My First Bariatric Support Group Meeting

My First Bariatric Support Group Meeting

Thursday May 25, 2006

I went to My First Bariatric Support Group Meeting tonight.

Strangely they hold these things in THE CAFETERIA of the hospital. That just seems sort of cruel- the first meeting I went to was in a large auditorium type room, why can't they use something like that for this? At least the cafeteria stopped serving food before we got there.

Deaconess puts LapBand and Bypass patients together. While some of the things are the same, a few times a nice lady or two would say to me, "you don't have to worry about that with OUR BAND". 

The meeting was probably 8 or 10 folks total, me  being the ONLY GUY. A few ladies said a guy used to come, but once he lost 200 pounds they hadn't seen him for a while.

Deaconess is hiring a new nutrionist to work with us. Rebecca Erdman starts in a week or so. She teaches at UC and that ends near the beginning of June. Her handout has "MS, RS, LD" after her name. 

Rebecca introduces herself and tells of her weight loss of 120 pounds and that she works out a tremendous amount of hours per week. Once she introduces herself, she pretty much loses control of the group quickly as most of these ladies are a lively bunch. Three work at Children's hospital together, and most of the rest all seem to know each other pretty well.

When the ladies talk, I learn about dumping, I learn about alcohol (and even a websight to get ZERO CALORIE MIXERS). I learn about protein, Fruit leather, and a pile of other things including a recipe for a new beverage.

There is a bit of good natured name calling over who has lost the most weight, and who can still eat what. Every one of them says that they would do it again.

My first three questions to all the folks I've met with this are:

1. Which Surgery did you have? LapBand or Bypass?

2. When did you do it?

3. Would you do it again?

The nutrionist Rebecca pretty much asks the same of each. There was one lady that was pre op for the Bypass and she is starting the "TEN DAYS OF HELL" as the other ladies called it. One other lady is pre op for the Lap Band, but I don't think she knows what she is doing. And one lady was post surgery but kept pretty quiet.

It is all pretty overwhelming.

At the end of the evening, I have a list of websights to look up, and a zillion more questions.

I give out my card, get two in exchange, and will be planning on going back.

I even joke with the Children's hospital ladies to "Find me a cute nurse in their inventory" for a year from now . They said they already had one lined up. Let's hope they like her, and not dislike her. haha.