The Oprah Show

I too like her show . I do know that she is very influential . The bottom Line is she will never condone WLS . She is an advid fighter against it . Dr.Phil her protage too hates WLS . And I took him out of my home .. I do no****ch him .. personal reasons .. It makes for great conversation , one I am thinking about having at the conference possibly . It needs to be said too that this surgery is not for everyone . And I truly believe that many get in the office and say what ever they want to , to get the surgery . The doctor yesterday brought up a great point . People who undergo sex change operations go for months in counseling getting ready for their new bodies .. I feel WLS patients should be given the same opportunity to try and work out any demons they may have lerking in the background . This surgery changes our bodies .. it changes out entire digestive system . And personally , I get more emails asking WHY .. WHY DID THEY NOT TELL ME THIS .. and what can I say ... .. ?? WLS is becoming like going to the dentist .. in and out in a day or 2 .. when it needs to be something that is really gone over with a fine tooth comb .... I can only hope that we long term post ops .. can voice our lives to those coming up in forums like this and others . Nat

Glad you posted your response - LOVED IT! But, one thing that really ticked me off about yesterday's show was that, while I agree that more needs to be done for the "head" why were all of the guests WLS patients? I have a friend who did Atkins and lost alot of weight. She moved her addiction to sex and sleeps with anyone. Why wasn't someone like her on the show? Personally, I felt like this was just another way for Oprah to show the downside of this surgery. What about the positive aspects of it? You...Nat...Wendy and all of the others out there that show on a daily basis that while we struggle with our weight, WLS was STILL the best decision. Only my 2 cents....... Jill 263/147 (still hanging on, dang it!)/145 (my goal/135 (doc's goal, and YES! I WILL get there!)

Bah humbug I don't think someone who has a well known aversion to WLS should do a story about it Oprah or no Oprah. She said WLS is up 600%, but she didn't explain why. She failed to mention the main reason this surgery was created was because of the alarming rise in obesity around the world. There is a better way to present this than the way she went about it. And i am sorry but Carnie Wilson is really beginning to come off as a real whiner to me struggling from an extreme case of excuseitus. Did you see her on Celebrity fit club. They had to strap her to a lie detector test to get her to admit the truth about what she really does when no one is looking. And i am not saying she wasn't an alcoholic but that is the new trend in Hollywood to confess a drug dependancy issue that has only lasted two years. I think Discovery Health has done a much better job of telling the whole story about WLS the good the bad and the ugly. In a very impartial manner. This was just Oprah trying to up her ratings. I mean think about if WLS is up 600% guess what that's a chance her rating can jump up 600% b/c of the millions of us interested in the subject so blah blah blah Oprah Love you guys Later Heather

Hey Nat! I only got to watch the last half of the show, but if you go on the www.oprah.com website, there are 13 pages and video clips of yesterday's show. Also, this Saturday at 2:00 p.m., on Oxygen channel, Oprah's After the Show will be broadcasting the hour long diaolog that went on after this show. I thought the show was very informative and gave me a lot to think about. Thanks! Karen

You know I am with Heather - Oprah is not impartial and did not tell the good side of WLS which by her numbers is 70%.......... she has stuggled with weight as long as any of us can remember and she should not be so against surgery if she has not tried it. I think most of us have addictive personalities - whether we like to admit it or not - that is how many of us got here - addicted to food, carbs, chocolate etc Normal people have addictions too - their's are just not so obvious - with food we can see the addiction more easily..... But there is such a thing as accountability. Many people go into this surgery without having researched it, for the good and for the bad. I researched it for 8 months before I had insurance approval so I knew the details inside and out. I truly believe that has helped me understand what is happening and what I need to look out for. Am I perfect? - no - but heck I am really trying to make sure I get it right, eating right , taking all my supplements, getting my blood checked, attending support groups and I continue to research protein, vitamins, side effects, etc etc I went to a nutrition class three weeks before my surgery and there were about 12 of us there - and I can guarantee there were 4 people in that room that will fail - they did not even seem to comprehand how their eating habits were going to have to change - these people should have been stopped before they even got started and eduated more - because when they fail they will blame the surgery, the doctor, the food - everything but themselves. I have also never seen them at a Support group meeting. Oprah did not emphasise that we owe it to ourselves to get the best from this surgery. And don't get me started on Carnie Wilson - her books tell me that she was a poor little rich girl who did not get enough attention from daddy - she blames her childhood on everything. And now she was drinking and taking drugs etc - These traits were always in her personality. She needs to go to some good counseling to help her overcome all of these issues that she is still dealing with. Just because she is a personality that everyone knows does not mean she does not have the same issues we all face. The other probem is that people were looking up to her and she used to go around lecturing everyone on her surgery success - people must now feel a disappointment in her and this has probably stopped people that could be helped by this operation even going to see about it - they will think because she is struggling that it does not work. Weight loss surgery is a tool for good health - you are correct Nat, it is not the answer to all of our problems - they will still be there for us to deal with on the other side! Anyway that is my rant over....... wish I drank coffee in the morning - I just get wound up over things like this!! Jackie

