Have you read new Oprah article?

Has anyone read the article on WLS in the April issue of Ophrah magazine? It is a very biased view of the facts in a negative light. I kind of knew she wasn't on board with WLS, but the fact that she put this story in her magazine confirms that without a doubt! I don't dismiss Ophrah's take on the subject like I would someone who has a strong opinion on WLS with no idea what a morbidly obese person is facing. Ophrah has walked the walk. She has regained 100 pounds with all of America to answer to. She has done all the diets and suffered plenty of pain, and seems to have found a new success this past year. But.......this article really takes liberty with the data and represents everything in the most negative light possible. I am not moved to change my April 6th surgery date because of this, but it wasn't the best thing to read just before going into surgery!

I think the proof is in the pudding. If they were to poll those who had wls 10 years later and ask if they regretted having it done, that's all you really need to go on. I don't listen to experts who don't know what it is like to battle this and choose to hold the stance that all we need is to buck up and use some will power. They can bite my soon to be skinny butt. Dina

****I apologize in advance for my terrible spelling. If only AMOS had spell check feature!! ******* I haven't read the article, and I'm not sure what the negativity was about, but it's very common for people to misinterpret statistics. I have done extensive research, as I'm sure we all have, and what I have found is a gross misrepresentation of the facts in many cases. It's true, some people DO have horrible complications. It's also true that some people die. The statistics that are generally quoted, such as 1 in every 200 WLS patients die, is shamefully misrepresentive of what is actually the case. What has, unfortunately, skewed the statistics are a couple of things: 1. There has been a mass migrarion of general surgeons into the field of bariatric surgery just in the past 5 years. Keep in mind that these surgeons are inexperienced and some of them have an alarming mortality rate. The statistics that are generally quoted by the nay-sayers include these inexperienced and unskilled surgeons together with the not-so-numerous surgeons that have hundreds even thousands of these procedures under their belt and even some are still practicing that have been in the field since it's insception in the 1970s. 2. There are also different types of bariatric patients who undergo WLS. Mostly we are made up of the morbidly obese and the super-morbidly obese. The risk for complications, even death, among the super-morbidly obese is greater than that of the morbidly obese. It usually is the case that any given surgeon's record will reflect this difference. But again, that isn't taken into account and treated honestly by those who simply can't wrap their minds around a surgical treatment for obesity. At every opportunity I try to advise anyone thinking of WLS to research the individual statistics of each surgeon.....evalutate their aftercare and the long term success of their previous patients. Also, look at the statistics for each indivual surgeon in the two groups mentioned above. For example: My surgeon has been in the field for 25 years and has performed thousands of these procedures. His mortality rate among the morbidly obese was ZERO. Given that I was in that group (morbidly obese) I was very much comforted by those statistics. He has lost some patients that were super-morbidly obese, but not many. His mortality rate among the super-morbidly obese remains very low. I also checked with my state's Board of Medical Examiners to see if he had any malpractice suits against him. Anyway.....I just wanted to respond to this post because I find it so wearisome that such a successful treatment is so misrepresented. Bottom line is this. 75% of WLS patients lose the weight and keep it off. Compare that to the success rate of any given diet...you name it....Jenny Craig....Weigh****chers......LA Weightloss...etc....they all share a 5% success rate. The End. -Mary P