Question:
Just wondering if you are going to watch Oprah Friday April 4th

What do you think about the show on Gastric Bypass Surgery that will air Friday April 2nd?    — Diane G. (posted on April 2, 2004)

April 1, 2004
this is a re-run show. i watched it the first time and was very upset by it. the topic of the show is "what really happens after gastric bypass surgery", but i don't feel it showed what the subject was supposed to be about. they have randy jackson on there from american idol. is was a new post-op and i felt that he didn't have enough info to talk about this subject eventhou he was postop himself. he talked about how he would get sick alot. yes some people do get sick, but i think it had alot to do with how he was eathing. they showed a clip of him eating. remember how we have all been told little bites and chew chew chew. well he took huge globs of food and complained that he would get sick...go figure. there was also a doctor on there and they showed a woman having wls. they never talked about life after wls. they only talked about the first few months. this is why i think so many people are against wls because they only hear little bits and pieces. when someone is healing for wls it is totally diffent than being 1 year out or more. i think people who have had wls and talk about it are great, but i do think if you are going to speak to the public about it that you should be very well educated of the subject. if you aren't well informed and speak in a public forum all you are doing is helping to spread incorrect information to the masses.
   — franbvan

April 1, 2004
<b>Probably not, cause Oprahs attitude stinks when it comes to this subject, I do not like her comments and little remarks she slides in. I don't think the people she has on the show stands up to her questions to well. the last show, I was please with the doctor who spoke up and defended wls very well. she stood up to oprahs wit.This maybe the same rerun show</b>
   — B4real

April 1, 2004
Yes, I saw the show the first time as well. Randy Jackson is a HORRIBLE spokesperson for wls. I think that celebrities walk in with their cash and pay for surgery and get it the next week. For me, the period of planning, waiting for insurance and for an opening with my sureon was long enough to TRULY educate me on the way to be post-op. If I had not had to go through 6 mos of tasks to get my surery, I might have been more like Randy Jackson. For me, I dumped ONCE and I got food stuck ONCE!! That was all it took to teach me the lessons. Oprah is a wonderful woman and I look up to her on many aspects but she, CLEARLY still has issues and bitterness about her weight struggle or she wouldn't come off as "I'm better than you" so often when talking bout it. The thing is, she still fights herself and she never got down to actually "thin". I bet she eventually breaks down and has wls. Just my thoughts. :)
   — Donya P.

April 2, 2004
The first time this show aired, was on the day of my first WLS pre-op consultation. I watched it as I was getting ready to leave for the doctor. At the time, I was interested and watched and listened to everything I possible on WLS. I hadn't yet begun weeding things out because I didn't know how to judge the speaker's amount of authority on the subject. Certainly I didn't watch the show becuase of Oprah, I wanted to see the post-op person. I was disappointed. Like other readers said, he is not an authority. Like all of us, we can only attest to OUR experience. Not all of us would be good candidates for public speakers. We can only talk about us. For me, I've had no complications whatsoever, I could give no one a good idea what to expect. And then some of us who have had all the experience needed to be experts, just aren't good at relaying them to others. The show wasn't bad, it just depends which side of surgery you're at it from.
   — Windy Pat