Last night, I went to my first support group meeting in almost a year. I did go to one other meeting right after my wife died, but haven't been back until now.
The lady speaking was a former nurse, who is now working for Bariatric advantage, which all the WLS people should know about by now.
The interesting thing about this lady was, she is also a post op WLS person, almost 9 years out!
I actually learned some things from her that I didn't know before.
It is interesting about how different parts of the country, different doctors, and teams have their own ideas about how things should be done. I was under the impression that many of them were in agreement about procedures.
As far as I know, there are about 25 different types of surgery for weight loss. They used to call it stomach stapling, but over the years, they narrowed things down to two types of surgery:
1. Lap band
2. Roux en Y
Now, some doctors are opting for a third type of surgery. She only mentioned it in passing, so I'd have to do some research to find it, and I'm too lazy to do that. I imagine it is listed on the Bariatric Advantage website if you want to check it out. You can go from there.
They are also talking about doing a similar type operation just to cure diabetes. We all know that our type II diabetes is essentially gone after our surgery. The doctors are talking about the operation just for that and not weight loss. Interesting.
When I walked in last night, I felt like a rock star. I got more hugs than I've had in years. Many of the people there knew about the ordeal with my wife, and expressed condolences. I like those type of condolences!
One difference between going to a regular meeting and a WLS support group meeting, is that everyone changes, and you have to try to recognize people every single time. They all lose weight. They all get into better shape than the last time you saw them. Wow!
We wear name tags when we get there, and have colored ribbons based on how much we lost. The pre ops want to hang out with the post ops to find out all their secrets, so we become celebrities the farther out we are from our surgery. I should become a saint or prophet next year! :)
The practice has changed too. They have an amazing support team in place, and they are all becoming very good at what they do. They started out good, but have smoothed out many of the problems.
* They now have a pharmacy of sorts. I can get everything there from vitamins, to protein bars. They have all the stuff they recommended that I used to have to search for. I bought two boxes of Strawberry short cake Pure protein bars last night. I haven't seen them anywhere else. And, they were reasonably priced. I will be calling them and ordering everything I can next month ahead of time.
* They now have an in house shrink. She will be holding a class that I will probably attend soon, called "Back on Track". It's a 10 week course, and you already know what it's about from the title. It's made for post ops that are 3 or more years out.
I had heard about this program last year, but it wasn't available to civilians. The counselors were still learning about it. I hope it helps. I need some help right now.
I don't know if the insurance company will cover the expense, but I hope they will.
In the meantime, I recorded a song using my computer and new Martin guitar. I just pressed play and sang into the computer. There were no enhancements. Check out my Facebook page or shoot me an email and I'll send you a link.
The lady speaking was a former nurse, who is now working for Bariatric advantage, which all the WLS people should know about by now.
The interesting thing about this lady was, she is also a post op WLS person, almost 9 years out!
I actually learned some things from her that I didn't know before.
It is interesting about how different parts of the country, different doctors, and teams have their own ideas about how things should be done. I was under the impression that many of them were in agreement about procedures.
As far as I know, there are about 25 different types of surgery for weight loss. They used to call it stomach stapling, but over the years, they narrowed things down to two types of surgery:
1. Lap band
2. Roux en Y
Now, some doctors are opting for a third type of surgery. She only mentioned it in passing, so I'd have to do some research to find it, and I'm too lazy to do that. I imagine it is listed on the Bariatric Advantage website if you want to check it out. You can go from there.
They are also talking about doing a similar type operation just to cure diabetes. We all know that our type II diabetes is essentially gone after our surgery. The doctors are talking about the operation just for that and not weight loss. Interesting.
When I walked in last night, I felt like a rock star. I got more hugs than I've had in years. Many of the people there knew about the ordeal with my wife, and expressed condolences. I like those type of condolences!
One difference between going to a regular meeting and a WLS support group meeting, is that everyone changes, and you have to try to recognize people every single time. They all lose weight. They all get into better shape than the last time you saw them. Wow!
We wear name tags when we get there, and have colored ribbons based on how much we lost. The pre ops want to hang out with the post ops to find out all their secrets, so we become celebrities the farther out we are from our surgery. I should become a saint or prophet next year! :)
The practice has changed too. They have an amazing support team in place, and they are all becoming very good at what they do. They started out good, but have smoothed out many of the problems.
* They now have a pharmacy of sorts. I can get everything there from vitamins, to protein bars. They have all the stuff they recommended that I used to have to search for. I bought two boxes of Strawberry short cake Pure protein bars last night. I haven't seen them anywhere else. And, they were reasonably priced. I will be calling them and ordering everything I can next month ahead of time.
* They now have an in house shrink. She will be holding a class that I will probably attend soon, called "Back on Track". It's a 10 week course, and you already know what it's about from the title. It's made for post ops that are 3 or more years out.
I had heard about this program last year, but it wasn't available to civilians. The counselors were still learning about it. I hope it helps. I need some help right now.
I don't know if the insurance company will cover the expense, but I hope they will.
In the meantime, I recorded a song using my computer and new Martin guitar. I just pressed play and sang into the computer. There were no enhancements. Check out my Facebook page or shoot me an email and I'll send you a link.
