This may be my last straw......

Well, as a newbie still in need of advice, reflection, support and whatever else, I beg all of you to stay.  I've gotten valuable insights from all of you after reading almost every post since January or so.  I can easily say that I wouldn't be as successful as I am without all your input.  Seriously.  

So while I understand the frustrations and I share them in many cases, here's my plea to ask you to stay!!!!!!!!  At a minimum, hang out here on the maintenance board.  I read both the main forum and this forum every day if possible.

Here's the problem with the vet's heading for the hills.  You leave the board to people like me.  Now, I'm pretty smart , and I think I 'get it,' but at 8 months out I know how to work my sleeve and move forward on a daily basis.  One of my biggest strengths, personally, is I know my limitations.  I know I'm not 'qualified' for lack of a better word to deal with the nuances of the problems newbies see after such a short period of time.

With regard to WLS, the sleeve, I'm still very new. I don't know how to deal with the doubts and confusion, etc., that test sleevers as they move past the honeymoon stage.  I'm still honeymooning.  I can parrot-back the advice I've gotten from the vets --and I live it every day.  Having said that, there are a lot of issues where I can sound very authoritative, but have no direct experience.  I've not stalled.  How do I advise someone on how to break a stall? 

If the vets leave the main VSG forum to the 'instant experts,' a great deal of mis-information will be spread in a giant internet version of the VSG telephone game. 

Edited: to remove the word Frankly I used at least 6 times.... Jeesh, must be late on the east coast or something.

I think it is normal and healthy to step back from the main VSG forum after about the two year mark.  I don't read every post any more and I only respond once in a while now.  I look for posts that specifically ask for VET help or are of a particular concern to me.  Otherwise I would go nuts.  I didn't even see the post you mentioned because I just skip anything that sounds this goofy.  I now post stream of consciousness posts that are really meant to cement something for me in my own mind, and it seems some people can identify with them.  Mostly that's all I do now.  Frisco, do what works for you, otherwise you will just leave OH entirely and that would be too bad for all of us.  You would be missed and not just by the newbies.

I'm just glad you're not checking out all together, Frisco! I rarely post anywhere on the forum now, but I do check in 3 or 4 times a month, read some posts on the different forums, and maybe respond to a couple. I would be sad if you left all together. I enjoy reading the posts of vets. It's where I get the best information relavent to where I am at in the journey.

I gave up on the VSG board a while ago. One thing I have noticed is that most of the questions are from pre-op and people less than 6 months out and most of them are answered quite well by folks h who are 6-12 months out.

Therefore, I don't feel like my participation is absolutely needed and it just drives me crazy to read some of these threads so I don't.

Well I have been thinking about this post and the threads it relates to. Frisco, I don't blame you a bit for wanting to back off from the main vsg forum. It can be frustrating to answer the same things over and to see that some people are immediately trying to game the system and haven't made the mental commitment that is necessary to succeed. And no amount of answering posts about eating particular foods can solve that problem. So if it drives you nuts , by all means back away but please stay with us here. You have a lot to offer and some things to gain.

I still peruse the vsg main forum from time to time and answer things where I think I have some insight or can be of help, but there is so much I can't read it all anymore. I do think there are people out there whose surgeons and dieticians are not giving adequate information (or else the patient is just not absorbing it) and those people need to be pointed in the right direction.

When I was back in the midwest a few months ago I was asked to speak at my brother's weight loss support group. Most people had not heard of OH and were being advised to eat cream of wheat in the mushy stage and I think the surgeon was telling them to eat whatever they could tolerate. It made me cringe. I made sure my brother got my surgeon's program and information on what I think is a better way to proceed. I made some suggestions about ways to get more protein like mixing the sugar free pudding with greek yogurt and a little protein powder. There were people with all types of surgery including new sleevers and they had no information about some of these things we take for granted. So because I got so much help from people on the main vsg board I am not going to stop visiting but there are limits to what any of us can do. Its the natural order of things for people 6 months out to answer the newbie questions and for us who have reached goal to answer for those getting close.

But the main thing is we all get support and knowledge here that we are going to need to some degree for the rest of our lives. And some of us have little else in the way of support. So those of us at goal lets keep checking in here and sharing. There is always new knowledge and experience to share.   Diane

I rarely go there anymore myself.  And being the big mouth that I am, I just had to respond to her thread. 

If she fails 3 days out, we all know how well her losing and maintaining days will go.  Sad.