some links to look at

Someone emailed this link to this webpage from the main board. It has some "bad things to say" about WLS on the main page, so be warned to the pre-ops and thin-skinned people. Here were some interesting links from it though: AMA states that Weight Loss Surgery has ethical and scientific problems in the April 2003 JAMA http://gastricbypass.netfirms.com/jamaquestions.htm Top Ten Reasons why Weight Loss Surgery is NOT "the easy way out" http://gastricbypass.netfirms.com/wlsnoteasyway.htm Look at the picture of this guy w/his shirt on the bottom of his page. I can totally see myself being "that guy" in like 5 years. ah. Tavia

Tavia, Hun thanks for sharing those.... ~Hugs~ Take care Debra P

I know we should look at all the facts before deciding on such a drastic opperation! I just feel it is best that I try once again to lose this weight on my own. Reading the storys of the familys left behind, is to much reality for me. As much as I have worked at this for the last 1 1/2 years I feel I would be hurting alot of people if I were to die from complications. And yes I know I can die if I don't do something about my weight problem. So I will try again to do it without the surgery, I pray I am making the right choice. I want to thankyou for the info, I have read some simular stories in the past....It is a very hard descision but we all have to be OK with whatever we descide. Thankyou....Kathleen

Hi Kathleen, You have to make a decision for yourself. If you do not feel having this surgery right now is for you then, then you are probably right. I know hearing stories can scare you off but they are far and few in between. I just happen to be one of those "stories" even though I do not regret having this surgery at all. I am just living proof of the risks that can happen and I wasn't even a high-risk case. I am an actual real live person who have had complicatons, not a piece of paper telling you what risks are involved. I just felt so bad for my husband and son for what they had to go through, and the impact it had on them. Yes it sucked being so sick but can you image seeing your wife in the ICU being kept alive by just a respirator for four days with bad pneumonia and two collasped lungs? I cant begin to image. They let my three year old son come up to the ICU to see me b/c there where a few days when they didnt think I would make it. But you know what? I did make it and that is all that matters now. I know it must sound like everyone has problems but they don't. What has/had happen to me is so very rare. I have been through the good, bad, and the ugly. My surgeon says he has never had a case in their practice like me before. To be honest, I think everyone will battle at least a couple of problems at some point if its hair loss,gas, nausea or vomitting. But you take the major good with the minor bad. You have to be honest and understand rearranging your intestines will probably throw your body off for awhile but it does get better. Like I said in your email, AIM me anytime if you want to talk, Tavia V 13. Take care. Tavia

So sad that Glen died in Dec. 2004 (the guy in the t-shirt). http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/members/profile.php?N=G1029432107