WeightWise Folks - Information Needed

WeightWise Folks:

Dr. Keller is needing your input on what you think about Support Groups and what you want to get out of them.  As you are aware, our two PouchWise groups have gotten really full since the latter part of 2007 and standing room only is not where we really want to be.  Dr. Keller mentioned at the last PW group that he might consider going to every Thursday evening but we need to figure out how to structure them. 

Here is where you come in:  1)  Do you appreciate, enjoy, utilize the educational portion (1st hr) of each session?  2)  If you HAD to change anything (besides the group size) what would YOU do - how would you like to see it structured?  3)  Would you like to make it shorter with it only being a roundtable session and no educational portion?  4)  Would you prefer to have a guided/group discussion type session with a topic to work with?  5)  What other ideas or things would you like to see happen at support group?

If you would feel better sending me a pm - that is fine or we can discuss openly - whatever works for you.  The information will be forwarded to Dr. Keller to share with the "powers" at WW/FBH to help figure out what to do in the future.

My 2 cents here:  Things we need to consider is that 1)  New patients to the program are required to attend at least one session.  2)  Some of us are going to have to go back to just one session a month in order to make sure we have places for the extra people - we'll need to utilize our OH Support stuff  to get our "extra" kick in the pants!  3)  We will need to have post-ops at each session to help information wise like we do now.  4)  It will not be as overwhelming to the newbies to come in to a SG that is not jammed to the walls and rafters.  5)  It will kick me in the pants to get the resource book for the outlying SG's put together ASAP!!! So that we can offer these additional options for everyone.

Okay - lets hear your feedback so that I can forward the information back to Jim as quickly as possible.  Thank you in advance for all your help!  We all know how uncomfortable the SG's have been recently due to the amount of bodies in the room.  Love to all.......

EDIT:  Thanks to all who will respond - I am not going to answer back so that I don't taint the information flow.  I want you to feel comfortable sharing as much as you would like so that I can forward true distinct information to Dr. Keller.  So don't think I am not reading them, I am!!  And FYI - Dr. Keller's back up is probably going to be me at this point - we can't expect Jim to take on an additional 2-3 meetings each month and I (for one) would not think of asking him to with his current schedule.  So, I'll hopefully get to do what I trained for! 

Just my 2 cents worth:  I totally enjoyed Dr. Keller's talk this past meeting.  It was my favorite so far.  I think the other educational parts I have seen could be scaled back to 30 minutes so that there is more time for guided group discussion.  I think we need to have someone moderate or guide the discussion so no one person hogs the floor and so we can keep it moving. Dr. K does a great job of this.  I like the idea of a specific topic to guide the group discussion and then maybe the last 15/20 minutes have open forum for people to celebrate their success or address a concern.

A shorter education session might allow us to get out at 7:30 instead of 8:00.  An hour and a half support meeting sounds more appealing than two hours.  But again, that is just one person's view point. 

Hi, Ruth.
I hesitated responding, since I've only been to one support group meeting, but here goes...
It is true that the crowd there, while wonderful, would be very intimidating to most new people. I'm sure that many more people would have spoken up, had there been the opportunity. It was nice to hear the updates, of course, and there should be some success stories at every meeting, in my opinion.
Easy for me to say, but I would think that a weekly support group meeting would meet more needs and, hopefully, reduce crowd size.
Personally, I felt the 2-hour meeting was too long, but that may have been because I'd been awake since 2 a.m., after having been asleep for only 4 hours (but that's another story). :) Getting home at 11:00 was difficult for us. Even if a meeting was devoted to a topic, I would think one hour would be sufficient. Speaking as a former teacher, it's easy to lose one's audience after that amount of time. I would recommend 7-8 pm.
I'm pre-op, but I can see that I would have many questions closer to my surgery date and, especially, soon afterward. It's important to give time for questions, which Dr. Keller tried to do. Again, the crowd size may have been a factor in so few speaking up.
Perhaps, with a weekly one-hour meeting, it could cycle through as follows (just for example): 1st Thurs. of each month is a topic-focused meeting, perhaps with a special guest.
2nd Thurs. could be for pre-ops and early outs. A small portion could be educational, as in focusing on the early stages of eating, etc., but the majority of time would go to Q & A.
3rd Thurs. could be for those who are 1-5 years out. A small portion could be "reminders," but most of the time would go to sharing and caring.
4th Thurs. could be for those who are over 5 years out, and, along with encouraging one another, ideas could be shared about how to "give back," make arrangements for various activities (like the Walk you mentioned), etc.  I was thinking today that I bet there are many of us who would like to see some fund established, where donations could be accepted and fundraisers accomplished, and then, when there's enough money, people without insurance could apply for a scholarship.
Since pre-ops are required to attend at least one support group meeting, they should have their choice of meeting. 
Well, I don't know if this helps, but I'll borrow from AA's philosophy, "Take what you want and leave the rest." :)
Blessings,
Mary

