Support Groups

My surgery date is Sept 5 and I REALLY want to go to support group meetings after surgery. I live in Bowie and my surgeon's support group meets in Baltimore. Does anyone know of a support group closer to Bowie or Annapolis?? Thanks!!! Janet from Bowie

Janet WELCOME We have the same surgeon (Dr. K is the BEST) and I faced this exact same problem. I found a local support group and told him I would attend those meetings. I live 2 1/2 hours from B-more so it's just not possible for me to attend their support group on a weekday evening. I know that there are other support groups and I hope you get a response on here. Let me know if you have any other questions Tanya

Tanya, Thanks for the quick response! Hope all is going well with you! Thiink I'll attend Dr. K's support groups for a while and then maybe look for another one. Sounds like I'm pretty lucky to only have to drive 30 miles or so for my meetings!!! ...janet

Hi Janet, I would really encourage you to participate with your surgeon's group for at least the first year and use other groups to supplement the surgeon's group. My surgeon is in Salisbury and for the first year and most of the 2nd year, I faithfully drove to Salisbury (from Arnold) two Saturday mornings a month for group. I really miss that, but the Saturday group has been disbanded and it's hard for me to get to Salisbury mid-week by 5:30 for the weekly meetings. That being said, I am not sure there are any groups still active in the Annapolis area. We have an 'informal' group from here on the board that gets together periodically, but that is more of a social thing than a support group. We met for lunch at Arundel Mills on August 6 and are hoping to pick a date to get together late in September to meet some place for crabs. The group from here on the board tries to vary the location of our get togethers to give everyone a chance not to have to travel quite so far. Best wishes on your WLS journey and please keep posting here. Hugs, Mo

WOW ... You drove from Arnold to Salisbury TWICE a month! Here I am complianing about having to go 30 minutes away and you were driving ~2 HOURS away! You are probably right about going to my surgeon's group for a while. My surgeon performs two operations in a day and at his Pre-Op workshop I met the woman who will be the other person on Sep 5. She actually only lives a few BLOCKS from me! I'm hoping she'll want to go to the groups and will want to carpool. ...janet

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!!! Valerie Campbell runs a support group now meeting for the first time in Greenbelt at the Greenbelt Marriott. I believe it's the 3rd Thursday of every month at 6 p.m. for both pre and post ops. I'll post her link here once I find it or have her post a notice about the meetings. Good Luck and have a great day, ~shell

Greenbelt Support Group Meetings Follow-up THIS IS OPEN TO ALL!!!! I'm not one of Dr. Fullum's patients but I still attend due to my location. I live in Mitchellville. Attn: Dr Fullum's Patients Original Post by Valerie Campbell at 5:47 AM PST on 08/21/2006 Somewhere in Northern, VA - RNY (03/31/2004) Dr. Fullum's new practice cordially invites each of you to the open house being held tomorrow, August 22, 2006 from 6pm -9pm at University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore MD. It will be held in the Learning Centers Rms A,B,and C. Please note that our support group meetings will now be held on the 3rd Thursday of the month at the Greenbelt Marriott. I am heading up support group services. We have added another component, a pre-op mandatory class called Bariatric101. Dr. Fullum is implementing some really great things for us post-ops as well. Hope to see you there...

Thanks Valerie!! It's good to know there are other groups around. Sounds like (hopefully) one may soon be in Crofton/Odenton which would work wonderful for me! If it doesn't work out Greenbelt is definitely workable! Thanks for the info!! I read your profile and it sounds (and looks!) like you're doing great. Keep it up!!! ...Janet

Hi Janet I know what you mean. I live in Crofton and have to drive to Baltimore when I attend my first meeting which I havn't done yet and I am almost 2 months post op. There used to be one in crofton on defense highway but they put a hold on it. The person who was holding them had some personal things going on but they said they were just on hold not canceled. Maybe I'll post something to see if anyone knows anything lately. I will let you know as soon as I hear something Good Luck and best wishes on your upcoming surgery. Kelly

Hey Kelly, how about if we all just try and meet at the new Library accross from the exxon in Odenton? I can look into this over the weekend and see if they have a room on the side that we can try and schedule on a monthly basis. I've heard where others have done this at other librarys. It's worth a shot. I'll try and post back what I find out over the weekend. By the way how are you doing? I just had my 6 month appointment with Dr. Kligman and everything is going okay. Since the pre-op diet and surgery I've lost over 110 lbs. Robin D.