OREGONIZER
The Official Newsletter of the IAWP Oregon Chapter
Greetings,
2025 is history, and 2026 is revving up. We are more than a quarter of a century into the 21st century. Amazing! You know what else is amazing – YOU. It’s the start of a new year and can be the start of a new you. This is an opportunity for you to do something new/different/amazing. You can do anything you set your mind to and IAWP would love to help. As a premium member, you’d have access to all kinds of e-learning opportunities provided by IAWP International.
This coming year we will also be providing lunch and learn’s, and other similar training opportunities. We are planning on having a Spring Educational Conference (more to come on that to come soon). We also have opportunities to get involved with the Oregon Chapter Executive Board if leadership is of interest to you. If so, please feel free to reach out to anyone on the Oregon Chapter Executive Board. We’d LOVE to have you get involved on the board. There are lots of opportunities for you for 2026.
We had a successful 2025. We provided some wonderful activities for our members and their families, including our annual picnic at Silver Falls, and of course – in December, The Salem Carousel. We recently finished up with that activity, and it went great… We had a LOT of families attend the event and everyone had a really GREAT time. We provided unlimited rides on the carousel, hot chocolate, cookies/brownies/cookie bark; candy canes and lots of other goodies. Santa was there and took pictures with people; we collected toys for tots; and had Valentines Day cards there for people to sign for our Veterans which we will deliver next Valentine’s Day. Overall, it was a FABULOUS event. If you are interested in being involved next year, reach out and we’ll be happy to get you involved.
As always, if you are interested in knowing more about YOUR IAWP Chapter, please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone on the board and/or you can reach out to the chapter by emailing: info@iawporegon.org.
Feel free to get ahold of me directly and let’s chat.
Looking forward to a successful 2026. Thanks for all you do. It’s an honor to represent you as your Oregon Chapter President.
Ron Sohnrey
President
IAWP Oregon Chapter
Tattoo's: Friend or Foe?
When having a meeting recently with a dermatologist to whom I refer patients, the topic of tattoos was discussed. As a chiropractor, I see more and younger patients making the lifelong commitment to graphic expression displayed just about any place they have skin. From my experience I have seen a clash between public health and popular culture related to tattoos – I wondered if the dermatologist had as well.
What I had seen in my practice was a variety of problem tattoos ranging from allergic reactions to tattooing ink, and the masking of cancers by the artwork itself. The problem is that most disease that shows up on the skin is detected visually upon either self-examination or professional examination/screening.
Anything that obscures visual detection of disease is potentially very dangerous. My dermatologist friend said he anticipates a correlation between the trending increase in the number of people electing to be tattooed and later detection of skin and/or systemic disease that presents on the skin.
Where the tattoo is placed, size and even the colors used in the art as well as individual considerations would be a great topic of a consultation with a dermatologist prior to making that commitment to indelible body art. The dermatologist can also inform the prospective tattoo recipient what to look for after the tattoo has been applied in regard to rejection and infection.
How we express our individuality as human beings changes with time, but the desire for expression remains constant. Why not make sure your expression is your friend and not your foe.
The “Cabbage” (CABG) Experience
by Steve Corwin
Let me say at the outset, bacon and butter are not your friends, but I will say more about that in a minute. If you hear medical professionals say the word “cabbage” what they mean is CABG. That is the acronym for Cardiac Arterial Bypass Graft. It is the operation you get if stents alone will not do the job of correcting your heart’s plumbing.
In my case, the main artery going into the left side of my heart was 90% blocked along with two others. My ICU RN daughter-in-law told me heart attacks caused by blockage of blood flow in that area of the heart are called “widow makers” because they starve your heart of oxygen rich blood and your tissue dies. You could have one of those widow maker heart attacks in the hospital and still croak. Mercifully, she waited to tell me this well after my surgery to correct the issue.
That was a sobering thought, considering that I had been dealing with angina pain in my chest since August 9. Whenever I did a task requiring a lot of sudden exertion I had severe chest pain. I tried to pass it off as failing to warm up properly before trying to shovel rock or mix concrete for the base of a retaining wall I was building. Things got worse. When I tried to place 35-pound blocks on the retaining wall I had to stop to rest after fitting a mere three blocks. Those pesky chest pains would flare up and I had to sit down for a spell before putting the next three blocks in place. I only managed to place 130 blocks that day.
"I wondered what was happening to me"......To read the Steve's entire article, CLICK HERE.
IAWP Mentorship Program Supports Career Development for Workforce Professionals
The International Association of Workforce Professionals (IAWP) is excited to announce the launch of its Mentoring Program. Click for more info
The Oregonizer
VOLUME 53, ISSUE 1
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE:
Ron Sohnrey
Steve Corwin
Steve Bent
Email: info@iawporegon.org
Website: http://iawporegon.org
Location: 2490 Fisher Rd NE, Salem, OR 97305