Support group in Winnipeg!!!

I talked to a friend of mine who goes to curves in transcona.  The manager at this curves had the RNY almost 4 years ago and told my friend about a support group that is offered in winnipeg.  They are called the snowbirds and they meet the third thursday of every month except december due to the holidays.  It is held in the basement at The chuch of the Way, 450 Lilac st, just off grant.  They start at 7 pm.  She said it is for pre ops and post ops.  It starts at 7 pm.  I'm going in January, boy do i need support.  Sure is hard to do it alone.  Hope to see some newbies there besides myself, lol.  take care all and happy new year!!!

 Thanks for sharing this with us!  I would love to be there as well, but not sure how it will work with my daughter as I have a 90 minute drive to Wpg.  
It sure would be great to meet others in our situation.  I will see what I can do.

there is a support group in Brandon called Snowflakes Support Group......contact, Bev K. @ 1-204-727-4075 .

Thanks for sharing this Sassy1696. I'll try to make it out on Jan 21/10. 

Hello Louise,
did you go to the support group meeting?  Just before my surgery, I believe it was in Dec 2007 I went to a meeting at that church at 450 Lilac.  It was very informal and I was not sure how often the group actually met... I had a lot of trouble finding information.  I did meet 2 woman who had the same surgery and had the same surgeon as I did so I was happy about that.

Just didn't like how complicated it was to find info and whether the group was going to meet for sure. 

I found out today from a doctor I work with that Dr Andrew & Dr Bracken are taking referrals, see my message on this forum.

Diane

omg you hit the nail on the head.  I went to the scheduled meeting for january 2010 and not one person showed up but me.  The pastor of the church was there and he said they have the room booked for the third thursday of every month but he wasnt sure if and when people came.  I sat for 30  minutes and left.  I was not impressed.  The pastor told me to call the secretary of the church the next day to try and get a contact number for whomever organized the group.  She still didnt call me back so i called her again today and she said she will call the gentleman again.  Sounds like it is not a very professional run support group.  I am not sure if i will try again, i guess it will depend if the secretary of the church calls me back with some positive info.  Yah i know about Dr. Andrew taking referrals, i saw him 2 weeks ago and he said he is hoping to have the program up and running by april.  He will only do the VSG right now.  He has two physicians from Toronto joining him and his bariatric team.  The 2 other surgeons are training in toronto right now and he is waiting for them to finish and than start up here.  He asked me if i had a lab protocol from my surgeon in toronto and he asked me for a copy.  I faxed his office one.  I guess he wants to see what surgeons in other provinces are checking as far as labs post gastric bypass.  He is taking out my gallbladder in February and i have to have an mri of my abdomen, he thinks i might me having bowel obstructions because sometimes i am in so much pain i cant stand it. I never went to Emerg, i just layed down and waited out the 2 hour attack.  Next time im going to sbgh emerg and having him paged.  This is getting to be to much already.  I should be healthy and on my way but im not.  Hopefully that will change soon.

take care.

Louise

Hello again,
Wow... it's too bad that you went thru all that trouble and no one showed up.

Lots of people post on this site and "no one" from that group ever replied to the question of "is there a suuport group? " so I never really believed the group was active.  Surely if it was, someone would reply on this forum.....

Hope all goes well for you.  Take care.
Diane

Hello,
I am hoping you are still around and would love to get some information from you. I live in Ste.Anne, very close to Beausejour!! I am desperate for surgery, I am an RN and really eager to research and found out how I can get this done.

Nicole

 Hi there:

Are you on Facebook? If so you can get my contact info there under cake pops  by Tracey. Better yet, email me and I will send you my number to call me.  [email protected]

Hi there:

I am in Beausejour and am scheduled for VSG on the 23rd of Feb, 2010. I just stumbled upon this thread and am sad to  hear that the support group is virtually non-existent.

My friend was banded in Mexico a year ago and was lucky enough to be the first person filled at the Maples that had her surgery out of the country. I was gonna get banded as well but Maples will not do fills for anyoneanymore who are done out of province or country for that matter. I tried a couple of other docs to see if they would do fills and no one will. The closest is in Saskatoon. I can't afford the $18,000 here so I am getting  a VSG done for $5500 in Tijuana. I am really disheartened at the very little support available here for people who want or have had wls.

My goal is that once I lose all the weight I want, I want to be a facilitator to promote wls in this province. I can't wait to see where I will be in six months.