Mandatory Support Group Meeting

So in order to have the bypass surgery, I must attend 2 procedure specific support group meetings. The hospital that I will be having my procedure only offers 1 a month.

This past Tuesday I attended my first meeting. There was probably 15, maybe 20 people at the meeting. About half of them were pre-op visitors.

Of the post-op patients, the biggest amount lost in the group was 226 pounds. The longest length since surgery I believe was 4 years. It was a woman who had lost the most of the group and had you not know that she was a gastric patient, you would have never know she was a fat girl. She looked absolutely AMAZING!

So after talking about how to stay motivated during the weight loss process and learning to set goals for yourself that don't involve a number of pounds to lose or a set weight you want to be at. Things like not having to ask for a seat belt extender on an airplane, or being able to fit comfortably in a restaurant booth, fitting into a dream piece of clothing, etc...

After the meeting, there was mingle time with the post-op patients talking to the pre-op patients. During this mingle time I was able to ask a couple of different post-op patients to get some of the questions that I posted in my previous blog answered based on other's experiences.

One other thing I also learned is that a couple of them even lost weight in their feet, shrinking their shoe size. For me this is a giant YIPPEE! I wear a size 12 shoe which means it's damn near impossible and damned expensive to buy shoes!

I have one more meeting to attend in order to meet the surgery requirements. I must admit that I did enjoy going to the support group and enjoyed hearing and seeing the success stories of others.