Hey there Nichole. You and I have more in common I can see now...my dad is 6'4 425 and my mom about 5'10 245.  I have several other SMO people in my family and they were totally against my surgery especially being that I was a lightweight and now they are converts that may be getting the DS themselves!

Hey thats great! I wish I could get my uncle and father to do it, my father especially. My uncle I think is something of a lost cause and hasn't spoken to me in 15 years, but I still have hope that they will be able to do something before they pass away so early like their own parents did.

You're doing the right thing. Don't get like I got before you have surgery.

I agree with the idea that for any number of people, WLS is more of a cosmetic solution than a health solution. But I sure don't see many of those folks going for a DS. They're usually the ones who want a crap band for "help with their diet" or some such nonsense.

But OMG, the sheer NERVE of someone who has HAD the DS, of all things, to tell someone to work harder at diet and exercise.....That someone needs their ass kicked up between their ears.

PLEASE I IMPLORE YOU! STOP EDUCATING PEOPLE!

 "educated others about the fact that fat was not necessarily unhealthy, that health could be had at any size, that fat was not a "death sentence," and that the medical establishment dressed up its own bigotry in the cloak of "scaring" people into "health."

 HERE ARE THE FACTS SISTER!

Mortality Rate - Obese Patients

The majority of studies show an increase in mortality rate associated with obesity (body mass index > 30).

Obese individuals have a 50-100 percent increased risk of death from all causes, compared with normal-weight individuals (body mass index 20–25). Most of the increased risk is due to cardiovascular causes.

Life Expectancy and Obesity

Life expectancy of a moderately obese person could be shortened by 2 to 5 years.

White men between 20 and 30 years old with a body mass index > 45 could shorten their life expectancy by 13 years.

White women in the same category could lose up to 8 years of life.

Young African American men with a body mass index > 45 could lose up to 20 years of life; African American women, up to 5.

Obesity Mortality Risk Study

A study of more than 1 million adults in the United States (457,785 men and 588,369 women), investigated the relation between body mass index and the risk of death from all causes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. In people who had never smoked, the lowest point of the mortality curve occurred at a body mass index of 23.5 to 24.9 in men and 22.0 to 23.4 in women. Above those points, the relative risk of death increased linearly with increased body mass indices in both men and women.

Sources:

- Weight-control Information Network
- International Obesity Task Force (IOTF)
- Obesity Diet
- Fontaine KR, Redden DT, Wang C, Westfall AO, Allison DB. Years of life lost due to obesity. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2003;289(2):187-93.


I am absolutely outraged at your ignorance. You are nothing more than a hypocrite.


"I have been known to approach "chubby" pre-ops at support group and (in a quiet voice) tell them that perhaps they could be even healthier at their current size by enjoying movement (a.k.a. exercise) and healthy eating.  They don't listen to me, which is a shame."


http://www.asmbs.org/Newsite07/patients/resources/asbs_ratio nale.htm

NON-OPERATIVE TREATMENT:

Published scientific reports document that non-operative methods alone have not been effective in achieving a medically significant long term weight loss in severely obese adults. It has been shown that the majority of patients regain all the weight lost over the next five years.[45, 46] The average medical weight reduction trial is a 10-12 week study with average weight loss of 2.5 kg [47] The use of anorectic medications has recently been advocated as a long term therapeutic modality in management of what is clearly a chronic disease. In a nearly four year study, utilizing a two drug regimen of Phentermine and Fenfluramine, behavior modification, diet and exercise, the initial optimistic results have not been sustained, with a one third drop out rate and a final average weight loss of only three pounds in those who were followed for the four years of the study.[48] This drug combination appears to have an unacceptably high association with cardiac valvular disease and has been withdrawn from therapeutic use because of these potentially life threatening sequelae. Dietary weight loss attempts often cause depression, anxiety, irritability, weakness and preoccupation with food [49]. The treatment goal for morbid obesity should be an improvement in health achieved by a durable weight loss that reduces life threatening risk factors and improves performance of activities of daily living. Temporary fluctuations of body weight from calorie restricted diets should be avoided.

 How dare you profess your love of fat.  "I was very, very fat positive"
Then have WLS, and criticize others who decided to improve their health, because they weren't as fat as you!
HYPOCRITE!

I am 32 with a BMI of 40. I will be having the DS. I was diagnosed with diabetes at 18 y/o and have been injecting myself with insulin every since. I am also  a nurse. A few months ago I watched a mother of three, in her early 40's, lying in a bed dying. She had had a kidney and pancreas transplant related to a lifelong fight with diabetes. Her new organs were failing. She could barely move or talk. She had no control of her bowel or bladder. She was rotting away with bedsores. All the while her husband sat at her side waiting for the inevitable. It couldn't come quickly enough in my opinion. I realized that could be me in 10 short years. That was my epiphany moment. Do I want to look more normal? Do I want to blend into the crowd and not be the fattest girl there? Do I want to walk into any clothing store anywhere and be able to find something that fits? YES YES YES!!!!!! But first and most importantly, I do not want to be in a hospital bed rotting away in a puddle of my own excrement.

Educate yourself, you dimwitted boob, before you ever consider educating anyone else!

Bravo!!!!!  That's where my thoughts went to.  I knew the 'facts' but not the actual statics and info . . . thanks for that!

Nice can of whoop ass, Stormy. 

 Well,  I was a BMI of 45- 46 at the time of my surgery.   Everyone's journey here is different though I believe we are all in the same boat.
    I have worked for many years, and still struggle with self acceptance.  After spending 34 years in a rural southern setting, my husband and I moved to San Francisco and had a baby. I went to all the new mothers groups, had a supportive therapist, and was a member of a size acceptance group for several years.  Hey, as time marched on, I was more comfortable and accepting of my life!  I can hold myself up in all kinds of situations. Over the years, faced with mistreatment due to obesity, I learned to forgive and realize society doesn't know any better.  While busy with life and active at my daughter's co-op nursery school, my life took a unexpected turn when I found out I was pregnant.  Yep, 40 years old AND morbidly obese.  All the work I had done was put to the test.  I had a healthy pregnancy and baby boy.  After these successes I still wanted to be free from the physical restrictions of obesity - 
I was tired of the fight!  While I chose WLS,  size acceptance remains part of who I am.  Certainly, I support those in the BMI range of 35+ who choose to have surgery or not.  Self love at any size is important.  I have always felt uncomfortable with negative descriptions of the "before" pictures.  MORE JOY LESS SHAME!   Gwyn

Boy, I hope you have your flame retardant grannie panties on this morning, because I have to call BULL**** on your opinion as for holding any merit.  Yes, it's yours, but I resent your judging those of us who saw no end in sight and took proactive action to correct our obeseity before we had more serious health problems.  So, on one hand, I was too obese to deserve equal treatment, and here you are telling me that I was too small and don't deserve the only way to correct my obesity?  You're living in quite the little world of double-standards, aren't you?

Thank goodness I'm not giving your opinion any serious value, because you could have offended me.

One of the things my father used to say to me as I was growing up was "You can't measure other people using your own yard stick"

I heard it a lot when I was feeling frustrated by others behaviors that I couldn't understand because "I" would never do what they did, or approach something the way they did because "I" would never do it that way. I think this is a part of growing up and realizing that everybody is different, has different motivations and different feelings and you have to respect that.

While I was reading your post, this saying kept ringing in my head. You might not understand why others don't respond to the world the way in which you do, but you have to be adult enough to know they do and it's their right to.

When ever you lump a group of people together and then go on to judge them, you are headed for trouble.

Jillian

Jillian-
Your father sounds like a wise man.

Red