Oh OPRAH!!??

Cynthia...you make really open and honest points!  I like them :)  Have  a great day!!

Hey Rock Star! Well, I'm glad that you like 'em. I know we differ in a few minor things, but it's great to be able to talk about them and explore.

Your sympathy for the difficulties she's had and how hard it must be to have her successes and failtures with weight loss be so public are admirable.

 EXACTLY my point.  It is totally her business, I just want a fair representation of WLS success as a possibility.  Her influence could go a very long way to change that stigma.  She could say "I don't believe in it for me but it works for some" and I'd be satisfied.

My surgeon is the one who did Carney Wilson way back in the day..........he has had Oprah peeps call him to ask why people fail and what the % number of people fail with this surgery. When he told them he could give him the number of people who have succeeded etc....they cut the call short and didn't want to talk with him. My Dr. goes all over the world teaching this to other Dr.'s and has support classes everywhere Alaska included.........he is just amazing. I said to him maybe he should approach Oprah's peeps and offer the surgery for free..........and he would do it for her I am sure.......but she is so against this surgery, even though she really needs to do it. We have all been through that yo yo thing too. One support meeting we all went on and on about Carney and Oprah......

Oprah peeps call him to ask why people fail and what the % number of people fail with this surgery. When he told them he could give him the number of people who have succeeded etc....they cut the call short and didn't want to talk with him.

Now, that is interesting! And unfortunate.

Yvonne you are very special.  Thanks for the post.  It seems to me that Oprah has fought losing weight and gailning like the rest of us.  She's looked at the up's and downs of WLS and is probably afraid.  Wasn't that how we all were when we started looking at WLS.  We had fought a long time to loose.  I was happy to see Ruby talking about the way people look at fat people.  She is special with a special light also.  I couldn't believe 700 and down to 360.  We are all in transition and understand the ups and downs of all this.  Take care and I love your picture...pretty girl either big or small!  Patty B

 Patty, you are a sweetheart.  You are so correct that she is probably afraid because just like all of us....you are afraid to fail and if she fails, she fails in front of the whole world.  I worry for Ruby and that's because when the TV cameras are gone and the 15 minutes of fame fade away, I have seen some pretty awful results.  I hope she stays in touch with therapists and understands how her food addiction works because I so worry about her.  With the addiction situation you get a high off the honeymoon period or the TV success and when that's over, you're faced with looking for a new high. What I've tried very hard to work on is not needing that "high" and being grateful for what I have right now today.  Yesterday is gone...tomorrow is not yet here.  Right now is all we have and having the attitude of gratitude is important.

I would love to do a video about how people treat me now then show them a before picture and ask "would you have talked to me then???"  Inside every obese person there is a thin person trying to get out.  It is very sad that when I go to an event that sometimes a pre-op is afraid to talk to me because they think I could have possibly forgotten where I came from.  That's why I push so hard for us to love and support our WLS brothers and sisters.  We all came from the same place....we're just in different stages.  Thanks for your kind words...I felt pretty ugly when I was large.
Many blessings, Y

i think that she may think that if she has surgery, she will feel like a failure because she couldn't do it without it.  then on top of that, she would get alot of flak. look at star Jones, when Rossie O'Donnell called her out on her surgery star was embraced because she was afraid of what the public would think. if o realized the any wls is a tool to help you loose pounds, like a tread mill, and a scale and all the other thing we use to change the way we eat and our lifestyle, she may come around.

 You know, I'm just asking for fairness.  She can hate the surgery but she shouldn't deny the fact that it has indeed saved many lives (including mine) but I almost felt like that story yesterday was totally a hit below the belt.  In the 8 years that I've been a member on OH I've had 2 friends die.  One commited suicide because she couldn't get the surgery.  She had an adult special needs child and was getting to where she could no longer pick her up and was worried beyond belief that she would be abused in the system so she put herself and her daughter in a car and left the engine running.  I corresponded with her for 9 months and we wrote everyone that we could find an address for.  It was a long complicated story and my friend was being abused by her bosses so that it made it even harder for her to deal with her daughter.  The other beautiful lady was due to a blood clot and we all know that any surgery can cause that to happen.  My point is that I know people do die but I just want equal time.  I've thought about posting my video as a video response on Oprah's you tube or better yet, wouldn't it be cool if we all did it that had you tube accounts.  The wheels are spinning in my brain....I'm thinking on this and I'll come up with something.

You know...I just had one more thought.  Yesterday when she had the kid on that had the surgery, she asked him if he was really eating the broccoli without the cheese.  Do you suppose there's a chance that she's so afraid of the life change that she doesn't want to give it up?  I had a friend that was a man and he said he didn't want to miss eating like he did.  I explained to him that it's all relative.  Full if full.  If he would have previously eaten for 20 minutes, then slow way down and make it last 20 minutes and it would be the same.  You can still taste it, you're just not shoveling it in like fire hose.

Again, we can guess all we want but if she would just lighten up and let some of the good stories be on the show, I'd be one happy happy girl!!!