Post Dispatch today...

http://www.stltoday.com/ I cannot believe all the negativity in this story. I am writting a letter to the editor and think we should all send the positive results of WLS and show them the positive outweighs the negative.

Shelly dont you think there is more going on here? That maybe its a mental issue with this girl? And yes the story is negative because they are looking at the surgery for this girl being a failure.. Don't you love the way they search out bad results instead of doing stories on the positive ones? yes there are bad outcomes,,, but I think in this girls case there is a mental issue that needs to be address... she needs psychological help IMO.. If she was a compulsive eater she could think she's in real pain cause she can't eat the way she wanted to... I dont know just my opinion

I totally agree with you. I am just so sick of all NEGATIVE publicity. Why don't they ever do the stories of the successes..... I think I am having a CRABBY Monday and looking at everything in a bad way now today... It started w/ my Dr.(boss) this morning. He was crabby and passed it on to me. Sorry all.. I'll stop the &*^(^%* now!!! ~Shelley~

LOL and I am sure my Fuel fed rant filled email this morning didnt help LOL Debby

LOL!!! That was fine... I can always handle those.... It's just the boss...He is a pain in the A$$ some days. He is in the doghouse at home and brings it here and takes it out on me. Oh well...Guess that is part of the job. He will be fine tomorrow. He is out of my hair for the day so it is much better now. I think what did me in this morning was United Healtcare and them denying me. ~Shelley

oh that darn article!!! My father came across it and who now has become diabetic, Says to me are you sure you want to have WLS,He says you know Nobody knows what the out come will be 10years from now!! Oh God He supported me before he read thet article and now he has doubts. Lets see here HMMMM if I dont have WLS will I be here 10Years from NOw Probably not!!! So do I make an adult dission and have WLS aaaaaa yeaaaaaaa!!! LOL Oh and my father knows how well my mom has been since she has had WLS!!! OH and he said your young you have your life to live HELLO DAD IM NOT GOING TO LIVE WITH MY HEALTH AND WEIGHT GETTING MORE AND MORE OUT OF CONTROL!!! OH GOD I cant help but laugh at him!! I have to laugh to keep from crying. All I know My Hubby who I love with all my heart of hearts Supports me 100% and he has to live with me and I better Love him Hes Flippen the Bill !!! LOL OK OK I will shut up. Thank you for letting me vent about that darn article. I wish you all much love,peace and blessed days. CHER P.S sorry for any bad spelling. Im not a good speller.

Its not just the Post, I understand that newspapers all over the country are running series just like this all with not so nice things to say about WLS. This is an excellent example of modern day media.. they get it all out of a can or in other words they print what everyone else is printing. Bunch of crap if you ask me. This stuff has my friends and family all over the country sending me links to their local papers and they are scared for me! Every story is similar to this. I have seen obesity help linked in some of them.

Not defending the writer here but there were positive attributes noted in the story. I'm not fond of the way the first woman's story was portrayed, but with regards to Jessica - it's simply what she is experiencing. I've spoken to her several times since coming to the OH boards and she's done everything short of having a reversal to try to get well. Unfortunately I think a lot of times people don't take into account that things can go wrong after having this surgery and don't do their research at all. For me and a lot of others this has been a life saving thing and yes, perhaps we're (we being those of us who have had success and no problems attributed to the surgery) not given as much attention, but I personally try to be the best activist that I can for reducing the negative opinions of others. Though I did send the writer a nice little email yesterday LOL Hugz, Cathy

MAN! That article was LONG!! But I don't think it dwelled on the negative aspects of the surgery at all.. I thought it was only partially about this girl, Ashley.. and the last few paragraphs were very telling: **In the hospital last year, she talked about wishing she could wave a magic wand and go back to her life before the operation. Now, a year after her operation, she considers whether she would go through this again. "Oh, my. It's kind of hard to answer," she said. She paused. She recounted her ups and downs. She tried to mesh her reality with the one she often heard about - the one captured in that page torn from People magazine, the one since lost along the way. Still, she said, "I just might." ** So.. people *****ad all the way to the end of that extremely long article learn that, despite the difficulties she has.. if she could go back and make the choice again.. she would be likely to go through the surgery again anyway.. Interesting.. I don't like the picture.. I think that is probably an immediate post-op pic.. because they talk about Ashley having lost about 130# and ideally wanting to lose about 30 more.. and if that's what she looks like now.. I would think there are more problems with her surgery than just "unexplained pain." Stef