I'm not a big fan of the first hour as a general rule.  I always listen and sometimes it works for me, but mostly I wait for hour 2.  My inspiration is to hear other people's stories, experiences and emotions.  I love to hear how much has been lost and in what period of time.  (But I loved hearing from the plastic surgeon!)

Seems obvious to me that we are going to have to have more support group meetings.  Maybe they could do a topic every other week and round table discussion only on the other weeks?  Although Keller is the best, they need someone else to moderate so he gets a break.  I also agree with Amy that the topic portion could be shorter so we have more time for round table discussion.  But I don't mind the 2 hour meeting.  Heck, I'm usually there way after 8:00 anyway.

Wow!  I didn't really help at all, did I? 

I say keep the two hour session, but maybe cut the educational part down to maybe 30 minutes...otherwise my attention wanders. that way we would be able to have an hour and 1/2 of round table, maybe with a specific topic, maybe not. I always get more motivation from the round table discussion anyways, but the informational stuff is good to know too.


What they might have to end up doing is having people sign up for the SG meetings in advance, kinda reserve their spot, that way they will have a general idea about who will be there.

It's one of those things - everybody has one, and they're usually worth what you pay for them... here's my free opinion, so take it for what it's worth...

I do think that having post-op folks present for the Support Group/Seminar that is required for the pre-ops is critical to the process.  If you can't see and hear the people on the road ahead, you don't have a good picture of where you're headed.  I just think that the pre-ops need to be more able to ask questions and get answers.  Between the size of the group and the fact that it's usually mostly post-op folks closest to the speaker, it seems like there is not much interaction from the majority of the pre-op folks in the meetings.

BUT - the farther I have gone out from surgery, the less I have personally gotten from the group.  Not to say that I don't enjoy the time, but as far as actually being able to discuss issues that are going on with me, there just isn't the time/space/opportunity in between all the "regular business" that has to take place under the current format.  I thought that we started off towards several interesting and in-depth topics last week, but then we were never able to really get to the meat of the discussion before veering off to skim over something else.  I know it would be difficult, but I think it would be helpful to have at least one meeting monthly that was for post-ops only.  This would alleviate the obligatory introductions, signature on the paperwork for your chart, and discussion of who's who.  That alone would save 20 minutes or so of time that could be devoted to either guided or open discussion. 

AND - just the last couple of times I've been to Support Group, I have started to get the feeling that those of us who are more active/visible here at OH might be 'clique-ing" so much that pre-ops and the technologically challenged/uninterested may be feeling left out of some of the group activity.  It just seems that we are enjoying our chance to see each other so much that it's hard for others to break in and draw from our experience/knowledge.  Not exactly sure what to do about this...maybe it is just my perception, but I definitely felt it at the last meeting, and then there were several comments here on the forum over the following couple of days from people who wished they had introduced themselves at the meeting, but didn't.  I just hate the thought that anyone on this journey would feel left out by us - we've all been left out too often in our lives to let this happen to our fellow travelers at the support group.

AND - I enjoyed Dr. Keller's presentation a lot, and the one from Dr. Panchal.  I didn't get much out of the presentation from the folks from the store... it felt a little "sales pitch-y" to me.  I know that wasn't the intention, I just didn't feel like that was really worth the time that could have been put towards discussion or instruction on some other topic.  Maybe that was just me... not sure...

I can't say enough how important I feel the continuing program is to our success.  My mother had RnY somewhere else, and there was virtually no post-op support.  She's done OK, but certainly it could have been easier with support like what we get from WW. 

Not sure I've given much more than ramblings here, but maybe if you get enough ramblings, smart people like you and Dr. Keller can make something out of them.

