brought forward by Mark Shjerning. It involves keeping a limited 12 hour a day service open in Denbigh at an ambulance post, which is less expensive to build than a full-sized ambulance base. However, while simply closing Denbigh and opening a base in Loyalist Township would not increase the global cost of the system, keeping a limited service in Denbigh would mean an increase in costs, and ultimately, an increased tax burden on L&A ratepayers,

“As I understand it,” said L&A Council member, and Loyalist Township Deputy Mayor, Ric Bresee, “in an environment where we have fixed resources, this change will provide a 10 minute improvement in response time for a thousand calls and will slow response time by 30 minutes for a smaller number of calls, maybe 50 to 100. To me that is the nature of the decision we are called to make now. With the addition of funds we could start to change that spectrum but just on the flat line of the resources we have to use now, that is the call we have to make. I don't want to make that call.”

Addington Highlands Deputy Reeve Bill Cox wondered how this entire scenario had come about. “All we needed to do was find a location to build a Northbrook base. Whose idea was it to do a new study? We just did one three years ago, and nothing has changed. Why is this happening now?” he asked.

“Because we are now facing building a new base for Northbrook, it means we will be in a fixed location for a long time, so we thought it only prudent to look down the road before making that sort of commitment,” said County Chief Administrator Larry Keech.

Keech then said that council need not rush into a decision on the Denbigh/Loyalist Township issue.

“This is a very weighty issue both for Loyalist and Denbigh. It should not be made in haste and council should feel all of their questions are answered. We look to council for the next step,” he said, “but we don’t want it to be necessarily forgotten either.”

Council asked for more detail about response times in Loyalist Township, and will look further at the matter next month.

There is no fixed time frame for a final decision.

On September 6, an open meeting was held at the Griffith Community Hall. Community response was very good, with 62 people in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to assess whether there was community support in creating a citizen-based and led organization to lobby appropriate levels of government to ensure that the present level of ambulance service provided to Griffith, Matawatchan and area continues.

The impetus for this movement came from a meeting that was held last week in Griffith by the Denbigh Ambulance Network. From that meeting there was a strong sense that this area needed to show its concern for the proposed changes being considered by the County of Lennox and Addington who are once again, seriously discussing the closure of the Denbigh Ambulance Base and moving it to the Northbrook/ Cloyne area.

The Denbigh Ambulance Base provides emergency service to rural areas of the bordering Counties of Renfrew, Hastings, Frontenac as well as Lennox and Addington. The closure of the Denbigh base would greatly increase the response travel time to the Griffith and Matawatchan Area to possibly more than an hour. This is unacceptable given the essential nature of access to medical treatment in a timely and professional manner - lives are at stake!

Lennox and Addington retained the services of IBI Group to carry out an “Ambulance Service Review Update”. This, in our opinion, was a very biased report, which concluded that the Denbigh Ambulance closure would definitely help the bottom line of Lennox and Addinton’s budget, while shifting the level of service to favour a more highly populated area of the county.

The Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network will be working closely with the Denbigh Community Ambulance Network and the Township of Greater Madawaska in presenting a more accurate assessment of the need and usage of the Denbigh Ambulance Base to the various levels of Government and insuring they are aware of the potentially dangerous impact of this possible decision to the residents of our area.

The Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network will represent the concern and interests of our area and will be led by a group of six local residents. Heading the Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network is David Parkes; members are Richard Copeland, Bill Shipley, Sandy Downs, Inez J. Allard, Kit Pullen. 

L-r: County of Frontenac CAO – Elizabeth Savill, CASC - Al Rankin, Frontenac Paramedic Services Deputy Chief  - Gale Chevalier, CASC - Ignacio Melgar, Warden Gary Davison, and CASC - Sherry Purcell.A retired Frontenac Paramedic ambulance has received a new assignment; to serve the public again in El Salvador. The recycling of surplus ambulances is part of the county’s continuing efforts under its “Green Initiatives” and its commitment to humanitarian requests.

The keys to the ambulance were presented to representatives of the Central America Solidarity Committee by Warden Gary Davison and Deputy Chief Gale Chevalier at a ceremony on August 4 at the county offices in Glenburnie.

“The ongoing investment in humanitarian needs is important to the County of Frontenac. The County Council has committed to donating one retired ambulance in each term of Council to Non-government Organizations (NGOs) to aid and assist in these organizations’ mission to assist the less fortunate in our world.” said Warden Davison.

Ms. Sherry Purcell and Mr. Alan Rankin, of the Central America Solidarity Committee, had attended a County Council meeting in November 2010 to request a donation of a retired ambulance, which their organization will fill with medical supplies and send to El Salvador. “Our organization, which has been in existence for 25 years, does public awareness and education as to the situation in Central America and also fundraising for medical supplies. We are very pleased to have received this donation from the County of Frontenac and its commitment to reaching outside our boundaries to people who need our help.” said Alan Rankin.