Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Los Angeles>Little Rock>Houston>Little Rock
6,489 posts, read 8,813,341 times
Reputation: 17514
Advertisements
Speaking as someone who has had WLS I can tell you how it was for me. I have been overweight since I was 10 and am now 61. At around 17, my brother joined Weight Watchers and I, being too embarrassed to go, went on the men's diet plan using his materials and lost 120 lbs. By that time I had a great job, was dating for the first time ever, and doing some recreational drugs.
I kept it off for years, but it eventually started creeping back on. Then came a three year period where my dad died, my grandparents were murdered, and then my mom died. My life was in the crapper. My family moved away and I eventually followed them to Little Rock. Gaining again.
I met and married my husband here in Little Rock, had a son, and was doing okay for a while. In Nov. 2001 my husband died suddenly leaving me a single mom to an 8 year old. I started back on the Weight Watchers wagon and lost some weight but it would come right back when I stopped. I think I must have joined WW at least 8 times throughout the years only to get the same results each time.
Fast forward to 2004 when I met my current husband on another forum. We were a long distance romance, but it was still exciting and fun and kept me busy and happy. I moved to Houston to be with him in 2007. In July 2008 we learned that his cancer had come back again and he had to have a life altering surgery to peel his face back from his skull to try and get to the tumors. His right eye is now suspended in a titanium sling.
Taking care of him after that surgery was mind blowing. I never would have thought I would be capable of pulling a mucus filled trach tube out of the hole in his neck to clean it or using a suction device to clean out his mouth and one remaining nasal passage. My MIL insisted I hire a part time nurse to help out. All the nurse did was take his vitals and then watch me do the nasty jobs. I let her go. All this time I was gaining weight again.
In 2011 his cancer came back a third time. He had chemo and radiation. It is almost unheard of to have a series of radiation treatments three times. This time it almost did him in. They placed a port in his upper arm for the chemo as his veins had been all but destroyed by chemo. That developed a blood clot. Then they place another port in his chest which also developed a clot. I had to administer at home intravenous antibiotics for six weeks every six hours. I was like The Walking Dead, But continued to gain weight.
Then in 2010 I ruptured a disc in my lumbar spine. The neurosurgeon said I was his heaviest patient ever at 277 lbs. Thankfully, Son was able to care for me and hubby while I was recovering.
Somewhere around August 2014 I started researching WLS. I settled on the gastric sleeve and went for it. I haven't lost all of the weight I should, but I have kept off the 60lb. loss for over two years now. The guidelines are 60-80 grams of protein a day. At meals protein first, then veggies, and a bit of carbs if I still have room. No drinking during the meal as you won't be able to get in your food. I have found that I often have to force myself to eat because along with the removal of 85% of your stomach they took away the part that produces grehlin.
I am healthier than I have been in years and only wish I had done this sooner. Hubby is still in bad shape, but I have more energy to deal with it now.
Speaking as someone who has had WLS I can tell you how it was for me. I have been overweight since I was 10 and am now 61. At around 17, my brother joined Weight Watchers and I, being too embarrassed to go, went on the men's diet plan using his materials and lost 120 lbs. By that time I had a great job, was dating for the first time ever, and doing some recreational drugs.
I kept it off for years, but it eventually started creeping back on. Then came a three year period where my dad died, my grandparents were murdered, and then my mom died. My life was in the crapper. My family moved away and I eventually followed them to Little Rock. Gaining again.
I met and married my husband here in Little Rock, had a son, and was doing okay for a while. In Nov. 2001 my husband died suddenly leaving me a single mom to an 8 year old. I started back on the Weight Watchers wagon and lost some weight but it would come right back when I stopped. I think I must have joined WW at least 8 times throughout the years only to get the same results each time.
Fast forward to 2004 when I met my current husband on another forum. We were a long distance romance, but it was still exciting and fun and kept me busy and happy. I moved to Houston to be with him in 2007. In July 2008 we learned that his cancer had come back again and he had to have a life altering surgery to peel his face back from his skull to try and get to the tumors. His right eye is now suspended in a titanium sling.
