Meeting the Big Losers!

I attended my first Calgary Big Losers meeting last night. It was a small gathering from what I can gather, nine including me. I was impressed with how energetic and enthusiastic the post-ops all were. What a great bunch of people. I look forward to getting to know them better as the years go by.

Learned some depressing news though, research had lead me to an article from Alberta Health that noted that RNY surgery wait times were estimated at 17 months currently. However, this statistic is not clear. I thought that meant from the time you requested the consult, until the surgery -- and I thought that was already too long! But now I find out that statistic actually means from the time of your first referred meeting. So instead of surgery this year, it could be up to 2 more years before the surgery. Frustrating! We're talking about a life-changing surgery that drastically increases quality of life and it take 3 - 5 years to get it done? Ugh.

With my first meeting coming up soon - Friday, Feb 16th (with Dr. Davey in Edmonton) that would leave my potential surgery date somewhere around mid-July 2008. However, some of "the girls" at the Losers Club got in for surgery on a cancellation. I will definately be following up on that! With my current line of self-employment I can drop everything and bolt up to Edmonton at a moments notice!

Of interest, some of the people at the meeting had their surgery in Mexico. That never even crossed my mind! LOL! It would certainly cost less than doing it in the US... although there's always that stigma of risk associated with Mexican health care practitioners (accurate or not). They seemed happy with their experience, so that's interesting!

If you're considering surgery in Alberta, consider visiting the Calgary Big Losers website and check out the Yahoo! Groups: OSSG-WestCan and OSSG-Calgary (Obesity Surgery Support Group - OSSG).