Question:
How do you keep the pre and post ops from getting bored at SG?

I am looking into starting asupport group in my area (there is none, but a lot of people are registered here). My questions is if you have an open to the public meeting, how do you address both the pre ops and post ops needs without the other getting bored or confused? Do you hold a Pre op WLS 101 class and a seperate one for posties?    — Pookie B. (posted on March 19, 2003)

March 19, 2003
No pre-ops are allowed at my support meetings. All docs run things differently I guess. mine has informational meetings twice a month for pre-ops and newbies but they must wait until after surgery to come to a support meeting. How can a pre-op relate to our issues?
   — Delores S.

March 19, 2003
Ooohhh, good question. Your right, its difficult to have pre and post-ops together. I have one support group meeting where that occurs and the entire time, we post-ops are answering questions from the pre-ops and we never get to our issues. I attend a 2nd support group that is much larger and after the initial discussions that apply to the entire group, like a guest speaker, we break into subgroups depending on how far out you are. The 1 year or longer group, which is me, has a good 15-20 people in it and I love that!
   — Cindy R.

March 19, 2003
I can only add that as a pre-op who attends a large support group, with a mix of pre- and post-ops, it has it's good and bad points...good, it's great to hear from those who have been there, and see their results, and hear the issues they have, to know where you may be heading. Bad, is that often I feel as a pre-op, our questions and concerns are blown off, and only the post-op ones are given any attention. Another downside to the mix, is that many post-ops have no problem telling pre-ops to switch doctors, or that theirs is best...this has led to some dissention in our group. As another poster listed, after the main meeting, smaller groups do form and I really like that... but it does appear to offend others who feel left out... not sure what the answer is for you...but thought I'd share my experience.
   — Kelly B.

March 19, 2003
Pookie Bear - the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has two support groups - one for post-op "grads" of 7 months or greater and the regular meeting for everyone. <p> As far as what the first respondent said about pre-ops relating to post-op issues...the pre-ops are obviously not going to be about to answer the post-op's questions, but I think it is only right for the pre-ops to be aware that there are these issues post-op to begin with. <p> The way that the typical HUP regular support group meeting goes is as follows: 1) the moderator of the meeting (HUP's bariatric nutritionist Rachel Griehs) introduces herself to the group - this is for anyone who is attending the meeting for the first time, 2) Rachel then goes around the room and has everyone introduce themselves briefly - giving their name, status (pre-op, post-op, support), pre-op surgery status if applicable (waiting for approval, waiting for a date, got the date and waiting for it to get here, etc), date of surgery/how many months post-op, weight lost and problems alleviated. This is everyone's favorite part as the post-ops love to brag about their loss and the pre-ops find the stories of post-op weight loss encouraging... 3) Rachel then goes into the education portion of the meeting (usually some handouts about vitamins or protein or different types of fats or other nutritional stuff *G*) and then 4) the Question and Answer section. Rachel solicits questions from the crowd and then solicits a handful of answers to the questions from other attendees. She knows who is pre-op and who is post-op so she tries to give both groups the opportunity to ask questions. <p> The meeting runs from 10 to noon (or later sometimes). We almost never finish early and we're usually going on as a group until 12:15 or 12:30. Then when the meeting is formally over, you find a lot of people getting into little groups and continuing to chat (many times, it's one of the people who asked a question getting a more detailed answer from one of the answerers of his/her question). Sometimes, if someone in the group just had their surgery in the past day or two before the meeting, a handful of us will go up to visit the new post-op...JR
   — John Rushton