Hi all. My surgery is scheduled for Mon Oct 19-2015. My case manager told me I needed to attend a support group. So I went to my first one this past Thursday Sept 17-2015. I didnt know what to expect. We didnt have to sign in. I will mention that I have Kaiser and will be having my surgery in Richmond Kaiser. I live in Sonoma county and that is where my group was meeting at the Kaiser hospital in Santa Rosa Ca. The meeting was from 630pm-830pm. The first hour was a presentation from a psychologist about happy mind-happy lives and how we have to be positive. Anyways. the last hour was the best. There were 21 people meeting besides the nutritionist who was leading the meeting. At the end of the presentation the leader asked everyone to check in. So we went around the table and did a two minute check in with where we are. It was very interesting because there was a lady in there that was a week out of having gastric sleeve surgery. She had a pillow on her stomach and was sipping a bottle of Water. She said she was doing fine.Still sore but she was surprised that she could get the water down because she had heard that it was so hard to get the sips in.That was good to hear. Even though I know everyone is different. Another lady was three weeks out same surgery and she had an infection and was having to take antibiotics and they gave her pills she couldn't keep down the pills and they finally gave her liquid. She is doing better. There were three men there. There were people out a couple years and some were doing well and some were not doing so well but getting back on track. the lady next to me was five weeks out. I talked to her after the meeting and asked a lot of questions. Everyone was so supportive. I almost didnt go. I am so glad I went and will go next time on Oct 15 four days before my surgery. I hope I can come back to the next meeting and share my surgery experience. What do you do in your support groups? thanks for sharing.

Yay!!! Another Richmond Kaiser!!!

I go to the support group in Vacaville - we have a full range of patients - pre and post op. It's a good group to vent or ask questions because they understand where you are or might have the same questions as you down the line.

They can be entertaining, and people can begin arguing with one another, and a fight broke out at one of mine. Usually when people broach the subject of willpower, God, determination, and destiny, people get riled up and take sides and start to take things personally. However, that is still only a minor portion of what goes on, and since they are generally loosely moderated by a surgeon from the bariatric program at whatever institution is holding it, they stay on track and people give useful anecdotes and information relevant to your surgery. I didn't want to go to the one required for my pre-op, but once I did, I enjoyed it and I will be attending some post-op ones that are completely voluntary.

I like our support groups. They are very encouraging. Now that I'm a year out and won't have another f/u for a year, I plan to attend more. My program has them at varying time and locations so its easy to find one to drop in on.