Hi! This is my first post on this site. I was banded by Dr. Kurian at NYU on 9/2/2008. I am going to check out the support group meeting at NYU tonight. I'm hoping that I'll be able to learn about living with the band, what foods work and don't work, how to order food in restaurants, etc.

Has anyone attended these meetings? Are they worthwhile?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Maria

Hi Maria:

Congratulations on getting banded! I am in the pre banded stage so I haven't been to a meeting yet but would like to although I think there is an type error on the site because it looks like they have two post banded meeting but no pre banded. It looks an erorr.

Good luck tonight! Pls tell us how it went!

I don't think there's a support group for pre-banded. There were several people at the support group meeting that were going to be banded in the near future.

The program has 2 support groups for lapband patients, one is for patients 0-12 months after surgery, and the other is patients who had the surgery 1+ years.

I went to the support group, but I didn't realize there was going to be a guest speaker. I didn't care much for his presentation, but I did get alot of information from the people who were asking questions and sharing information during the time before and after the presentation.

I'm definitely going to go next month. I'm starting on solid foods on Sunday, so I'm looking for ideas and suggestions about eating in social situations, recipe ideas, etc.

Good luck with your surgery!

Maria

Glad you liked it. I didn't. There were too many long time bandsters at the 0-12 months meetings I attended in January and February that I stopped going. They weren't talking about the first few months after surgery, they were talking about their skin surgeries, cheating, etc. Oh and the ones that never dated and didn't know how to now. It was just too weird for me to hear this stuff after just having the life changing surgery.

I found that participating on this board was the best thing I could have done after surgery for support.

Thanks for the headsup Chrisann as I am not banded yet but I know that feeling of being in a meeting for help as a new person and people are already very settled in. Hope you have the support you needed in those few months after surgery!