Glad you liked 'em !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Deb did you check on the VSG and insurance boards?

Why hello Welcome to the MA board .. great group of gals here!! I'm sure there's gotta be some local groups up in the Needham/Boston area for you ... I go to an awesome local group but we are in Bridgewater .. not far from Boston but not as close as you'd like!

Congrats on your upcoming surgery!! Nov 1st will be here before you know it - great support on this board and let us know if we can help in ANY WAY!!!

Hi all,
Apologies if this has been asked and answered a 100 times.  I'm looking for a casual support group in the Boston area to join.  I'd prefer something not connected to a Dr. or a hospital as I'm looking for a more intimate setting.  (I imagine just a group of friends getting together discussing how they're all doing).  I'll still go to my Surgeon's sessions once a month...but they're more akin to an information session than a support group. 

I work in Needham...live in Cambridge / Somerville...happy to travel within the 128 metro area. 

I don't know anyone in real life going through this and I know I'll be so much more successful if I have some live support every now and again.

A bit more about me in case it's helpful.  Early 30s, female, working professional.  RNY scheduled for November 1st!  (I can't wait!)

If there's not already something like this, would anyone be interested in meeting up?

 So.. finally have an appt. with Dr. Pecquex. I can't believe how hard it was to lose when I wasn't focused and how easy it has become now that I've committed to a gym schedule and counting calories with an app on my blackberry. 

Of course the already long journey has bumps still, as I need a full GI consult prior to scheduling a date. I'm pre-op and already having problems with food sticking... even when chewed very well. Barium swallow showed small heria, but supposedly it's nonconstricting. Being a speech-language pathologist, I know a lot about swallowing disorders and have a feeling I'll be having an esophageal dilation. Yay. Not.

I'm feeling really motivated, but at the same time really...lost. My mom is saying that if I lost 15 lbs in 6 weeks, I can just keep going and why bother with the surgery. And it starts to ring more nicely in my ear every time... No need to take off 6 weeks of work, especially starting a new position that I could lose unless I wait a year to be eligible for FMLA.... No recovery... No morphine (that whole family makes me so sick)... but I've been down this road so many times. I've probably lost and gained thousands of pounds by now.

I just still feel a stigma.. even within my own family... that I'm somehow doing the wrong thing. And it's really disheartening. It's bad enough to struggle with my own doubts.. but to have a very influential (probably too influential seeing as I'm 25 and married) person openly disagreeing.. I just.. feel unsure.