KANSAS, afterall we are in the middle of the United States!!! 

The 2007 event year is quickly coming to its end. We've had a lot of fun, met hundreds of people, made new friends, strengthened each other, and empowered ourselves to continue on our journeys. With the close of the 2007-year, our eyes turn to the future, to 2008. Where will we go? Our team has analyzed locations, researched demographics, met with support groups, consulted with area professionals for hours.. and HOURS.. and hours! We do this because YOU are worth it. It is our goal to reach out to as many people as possible. But, we can't decide where to kick off the 2008 year! We've arm wrestled, had ping pong tournaments, basketball games and other battles of wills. So... we need your help to make this decision! We're having a contest. Where do YOU want us to come to? Let us know! For the month of November, we will leave this post up. Reply and shout out to us where you want us to come to. If you have ever wished for OH to come to your area, now's the time to speak up! Get your friends, surgeon and support group involved! Simple reply to this post and let us know the area you want us to come to. At the end of November, we will count up all of the votes and we will make the announcement in December. Rules of the game: -Since this is a member's contest, you must be a member to vote -Each member can only vote once for the same area -Members CAN vote for multiple locations -One post, one vote. If you want to vote for another location, make a separate reply. -All votes have to be a reply to this one of the 'contest' posts -Due to logistics, we may not be able to come to the exact city requested, but we will come to that 'area' as close as possible. So now is the time to let your voice be heard! Where do YOU want us to come to?

Congratulations!  The hardest part is always getting through the red tape!  Be sure to keep us informed on your progress!

My daughter is going to WSU and has lap band surgery scheduled on 12/17/07 and I am sure she would love to go to the support group in Wichita - we wondered if there was one.  I live north of Topeka and am having RNY in 2008.  Please let me know about the Wichita support group you put together (I am pretty illiterate about how to post to this site, etc.)  Thank you Iris

Well, I guess today truly IS another day because my denial was reversed, and I am scheduled for surgery Dec. 10th!!!!  My original denial was supposedly because they deemed the surgery not medically necessary although in my book the only criteria is the BMI...  I have other comorbidities-PCOS, hypertension, osteoarthritis,... but they didn't seem to think it was enough...  However, the letter sent to me indicated I was being rejected for a repeat gastric bypass (even though I've never had the 1st one!!!).   I'm not sure what tipped the scales around in my favor, but certainly the phone calls-probably numbering several per day from Becky (and myself) probably helped.  I went in and gave Becky a big hug today.  Now I have to work on getting my job to grant me medical leave (they don't think this qualifies)--here we go again-- The only thing I could think of that I didn't have great documentation on would be offical weight loss programs because there just weren't any to document... Hope this helps and I'd love to keep in touch with you!!