Looking for Resources

Hello, I'm from the East Coast, and I'm going to be having RNY gastric bypass surgery in December. However, I'm also a full time student here in Vancouver, and I'm going to be coming back to school about a month after the surgery. As I'm sure you can imagine, my family and I are both worried about complications arising down the line, and not having ready access to my doctors on the East Coast, and I was wondering what is available here in Vancouver. Also, I'd like to attend support group meetings, but I'm not sure what's out there and whether or not you have to be a patient for a specific doctor or hospital in order to attend. What are the names of some doctors/hospitals/clinics that I could turn to if a complication arose (heaven forbid!!).. Thanks so much for your help, Emily

Dear Emily, Good for you, you must be getting excited about your upcoming WLS. There are not a lot of doctors here in BC that are doing the surgery unfortunately. My doctor is Dr. Adam Menegehetti who is a surgeon in Vancouver who will be doing the surgeries at VGH soon I hope. Right now it is politics and lack of funding that is causing the delay in him starting the WLS. I will give you his number. Hopefully by the new year there will be surgeries here. It is 604-875-4498. Dr. Bradley Amson in Victoria has been doing WLS for a while and is experienced with a huge waitlist and he is a fantastic resource. He can be reached at 250-384-8154 and he has a great website with lots of info including a message board where you can talk to people. The website is http://www.victoriabariatricsurgery.com/index.html Check Dr. Amson's website for support groups. There is one every 3rd Tuesday of the month in North Vancouver at Lion's Gate hospital from 7-8:30 pm and one every month on a Saturday morning in Langley. It will get posted on the website a few days before to remind people. Good luck and take care, Sim from Vancouver

Thank you so much, Sim. That's super helpful. Hopefully I won't run into any complications, but just in case it makes me feel much better knowing there are resources available! Thank you! Emily