Question:
Pre-ops, is there a place for us to show support?

Is there a place somewhere just for us pre-ops to go for support/encouragement? I would like to chat with others where are at the same stage as I am at-which is in the process of going to and gathering all my tests & info and getting them faxed to my Surgeon, consult completed. I love this site!    — doit 2. (posted on March 4, 2003)

March 3, 2003
The best way is to read the message board and log on to others who post about their experiences and then send them a message. Also read the Q & A pages and that too will bring you to people in the same stages as you. Go to The Surgery Pages and wish others good luck and that too will get you to people you can ask questions too. Log on to people from your state, home town or even your surgeon/hospital site and you can find out who is post-op that you can ask questions to -- BUT also who is just starting out like you. You just have to dive in and look around. I've been logging in since Oct/Nov 2002 and have read alot of posts, talked to alot of people and asks questions and got answers. My surgery is on March 26th - and I have found about 30 people with the same date - Fantastic - now we can compare our post-ops. Good Luck, Love, Sally, Harriosn, MI
   — Sally P.

March 4, 2003
Another place to try is yahoo.com's Obesity Surgery Support Groups (try looking it up under Yahoo Groups). There are about 200 "OSSG" groups or so (last time I looked), geared to very specific interests, including yours (pre-ops), vitamins, protein & protein recipes, long-term post-ops ("graduates"), WLSers at goal, WLSers struggling to get to goal, depression, WLSers with certain docs, geographic groups, left-handed WLSers with dogs named Ralph, etc. ... well, you get the idea. It's a great resource, so check out all their listings to see which one(s) you might want to subscribe to.
   — Suzy C.