Taking care of him after that surgery was mind blowing. I never would have thought I would be capable of pulling a mucus filled trach tube out of the hole in his neck to clean it or using a suction device to clean out his mouth and one remaining nasal passage. My MIL insisted I hire a part time nurse to help out. All the nurse did was take his vitals and then watch me do the nasty jobs. I let her go. All this time I was gaining weight again.
In 2011 his cancer came back a third time. He had chemo and radiation. It is almost unheard of to have a series of radiation treatments three times. This time it almost did him in. They placed a port in his upper arm for the chemo as his veins had been all but destroyed by chemo. That developed a blood clot. Then they place another port in his chest which also developed a clot. I had to administer at home intravenous antibiotics for six weeks every six hours. I was like The Walking Dead, But continued to gain weight.
Then in 2010 I ruptured a disc in my lumbar spine. The neurosurgeon said I was his heaviest patient ever at 277 lbs. Thankfully, Son was able to care for me and hubby while I was recovering.
Somewhere around August 2014 I started researching WLS. I settled on the gastric sleeve and went for it. I haven't lost all of the weight I should, but I have kept off the 60lb. loss for over two years now. The guidelines are 60-80 grams of protein a day. At meals protein first, then veggies, and a bit of carbs if I still have room. No drinking during the meal as you won't be able to get in your food. I have found that I often have to force myself to eat because along with the removal of 85% of your stomach they took away the part that produces grehlin.
I am healthier than I have been in years and only wish I had done this sooner. Hubby is still in bad shape, but I have more energy to deal with it now.
Oh, kiddo, you are one awesome person. I am sorry for all you have been through. You should be very proud of yourself. Hang in there.
Right, clutter is bad enough but they show filth..I can't watch but a few minutes, it makes me angry
that people are willing to help deal with that horrible mess and they give the people a hard time.
If they have some poor animals living there it's even worse (assuming it's old folks with no children)
I think there are two kinds of hoarders and one of them cannot be helped. As soon as you see no working plumbing or refrigerator, the hoarder might just as well be hauled off to a nursing home, and their house burned down.
Once in awhile, they have a show about a person who can be helped. There was a really smart old lady who was artsy and had some really nice antiques, but she was overwhelmed. After the house was cleared out, her nicer things were displayed in the house and it was interesting and beautiful. I wish more shows were like that.
I think there are two kinds of hoarders and one of them cannot be helped. As soon as you see no working plumbing or refrigerator, the hoarder might just as well be hauled off to a nursing home, and their house burned down.
Once in awhile, they have a show about a person who can be helped. There was a really smart old lady who was artsy and had some really nice antiques, but she was overwhelmed. After the house was cleared out, her nicer things were displayed in the house and it was interesting and beautiful. I wish more shows were like that.
I agree, most will probably have their homes messed up again..they are really not capable of caring for
themselves or anything else.
With the 600lb show I wonder, if only 5% keep the weight off, how many stories do they have to scrap
because the people didn't follow up with losing weight?
I've responded to several people like this and its very sad. There are usually a lot of different emotional issue's involved...not only from the overweight individual but the caregiver too.
The first morbidly obese person I responded to weighed in at about 385 pounds. He was barely able to walk (I believe he was about 5'4"). He was really proud of himself because over the previous year he had lost around 150 pounds! He had started the Atkins diet and at the advice from his doc and was dropping weight like mad...despite eating a dozen eggs and a whole rotisserie chicken everyday for breakfast. He eventually got down to about 200 pounds but never really lost the weight completely. He lived with his mom and she made a lot of homemade tortillas and beans. We ended responding to him a few years later (he fell and couldn't lift himself back up) and he had regained close to 125 pounds. He stopped his Atkins diet and started eating the traditional hispanic fare his mom would cook. It was really heartbreaking to see him get so healthy and go back to the way he was...and you could see it in his eyes just how embarrassed he was.
Speaking as someone who has had WLS I can tell you how it was for me.
. . .
