Washington Post Article Re: Surgeries

Hi all Any thoughts on this article in the Jan. 2 Washington Post titled "Doctors Debate Safety of Obesity Surgeries" Link: http://tinyurl.com/dzy7s Christina S

Hi y'all, and happy New Year! To answer your question, Yes, I have plenty of thoughts. First and foremost: As long as there is more than one way of acheiving a desired result, the subject-matter-experts will debate the validity of each method into the ground, to include statistics which, in some cases, I'm not sure have ANYTHING to do with the surgery itself. For example: "One recent study of Medicare patients found deaths a year after gastric bypass as high as 3 to 5 percent." What is this supposed to tell me? Surgery Success Rate? Patient Success Rate? What? Are the fatalaties based on surgical complications (which would TRULY be a part of "Success Rate"), or they based on other complications such as organ failure (which could be caused by EITHER bad surgery OR bad patient)? One sentence really jumped out at me: "A key to the success of banding procedures is the followup and working with a patient on their compliance," he said. "When they come in and they've sort of fallen off the wagon, you adjust the band. It really has an amazing effect." I really thought about biting my tongue on this one...but I won't. This has got to be one of the most contradictory sentences I have ever read on the subject of weight loss surgery. While I agree that adjusting a person's band can probably do wonders for that patient's morale when he/she is in a slump, at what point will the doctor hold the patient accountable for their own results? The article makes one thing CRYSTAL clear that I fear some surgeons do not: "But regardless of which method is used, studies show an inescapable reality: No surgery gives lasting results unless people also change eating and exercising habits." This is just my $0.02 worth, seen from the eyes of the spouse of a long-term post-op. Have a great week y'all, and see ya in Richmond! -Paul

I read that and with my surgery coming up, I began to wonder!!!