I gave a lot more thought about the whole thing last night . Carnie was introduced as the " Poster Child For Weightloss Surgery " I think not .. We are the poster children for weightloss surgery . My only concern here is what I stated .. there are to me just not enough counseling that goes on before hand . I have so many friends that are struggling right now .. demons that where there prior to surgery , that are rearing there ugly heads. Wls did not take this away .. it only made them lighter , and healthier to a point . We need to stand up and tell these pre-ops that this is not FReaking Joke .. that they must prepare .. and prepare right . That does not mean go see a shrink .. tell lies to get the surgery ... tell the truth .. deal with the demons now versus waiting to get so envolved with the new you that it manifest it selfs and just explodes... this is what makes me mad .. Jackie .. I see it way to much .. We all whether Gastric Bypass patients or just regular ole jack and jills have issues .. just because I had bypass surgery does not mean I am going to become a jeckyl and hyde .. but if I have demons ... I deal with them .. being Obese is a demon in itself and just trying to get used to our new bodies is enough to deal with . There will be discussion on this subject in Lexington and I plan on attending that session .. maybe we can voice out how important pre-op testing REALLY is .. Love ya .. see ya soon . Natalie

I am in agreement with you Nat. Carnie Wilson is the poster child for "what can go wrong after surgery if you did not have enough help going into it!!" I agree we need to do more preparation prior to surgery and I believe the surgeon's offices have a duty to get their patients more prepared. At Dr Halmi's office you had 2 mandatory nutition sessions to go to before you could have surgery. Each one was over 3 hours long and very informative. Now I had researched a lot of it before attending them so I was completely comfortable with what I could and could not eat after surgery but there were people asking why it would not be alright to have Kentucky fried chicken and fried steak etc after surgery. It was like - why would you even want to go back to eating how you are now? They did not seem to comprehend that this is a life long change. They were surprised that they would have to take vitamins for life - it was such an eye opener for me to see how unprepared they were. A friend of theirs had had the surgery and got thin so they were going to do it too..... I spent a long time making sure I could make the commitment to the lifelong changes I was going to have to go through and decided I could and would. I know it won't always be easy but I am not going backwards! Who is leading the discussion at Lexington on this so I can make sure I attend that session? Jackie

Okay, my two cents coming!! First, I don't think Oprah was fair in how she did the show - by only showing the negative. She is biased on this subject and therefore doesn't give a complete and honest picture. Oprah has a huge audience and has lots of influence and so many people take her word as the final word on any subject. Yes, I totally agree that psy testing is important, finding all the hidden addictions we may have, etc. but I also think that there are some of us who got obese just because we overate and loved food and didn't control that. Now does that translate into being an alcoholic, no, I don't think so, not always. The truth is that our society tends to be addictive -- to the computer, cell phones, working, playing, and on and on. It is not just a result of weight loss surgery. I don't like generalizations about wls. Give me a break. love donna

The one thing I really came away from the show was when the psyciatrist said that after losing weight thinking you don't know the new you, when you never really knew the old you. While I am pre-op I am wondering if there is a way to find out if I really know the obese me. And how to work through this. Will I do a 360 into another person? I want this surgery so badly to be healthy, but I don't want to change. I guess it is all about change. The only thing in life that is constant is change. Thanx for just letting me get some thoughts out. Corinn

Nat- Thanks for your comments. I haven't seen the show yet but I did look at the Oprah site and read the basic jest of the show. My thoughts on it are this: If she was focusing on addiction transfer why not bring in a smoker who gained weight once they quit smoking? Or a drug addict who started shopping themselves into debt once they got clean? Or someone that lost weight "naturally" and experienced sexual addiction. It seems like she tried to wrap her disapproval of WLS in the cloack of addiction transfer. To me, that's not fair....but it's her show and she can do what she wants. I agree that the pre-op counseling needs to be better. I know that Dr. Anez's office tries to do their best at screening those who need help pre-op (and holding back the process for those they feel strongly about needing help first) and during follow-ups it's been mentioned that if I needed help navigating some emotions that they would recommend counseling. We go through so many changes with WLS that if we don't keep our head in check that we can get into a heap of trouble.....but it's not the surgery per se that causes the trouble....it's our choices. That's my 2 cents! Christina S