I am healthier than I have been in years and only wish I had done this sooner. Hubby is still in bad shape, but I have more energy to deal with it now.
Holy cow, Maggie, if anyone was ever dealt a crap hand, it's you. You have shown incredible strength and resourcefulness. I've often felt it is a supreme injustice that we reward brave people who spend 1/2 hour to save someone from drowning, for example, with medals and laudatory news stories, while people like you -- usually female! -- who get up every damn day and deal with problems of awful magnitude do it unsung.
And BTW before you flame me, I'm not knocking emergency responders at all, just wondering why people who deal with chronic problems don't get the same recognition as those who deal with acute ones.
Maybe they get it, but we just don't see it on the show.
Every WLS person gets it. They get the education on food, it is a requirement. They just choose to not follow it.
I had the sleeve surgery. My mantra every day is "stay focused and do not sabotage my weight loss". I work with a few others at work that had the same surgery. I find it unbelievable after such a desperate way to lose weight they would eat foods that put them back at their bad eating habits. I have to stay away from them because I cannot handle their excuses.
"The trauma of sexual abuse often manifests through a preoccupation with food, dieting, and a drive to feel uncomfortably full. One analysis of 57,000 women in 2013 found that those who experienced physical or sexual abuse as children were twice as likely to be addicted to food than those who did not."
The women that are featured on this show are extremely obese. These are not people who just need to lose 40 or 50 pounds. It would make sense that they have more severe emotional and psychological problems. Over the past few decades, traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood, are being understood and recognized as major contributing factors to both mental and physical health problems.
The ACES study by the CDC is one of the sources of much of this information:
"The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. The study is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.
More than 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) members undergoing a comprehensive physical examination chose to provide detailed information about their childhood experience of abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. To date, more than 50 scientific articles have been published and more than 100 conference and workshop presentations have been made."
"The trauma of sexual abuse often manifests through a preoccupation with food, dieting, and a drive to feel uncomfortably full. One analysis of 57,000 women in 2013 found that those who experienced physical or sexual abuse as children were twice as likely to be addicted to food than those who did not."
The women that are featured on this show are extremely obese. These are not people who just need to lose 40 or 50 pounds. It would make sense that they have more severe emotional and psychological problems. Over the past few decades, traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood, are being understood and recognized as major contributing factors to both mental and physical health problems.
The ACES study by the CDC is one of the sources of much of this information:
"The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. The study is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.
More than 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) members undergoing a comprehensive physical examination chose to provide detailed information about their childhood experience of abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. To date, more than 50 scientific articles have been published and more than 100 conference and workshop presentations have been made."
I do not judge, but any of us females have to deal with either being in charge of ourselves, or not. I am a child of the 1950s, and I had to deal with the "Leave it to Beaver" mentality. I am sad for someone who is molested, but whatever our childhood burdens are, we need to overcome them.
Before my time, women were treated like possessions, yet many rose above it. We all need to be responsible for our own fate.
Every WLS person gets it. They get the education on food, it is a requirement. They just choose to not follow it.
I had the sleeve surgery. My mantra every day is "stay focused and do not sabotage my weight loss". I work with a few others at work that had the same surgery. I find it unbelievable after such a desperate way to lose weight they would eat foods that put them back at their bad eating habits. I have to stay away from them because I cannot handle their excuses.
I hear what you're saying gigi, but I don't think it's so much the bad eating habits as much as their refusal to tackle the problem, too many people get this surgery thinking the surgery will "fix" the problem with no effort from them. It requires the same effort as non surgical methods, the WLS is only an additional tool. I also had the sleeve surgery, but I occasionally battle old habits, it isn't hunger because I'm not necessarily hungry, it's a mind game. My motivation comes from the improvement in my health, at ~130 lbs. less, I feel better than I have in my life, and I don't want to lose that. I too have a few friends who have had surgery, some are doing well while a couple of others still struggle, I try to encourage them to deal with their issues, but they have, as you have seen, excuses for not getting results. Not much we can do for them, it's their journey.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
