600 lb life

Anybody watch this show?  gotta admit i am still fascinated by weight loss surgery shows.  Hubby is usually not interested but we watched one about a 500+ lb woman who had the vsg. she lost 40 lbs before surgery and then almost nothing after surgery. she had been bed ridden for years and was enabled by her husband.   I can't figure out how she managed to eat around her sleeve from the very beginning. i remember those early months and i don't think i could have eaten enough to avoid weight loss if i had tried to. it was just no fun to eat. this woman lived in a completely different mental reality and obviously did not have an effective psych consult.

not sure what we can learn from this except that it is important to do your part of the work and the vsg can indeed fail if you don't.   diane

Figures that the first VSG they showed would be a failure. Sigh.

I am taping them but haven'****ched any yet. I think mentally I'm just in a different place and so it's not so interesting to me.

Yeah, it reminds of "Hoarders" which I watched. I found it interesting for a while - then just painful.  It's so clear that it's such a grab-bag of mental illness that ultimately it's too hard to watch much of (for me).

I've caught parts of a couple of shows. I think what sticks out to me the most it just how much mental work has to be done. Whether a person considers themselves addicted to carbs/food etc or not, they have to put in the mental time to figure out what food is to them (comfort, enjoyment, etc) or they will probably fail. They have to address whatever emotion sends them to the frig. 

I also am amazed at just how hard it is for heavy folks to have a support system at home. Their SO's don't want them to die, but they also don't want the SMO person to lose weight. That's a tough situation. My hairdresser is SMO and her fiance doesn't want a skinny girl. She used to talk to me a lot about WLS, but she hasn't talked to me about it at all lately. Of course, she's also pregnant - so there's that. 

I feel for all of them. It's just not an easy thing. 

Yeah, the show I watched (1st Episode of season 2) was like that.  Hubby was turned on by a "big" girl, but even he admitted that she was so big now that they couldn't actually do anything.  Still he belittled her wait loss and exercise attempts... I can't even imagine what it would be like to have an unsupportive spouse and try to go through MY puny weight-loss, let alone try to lose 400 lbs over the course of several years while having someone picking away at you.

I never watch that show, but for some reason last night I did.  Horrifying.

There is a lively thread about Penny's show on the VSG board if you're interested. 

We don't have cable/sat at home, so I got an itunes season pass to watch after seeing comments.  Watched Season 1 - Episode 1 yesterday.  Holy hannah. 

I guess when you get to 600 lbs it figures there's a lot going on mentally... You'd pretty much have shut out reality altogether - the mirror, the pain in your legs, etc.   And get good at it.  But that's what addicts do.  I certainly see the tendency in myself... eating unconsciously, convincing myself that a XXL shirt isn't that abnormal, etc. etc.  Luckily had just enough reality seeping in to get help before going over the edge.  It's not that hard to see (for me) how these folks go that way - add an enabling spouse, or a miserable life, and food as drug of choice, and you have the equivalent of a legal crack-addict with the same consequences.  A spiral to disease and death.  It's just with weight, you get to see it more obviously.

The thought of ending up in a situation like Penny found herself in was a strong motivator for me to get VSG.  I could easily see myself not putting on the brakes (I was 357 pounds and counting) and ending up bedridden with my husband and kids having to come to the mountain, so to speak, and having to be tended to as she is.  Of course, my own husband would never be bringing me the food that Penny's husband brings to her.  If I wanted that crap, I'd have to crawl out of that bed and get it my own self. 

Very sad.  I feel for her kid.  As for Penny and her husband, they are volunteers.

yeah, the sad part is that little boy only has a partial mother and may end up with no mother at all soon.   my surgeon questions whether food is really an addiction because everyone needs food, but in the case of this woman i really think it is. all the rationalizing, mental blindness and peculiar thinking really seem like addiction.  i really hope this person gets some help.   my hubby's sister is sort of like this but not yet bed ridden. its coming. her mobility is less and less and its heartbreaking.   she had a wls consult but has done nothing. i really think she can't bear the thought of giving up food.   diane

I think, if you can be addicted to shopping or gambling, you can be addicted to anything, even food. But I don't think food is *physically* addicting. That doesn't make sense from a survivial or physiological standpoint.