Hey everyone going through Kaiser Richmond!!

Where are you in the process?

Cheers christine to good health, big weight loss hot new bodies and lifetime friendship!!!!!!!!!! And to all of us

I can't wait to see everyone Thursday:D

Everyone sounds to be doing soo wonderful!!!!:ohmy:

You gals have hit on the #1 reason for success, and that it SUPPORT!!!! Keep it up, you are ALL doing great!

Christine, you had better bop on over to the hospital wing and visit me on Monday the 23rd!!! My surgery is at 8 and they said I should be out of there by 2.

Tina, pre-op classes are VERY informative, they tell you all of the stuff you really NEED to hear . . .for me, the #1 thing they said was that they had never lost anyone of the table, ever! My #1 fear is not waking up from surgery, and that's just about eliminated now. I was irritated by a few folks in the class who asked really lame-o questions that normally would come up in orientation class, not in the very last class before surgery . . . .

My orientation was November 2nd, my surgery is February 23rd. When I went to orientation, Liz said that about twice a month they had a superstar that did everything they were supposed to do and lost their weight by their surgeon appointment, and they were rewarded by fast-tracking. I vowed to be one of those people - and I was! So are you!!!

Riley, I remember Liz talking about "fast trackers" and I came home that day and told my hubby there was no way this was gonna take me 6-12 months and that I was gonna be one of the people that were on the "fast track". I'm so proud that I did it and will do what I set out to do!

I would love to come see you on the 23rd! Do you think you'll be up for a visitor just a couple ours out of surgery? Do they allow visitors? I guess they do, if you can have family come with you for surgery. That would be awesome to see you on the big day!

Did they schedule your pre-op classes before you went to your CM appt or at the end of the CM appt? That would be so cool if they'd schedule them now so we could get them done possibly before the CM appt and our surgery dates could be set sooner. :ohmy:

Do you know how often they have them the pre-op classes? I think I heard 2 times a month...

Oh I would love to have visitors, my BFF Mary Jo and my son Daniel will be there, and they said that they won't let them in to see me until after I have gotten out of recovery and been down to have my barium swallow, then they park me in a recliner in a room until I can walk around and keep liquids down. I can have visitors then! I would finally get to meet you! I hope I'm not too out of it to remember you . . . LOL

They schedule the pre-op classes, the pre-op lab work, and the last visit with the surgeon at the end of the CM appointment - and you get your SURGERY DATE during the appointment! You get the surgery date then they work back from there, they want you to do the last surgeon visit and the 2 classes and the final medical pre-op with Tom Greenwood about 2 weeks before surgery. You won't get those appts. any earlier, and the labs are only good for 30 days. They did give me another visit with Dr. Baggs that same day (it was Monday, and I had just had my first visit with him on Friday!) and they set my surgery date 30 days out. They actually tried to give me an earlier date (Wednesday the 18th), but I already had the week of the 23rs off work so I asked for that date and got it. I feel really spoiled!

Sounds good, I'll come and see ya then and hopefully you'll remember me! LOL.

I'm so excited to have a date in my head now, the tough part has been knowing that I'll eventually have a CM appt...BUT WHEN?!?! It's much more fun to have a day to count down to...10 days left. WOOHOO!

So you could've had only a 3 week wait for surgery, that's awesome. I hope Dr. Fisher's schedule is open enough that I only have to wait 3 weeks. That would be the middle of March! (I love that Feb is a short month!)

So do you know how often Liz does the pre-op classes?

I don't know how often she does them. But I can tell you that there were 14 people in my class, and they had surgery dates from the middle to the end of February, so I would say every 2 weeks.

Cool, that's what I thought...every couple weeks/twice a month.

Yea I was too.. i was at goal at my Psych appt, but i was not so lucky at getting early appts, my surgery is 3/31but it cold have been 3/3 but i have a trip in march.. But yeah it would have been nice to be a fast tracker:D

You gals have hit on the #1 reason for success, and that it SUPPORT!!!! Keep it up, you are ALL doing great!

Christine, you had better bop on over to the hospital wing and visit me on Monday the 23rd!!! My surgery is at 8 and they said I should be out of there by 2.

Tina, pre-op classes are VERY informative, they tell you all of the stuff you really NEED to hear . . .for me, the #1 thing they said was that they had never lost anyone of the table, ever! My #1 fear is not waking up from surgery, and that's just about eliminated now. I was irritated by a few folks in the class who asked really lame-o questions that normally would come up in orientation class, not in the very last class before surgery . . . .

My orientation was November 2nd, my surgery is February 23rd. When I went to orientation, Liz said that about twice a month they had a superstar that did everything they were supposed to do and lost their weight by their surgeon appointment, and they were rewarded by fast-tracking. I vowed to be one of those people - and I was! So are you!!!

You are a fast tracker, Nicole! You busted butt as far as you could and would've been 4 months from orientation to surgery 3/3, that's super fast! You opted to have the later date cuz of the convention, so you're still a fast tracker in my book. :ohmy:

Aww thank you:) I wonder where the people in our orientations are today.....:ohmy:

You are a fast tracker, Nicole! You busted butt as far as you could and would've been 4 months from orientation to surgery 3/3, that's super fast! You opted to have the later date cuz of the convention, so you're still a fast tracker in my book. :thumbup:

It's funny that you mention that. I had exchanged emails with a girl at my orientation (who lived in Sac) and last week I emailed her to see how she was doing and let her know how I was doing...I still haven't heard back. I'm thinking that's not a good sign.

I've heard that only about 10% of some orientation classes make it through the process . . . . clearly those of us with GREAT SUPPORT make it faster! Thank you ladies!!

That is sad, because we all really deserve to loose this weight. And why in earth would they go thru the games to even get orientation! Like seriously!!!

Oh well we are here!!:frown: And in Dec we will all be super small!

I don't have the best support system, every day someone tells me i dont need it, like my mom and friends.. They say how well im doing on my own, i said yeah but, that always stops! And i can still eat as much as i want if i want.. Plus, my mom is overweight herself, if i could do this so well on my own, why does she also have issues??? She of all peopleshould know how this is!!

Ok girls! Why don't we meet at NOON on Thursday, February 19 at BJ's Restaurant in Natomas? The address is 3531 N. Freeway Blvd and the phone number there is 916.570.1327. Then whoever wants to can do some shopping afterward! I know I will. :frown:

BJ's has a huge menu with lots of salad and soup options if we're wanting to keep it pretty light, and it's right in the middle of all the shopping areas across the parking lot from Target and Old Navy.

Please RSVP in this thread so we have an idea of how many will be meeting up and I can call ahead and get us a booth. This will be fun!