John

 

I don't know about throwing this in, but maybe have non Weight Wise patients in one session, and WW patients in another. It seemed that the night I was there,  there were many non WW patients. I don't have a problem with anyone going but just thought this was something to think about....I also agree that Pre-op and early post op patients may need more info and Dr. Keller would be good for that. I think that maybe a couple of further along patients could be asked to come share on those nights, while maybe those on the bench already, might just want to encourage each other by discussing things with each other on a different session. I think your task will be a difficult one, but you are the woman for the job!! 

I live in the Dallas Texas area and was in Edmond last week for a checkup.  I managed to get into town in time to catch the support meeting at Weight Wise.  I attend 2 separate support meetings here and both are great.  One is more of a chat session at Starbucks and the other is a sleeve only group.  Both are led by OH certified leaders.  I am very appreciative of both, especially the one at Starbucks because it is right by my house.  I live way out so that is really something special.

HOWEVER, I so enjoyed the support meeting at WW.  I was thrilled to hear a meeting actually led by Dr. Keller, who I think is wonderful.  I very much liked the personal updates, etc.  I have shared this information with several of my WLS buddies.  My daughter went to Dr. Broussard and is 5 weeks ahead of me.  She and I were shopping today discussing this issue.  
 
I heard Dr. Keller talking about the many people who are coming to Edmond for their surgery that live far away.  I heard Kansas, Virgin Island, Louisiana and Texas.  Because so many of us live so far away, is there some sort of  You Tube type of deal that we all could benefit from the resources that Weight Wise has to offer.  Of course, we should only be allowed to enter by giving a WW provided password. We all paid the same price for our surgeries, and actually even more.  Because we "out of towners" had the added expense of driving or flying, hotel for ourselves as well as our spouse/angel to watch over us, eating out for our normal people, going back to Edmond for checkups with all the associated expenses, etc.  I believe that something more should be done to insure that we all get to benefit from WW support meetings.  Until I actually attended one, I didn't care because, as I said, I have two great ones available to me here.

In this day and time, I know that all the educated brains at WW can get together and figure this thing out.  As we all know, doctors who do not  perform our surgeries do not want us attending their support meetings.  We're "tainted."

As good as all the educational sessions have been, I always enjoy the 2nd hour more. I did notice that since the whole meeting ran over last time many people left even before the second hour. I think a 1 - 1 1/2 hour weekly open session, with a moderator, might work. You could do a 2 hour session once a month or once a quarter to include an educational session. The real question is how to split the post ops up amongst the weeks. There is a fairly good size group that sticks together!

Okay...here goes:  THE FOLLOWING SUBJECT MATTER IS OPINION ONLY.  Please don't hate me because I'm anal-retentive....I can't help it:

1) I have enjoyed a couple of the education sessions, but the one from the store and the one from the exercise physiologist did seem "sales-pitchy" as John said earlier.  I don't think it is feasible to assume that we can all drive to Edmond to exercise or to buy from the store.  Especially as high as gas is these days.  My suggestion here would be to have one education-only session quarterly.  That way, we'd attend, only expecting to be "educated".

2) My change would be to have weekly 1 - 1 1/2 hr sessions for post-op discussion and question/answer sessions for the pre-ops.  I also feel that the pre-ops don't have enough opportunity to ask questions....however; we post-ops need to have time to discuss issues and ask questions as well.   Perhaps designating a time frame (30 min to 1 hr) for each would be beneficial.  That way, pre ops could ask their questions in the first portion and not feel obligated to sit in for the remainder of the meeting if they were not interested. 

3) I would like the meetings be shorter with no educational portion.  I'm sure it takes a lot of time for Dr. Keller to come up with a presenter for each meeting.  Quarterly education seems to be the way to go here (just my opinion)

4) A guided group discussion sounds wonderful to me.  That way we are able to get in depth with important subjects.  Lord knows we "chat" enough here on the boards, and I'm afraid (also mentioned before) that some people get frustrated and leave because they aren't included...

5) I'd like to see us discuss topics that are important to both pre-op and post-op patients (perhaps a "suggestion box" or something to prep for meetings prior to arrival).  I have a friend who stopped attending the meetings because she says she doesn't get anything out of them...her exact words were "it seems like those meetings are more for meeting the attendance obligations of the pre-op patient & I get nothing out of them.  I'm not wasting my time..." or something like that...

Don't get me wrong, I love any time we can get together and just have fun, but I feel that support group meetings are intended to provide support and  knowledge for all who attend.  We can have fun and do our visiting at the meet & greets and non-structured events...anyway, there you have it for what its worth.