Venue: Castello's Cucina, Living Choice
Guest Speaker: Dianna Lynch
Guests: and 2 assistants with Rob Freak
Attendance: 32 members 2.5 guests
Opening
Jerry Casburn invoked with a Peachmanesque saga extolling Australian virtues and drawing a tenuous link with the ideals and objectives of Rotary. It took a while.
President John welcomed Robert Freak's carers and dog, being the only non-Rotarians present other than the speaker who was also welcomed.
He announced the resignation of Rajat Nagpal, a shame really, I like Rajat, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
He also talked of an option for our Christmas event called Santa's Snowy Christmas, a large event in which we might participate that has entertainment and dancing. He will send out information to guage the level of interest. At any rate, planning needs to start and he will get a team onto it.
Guest Speaker: Dianna Lynch - Cardiac Care
Paul Duke introduced Dianna Lynch, a clinical nurse specialising in Cardiac Care. She works at Ashford Hospital aiding folk through the process of cardiac surgery. The whole subject of cardiac care and the prevention of heart disease has been her life's work and she's been important in lots of associations and networks.
We should care about this too, being statistically closer to death than 85.3% of the population, and because statistically, heart attacks will claim a quarter of us. More than all cancers. In Australia, someone has a heart attack and dies every 12 minutes. Putting the all these statistics together, we were lucky to make it through the meeting!
Dianna gave us a run down on the the components of the cardiac system being the heart, the blood and the vessels and the systems themselves being mechanical, electrical and plumbing. She gave us a lot of information that boiled down to us being born perfect and going down hill from there. Our blood vessels can collect plaque around the sides, after a while the blood can catch on the plaque, clot and block the plumbing, the blood stops flowing, the heart stops working, and that's never a good thing.
There are things you can't do anything about like your ethnicity (some races are more prone), gender (men more likely to succumb than women), menopause of both gender types (more likely to have a heart attack afterwards), and personality type (stressful personalities being the most at risk).
But there are things you can do something about like not smoking, not being too fat, avoiding stress, controlling cholesterol, managing alcohol intake, and walking a lot.
We can also be alert to the warning signs, including shortness of breath, pain in certain parts of the body (like the jaw, chest and left arm), pins and needles, nausea, swelling of the legs and feet, fatigue, lethargy, feeling cold, sweatiness, dizziness and a back up of fluids to name a few (a normal night for many of us). Women are more likely to go down the dizziness/heartburn/nausea/tiredness path and men down the pain path which is more of a call to action. Consequently women are more likely to go undiagnosed.
The key message is that if things don't seem right, do something about it. See a doctor, get an ECG, have a blood test, do a stress test, get a cardiogram and/or an angiogram. And if you think you're having an attack call an ambulance.
There were lots of questions, Dianna was thanked by the President and given a bottle of poison to consume responsibly.
Dinner Time Video
Fellowship was off the table this week. When the meals were served, President John fired up a video of an address by our new District Governor Craig Dowling, who comes from Loxton, and wants to get his message out quickly so we can all hit the ground now rather than sitting on our arses waiting for him to visit. He reminded us that we're meant to be creating hope in the world and asked us to beef up our international activity.
He enunciated our priorities:
- to keep doing what we're doing
- to empower girls
- and to not simply ask if others are OK, ask if they're really OK. (editorial note: don't ask if you don't have have a plan about what you might do if they're neither OK nor really OK!)
He reminded us that we are a pilot district for a regionalised governance structure for Rotary and we should all grasp the nettle and embrace the opportunity (my cliches)
He also advised that the first club in District 9510 (the Adelaide Club) was started 100 years ago and the legacy project aims to improve indigenous life expectancy by financing a detailed research project and setting about implementing the findings. The total cost will be $280,000 over 3.5 years, mostly funded by the Adelaide Club, but he asked clubs to consider a contribution.
SPOTS
Brendan Kenny asked us to get our wine orders in soon. He also promoted the Romac Quiz Afternoon to be held at Pulteney Grammar on 29th October. He will distribute a flyer.
Patsy Beckett Promoted the Car Rally that's now been shifted to Sunday 5th November in the hope that Stephen Baker will be available to win it again. To rub salt in to Stephen's gaping wound from the lack of success last time, she presented the trophy to Rhoda and Roger Hoare to celebrate their victory.
Hopefully this will inspire Stephen to a quick and compete recovery.
Jerry Casburn, energised by his success while invoking, told us of the project at Calperum Station where painting is needed quickly. They are going up 31st August and staying until 3rd September and would dearly love a bigger team to help get the job done.
Finale
Brendan Kenny was rewarded for his spot by will the filthy luger and Leonie Kewen took home the chockies.
President John told a joke about a frog being dissected in a biology lesson. and was about to close the meeting when Ronda Hoare emboldened by the receipt of a trophy claimed a late spot to welcome Judi Corcoran to the meeting and to tell us she'd be away for a two months, and back just in time the break Stephen's heart once again in the car rally.
The meeting closed a little ahead of time.
Jane and Arlene are outside their nursing home, having a drink and a smoke, when it starts to rain. Jane pulls out a condom, cuts off the end, puts it over her cigarette, and continues smoking.
Jane: You can get them at any pharmacy.
