Thanks Diana for taking the time to begin setting this up. Maybe if enough GH gastric bypass patients hook up with this, obesityhelp.com will be willing to do a name change. I am nervous because I just found out that my benefits at the school district that I work for are going to be changed as of October 1, 2005. I was just accepted into the program ( I am going for my ultrasound on the 30th of this month), and I don't know if I will make it to surgery before my insurance runs out. I have tried calling Harriet but she won't return my calls. Her assistants are nice and feel bad that there isn't direct communication. Harriet did leave me a one sentence email saying that they will make efforts to get me done before October, but it didn't sound that reassuring. I don't know if Harriet is overwhelmed; I suspect that I am not the only person who has thrust this deadline on her. It would be nice if there was more communication. I am trying to remain patient. Was it your experience that there was little communication until your date got closer? Any advice or information would be helpful. thanks PS - How do I attach my pic to my posts? Jim LovellFord

Hi Diana! We met at the last meeting in Tacoma and I have a question... I have not gotten to the Dr. to get the referral yet but I have a lot of cloths that are too small for me, do you think I could bring them and pick up a few that would actually fit? I was just on the GHC site and found out that Dr. Rouse is accepting new patients so I put in to become one of his patients. I have not had a steady Dr. for about 3 years... they assign me a Dr. and I usually get to see them one time and then they leave GH. I hope he is as nice as everyone in the group said he is, I am sure tired of being shuffled around and not getting any help because I never get to build a relationship with a Dr. My last experience with a Dr. was less than helpful. See you next Month. Carol

At the last support group meeting, we discussed having a clothes exchange at the next meeting. Jackie should be posting a message sometime before then (probably on the Yahoo site), but I just thought I would post it too here. Love Diana

Hi, nice to hear about you ladies again. I'm starting to get a little nervous now, next Friday is the pre-op class, finally get to meet Dr. Bock and Harriet. Time seems to be going by pretty fast thanks to work, I work for the big local airplane company and have been traveling out of town every other week, it will be nice not to ask for a seatbelt extension someday. Diane, I'm glad to hear you are doing so well, it gives the rest of us hope. Jerry from Union

They said we could not start a new message board, so I had an idea How about "adopting" one that really isn't being used. This "indoor" recreation message board has not even been used once as you can see. Could we possibly "adopt" the Indoor Message Board for our purposes? I don't see why not. For those of you new to obesityhelp.com, I guarantee that you will love this site. It has helped me so much from pre-op to now. It is very simple to become a member and doesn't cost a thing. And as you can see, exchanging messages is a whole new experience and if you wish to submit a photo, we can see your picture next to your posts. You can also start your own profile. There is a Patient Forum for Dr. Bock but it's not the same as a message board like this one. So this is my effort to get something going here. I hope people will be interested because I think it's so fun to add the little animated emotions to your messages. Love Diana