Hi there all you Maysters 2008

On behalf of all of the Maysters of 2007, we wish all of you the very best with your surgery dates. Just a year ago, we were where you are now and what an exciting ride it has been for all of us. Kristy (surgery May 2008) stopped over to our the May 2007 board and said hello and asked us veterans to at least stop over to say hi. I found it very helpful to go over to other "month" boards to see what kinds of questions they had at the month pre-op or two months after. I could then anticipate what kinds of issues I would be dealing with ahead of time. I documented my process on my profile. If you are interested in what was going on inside my head as I progressed, I did a fair job of documenting my journey. There are many good graduates that you can read about to learn more. Some of my best education came from going over the profiles of the Maysters from 2006. Just try not to worry about the surgery itself. It will be over before you know it and you will have a whole new set of things to be focused on. Enjoy the moment and savor those surgery days. I know it is hard to believe now, but you will likely look back on those early days with such fond memories. If you are not close to your eligiblity weight, I encourage you to lose as much as you can before surgery. I lost 36 pounds before I even started the liquid diet. Now that it is a bit harder to lose, I'm SO happy that I got a jump on the losses. NOW FOR THE BEST NEWS OF ALL. My dear wife is likely going to be a Mayster, Junester or Julyster of 2008. She sees how happy I am now and is so pleased with my success that she is going to have the same procedure...RNY for both of us. I'm having a harder time finding the time here over at the Obesity Help because I'm so busy living life now (just like you will in just a year). I'm coaching my intramural basketball team for the first time and find that I have a good sense for this. I'll stop rambling now and just wish you all the best. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Also, if any of you would like to link as a friend in order to stay in touch, feel free to do so. Best wishes...and stay calm and enjoy the journey. John (May 31, 2007 and down 152 pounds) P.S. If you want to build a close May 2008 board, someone will have to send messages to people (as they get their dates) to let them know that a month board exists. We (May 2007) became very close because everyone was hooked in ahead of time and we have bonds that will last the rest of our lives. We even used the chat feature (weekly chats) for the entire month of May to talk about issues that we had at a time when we were scared as we could be. It was good to have some new friends to lean on.

Thank YOU John!

Thanks John for helping us out. That is a really good idea to read the months around our surgery dates. I have just read the May psots, most anyway, so I think I am going to lurk around those other months for a bit too.