Question:
Who

   — zoedogcbr (posted on August 8, 2003)

August 8, 2003
I'm not sure what happened to my title - lost in the cosmos or edited by moderator. Just trying to find out if the post-ops truly "own" the support groups and make the decisions or if the hospital and/or docs feel they "own" it?
   — zoedogcbr

August 8, 2003
Hi Chris- I am a pre-op. Because my surgeon is affiliated with a major hospital, the support meetings are held in a conference room at the hospital. They are organized by the nutritionist. She usually has everyone introduce themselves and tell the status of their WLS journey (post op, waiting, etc.) They hold 5 or 6 meetings a month, open only to WLS patients of my surgeon. Some of the meetings are for all patients, one is for post-ops only, one is for women only. Usually, a person who is post-op for a year or more will tell their story, and answer questions. I am only able to attend the daytime meetings, which usually have 60 or more people. I've heard the evening meetings have even more. There is no set fee, but the nutritionist passes an envelope if anyone would like to make a donation, as she is not paid for her time there. (She didn't do that at the last meeting so that may have changed.) They pass a sheet for everyone to sign in, as some people are required by insurance to attend a certain # of meetings. There is one woman who organized another smaller support group in her town, and I've heard that another woman is trying to start one. These 2 smaller groups take e mails or phone # of people who wish to give them to tell them about upcoming meetings. Good Luck to you :o) Mea
   — Mea A.

August 8, 2003
I have attended three different support groups and they are all supported by a Dr. there has never been a fee suggested or donation requested. In one group the dr himself actually began with a question and answer period then he left and a long time post op took over and everyone in the room got to give their name, and their place in the process of pre-op, post-op and their stats if they wanted. The second group was supported by a dr but run by a post op patient, it was a similar format. The third one is run by a surgeons physician assistant. He has a topic lecture for about 10 min, then lets the new, or pre-op ask questions, then lets the old timers ask questions, but usually the questions come from anyone that wants to answer. The PA will usually answer then usually a patient will make a comment as to if that was their experience or not. At two of these meetings the surgeon himself showed up and answered questions for 20 min or so. the office staff were there too to answer questions about cost, insurance etc.
   — sissie S.

August 8, 2003
I did not have my surgery locally. I traveled about an hour to go to a top surgeon (the local surgeon, who is the ONLY one in my area, doesn't have the best rep plus I was very high risk). There is no way I can make it to my surgeon's support group because of the time it meets, distance and traffic (I would have to leave at least 3 hours early to hope to make it in time). I have been going to a great support group about an hour from my home (in a different direction) in a smaller town. Very fun, open and supportive with about 15 people. There is no charge. The support group in my town told me that I was not welcome there since the local surgeon is not my doctor. This really pisses me off since it is the hospital (which has made LOTS of money off of me) not the dr that runs it. It is poorly organized without anyone in charge from what I have seen. One person gets up and tells their story and that's about it. There were at least 70 people at the one meeting I did go to and there was no charge. Even if they changed their minds and let me go, I wouldn't. I will continue to drive to the smaller town and be with a great supportive group of people. Durning the winther months it may be a long time between meetings I can attend. The roads tend to get realy bad. The funny thing is that most of these people had surgery with the surgeon here and don't like him either. They started their group because they didn't like the one here!
   — Kathy J.

August 8, 2003
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has two live support group meetings a month. The first one - open to all HUP patients (plus non-HUP patients if your surgeon doesn't have their own support grop) - is on the 2nd Saturday of the month (August's is today) from 10 am to noon. The meeting is free for pre-ops. Post-ops that had individual nutrition consults (which were done up until May 2002) pay $5 per meeting. Post-ops that had the group nutrition consult (which started in May 2002) do not have to pay the $5 (as the group nutrition consult had remained the same price as the individual ones). This meeting is run by the nutritionist and it starts by everyone introducing themselves along with either their surgery date or the amount of weight lost and a little bit about themselves. Then there is a Q&A session (with most of the answers provided by the posties) and a brief nutritional part (talk about protein or the different macronutrients or different types of fat). People usually hang around for a half-hour or so to chat. <p> There is also a "grad" support group meeting that runs on the first Tuesday of every month from 7:30 until 9. It's open to only those posties 7 months out or more. It's a significantly smaller group (about a dozen people). We still go around the room but don't have to introduce ourselves (as we all know one another in this meeting) and we talk about issues that are concerning us (stuff like regain and trigger foods and plastic surgery, etc). Currently, this meeting is on hiatus until September. <p> The regular meeting at HUP provides less value to the posties as time goes on. Many of us are there more to help the new people than for what we get out of the meetings for ourselves. That's why the grad meeting was established. <p> Chris - with the amountof people going through this surgery, it's hard to design one meeting to handle *everyone's* needs. You may want to suggest multiple groups to your surgeon...JR
   — John Rushton

August 8, 2003
I live 130 miles from where I had my surgery performed. There are several Drs. currently performing the surgery there. We have roughly 20 people locally who have had WLS - some LAP, some Open, some Fobi's, and I think one gastric LAP banding. The point of a support group is for support - Not to sell the services of one surgeon or another. We discuss all of the info given to each of us by our physicians and go from there. Support each other, and make your surgeon support you remember you paid him for his services and he/she works for you.
   — Suzanne B.

August 9, 2003
My group runs a 50/50 . . . you can purchase (for $1) anywhere from 1-5 tickets. Then they pull numbers out of a hat. Whatever has been collected, 50% goes to the group expenses, 50% goes to the person with the winning ticket. There's no obligation, some weeks I don't have the extra $1, some weeks I do. And there's also a donation jar . . . if you've got an extra dollar and want to throw it in or not, that's up to you. Linda
   — lorien

August 9, 2003
I had surgery at Bariatric treatment center and they have support groups all over the area , they are free and attended by people exploring their wls options to people several years post op. Most attendees had surgery at btc, however some did not. if yo need a free group see if there is a btc in your area, they are in Michigan, pennsylvania, ohio, Il, texas and arizona. I know they have many groups around their hospitals.
   — **willow**