NOT Uncle Dave
Having lost 20 lbs in my quest to get back down to that hot, sexy bod I had in my twe… OK, so I never had a hot, sexy body, but I can look down and see my shoes without sucking in and my feet don’t hurt so much when I walk. Did it by cutting back on how much I eat to where I am losing. One of the toughest things I’ve ever done. Another 30 lbs (at least) to go!
Obesity operations jump in United States
More than 120,000 obese Americans had some kind of surgery to help them lose weight in 2004, with the biggest increase among middle-aged people, according to a study released on Wednesday.
In 1998, 772 people aged 55 to 64 had gastric bypass, stapling or some similar procedure known as bariatric surgery to help weight loss. But that number ballooned to 15,086 in 2004, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“Among the reasons for the extremely dramatic increases is that the mortality outcomes from obesity surgery have improved greatly,” the agency said in a statement.
“The national death rate for patients hospitalized for bariatric surgery declined 78 percent, from 0.9 percent in 1998 to 0.2 percent in 2004.”
Agency director Dr. Carolyn Clancy said the report shows “more Americans are turning to obesity surgery and that an increasing number of younger people are undergoing these procedures.”
More than 103,000 of the 2004 operations were on patients aged 18 to 54, the study found, and 349 were performed on youngsters aged 12 to 17.
“As the rate of obesity continues to climb, the health care system needs to be prepared for continued escalation in the rate of this surgery and its potential complications,” she said.
The average hospital cost for an obesity surgery patient stay, excluding physician fees, was $10,395 in 2004 as compared with $10,970 in 1998, adjusted for inflation, according to the report, published online at http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb23.pdf.
I’ve known five people who had that surgery. One died during recovery from surgery. Two have had good luck with it, and lost a lot of weight. The other two lost some weight initially, but are pretty much back to their old fat selves now.
Being severely overweight myself, I really wanted there to be some magic way to lose all my blubber, but stomach stapling does NOT appear to be it.
I don’t know if the story is true, but Roseanne Barr claimed she had the surgery done. And now instead of gorging a few times a day, she gorges throughout the day in smaller portions.
Making your stomach smaller will not change an over-desire to eat.
Exactly! Using surgery as a quick-fix will not solve the greater problem of poor nutrition and exercise. Look at Carny Wilson as living proof.
My mother had this surgery done a few years ago and it’s been the best thing to ever happen to her. She was obese to the point where exercise was no longer an option. Her knees and back were giving out, and she could only walk very short distances with the assistance of a cane. She used an electric scooter for shopping, work, etc.
My mom lost over half of her body weight, she has a surgery scheduled in a few months to have the excess skin removed from her upper arms (which they say will amount to 10-15 lbs of skin). The scooter and cane have spent the last several years in the garage collecting dust; the last person to use it was my 11 year old nephew, who happens to think it’s the coolest thing ever. My mom now works out before work 2 days a week, and walks around the neighborhood when the weather is nice enough.
Say what you will about bariatric surgery, but it’s given me my mom back. It’s not a “magic pill” solution. It’s a desperate, life-changing decision for people who may have no other way out.
I had an employee who went from over 400 lbs to under 200 by having her stomach stapled. It does work.
Chuck
Thumbs up for your Mom!! She did it the Smith, Barney way!!
I took a staple gun, then a nail gun to my stomach. Only lost some blood…
It is a drastic measure, but it saves lives.
I have also known several people to go under the knife (or under the stapler as it were), and all of them have shown significant signs of improvement – of course if they had eaten right in the first place this wouldnt have been nessesary –
My wife is scheduled to have a gastric bypass on Jan.17/07.
I pray it will be alright. If all goes well, it will be a life saving event.
Cost wise.. 0 dollars thanks to our health care system here in Canada
Let’s help Uncle Dave in his quest by giving him a pep talk:
Give up! It can’t be done! Most people who diet don’t lose, and of those who do, most of them gain it all back. You’ll only create wailing and gnashing of teeth for yourself. Have some ice cream! And cookies!
Come back!! Come back!! Come back!!
I have an on-line friend in Holland who weighs(or did weigh) 860 pounds. He has tried everything and has never lost more than 30 pounds and then gains it back. Last year they decided to do the surgury that the news guy on NBC had done(Al Roker), but in stages, because of the risk of death in the recovery room.
First they put a balloon in his stomach(it’s just become available in the US) which made him feel full very quickly. He lost 81 pounds with that, next they did a partial stomach stapling, he lost 298 pounds in 18 months with that…then they did a full gastric bypass, he has lost another 195 since that was done 14 months ago….he still has 100 pounds to go, but is losing about 9 pounds a month now.
He had to go through(and still does) a very strict course of therapy to learn new ways to eat and to deal with his new body image.
95 pounds ago, he saw the upstairs of his flat for the first time in 10 years. He rents out the spare bedroom, and his tenant gave him a tour of the upstairs with the changes that my friend had never seen.
He says it’s like being released from an underground dungeon for the first time in 50 years…..the whole world seems to have changed.
He can actually go places on his scooter since the first surgury, something he hadn’t done since he went over 500 pounds 10 years ago, and he sat in a normal seat at the cinema for the first time in 15 years.
It really is a life saving and changing experience. As for the death rate, it’s almost miniscule in comparison to the deaths from morbid obesity.
I now know 6 people who have the gastric bypass and they all thank God for it. As to the ones who fail at it, usually you can look at their support system or their therapy and see why.
#13…sorry…when I said that ***last year they decided***…they started the process 4 years ago, last year they decided to do the full bypass.
So the moral is — where there’s a lack of will, there’s still a way.
#15 Mike…..it’s not always a lack of will Mike. There are many, many reasons for people becoming morbidly obease. In my friends case it was his answer to heavy childhood abuse. He became everything the abusers hated in the hopes they would stop the abuse(sexual). By the time he was an adult, he weighed almost 500 pounds, no matter what the Doctors did, they couldn’t reduce his weight, in fact it got worse. When he was at 790 pounds they finally found out through therapy, the root causes and started working on those. It worked but by this time simple dieting wasn’t going to work.
But under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. Like the ones you see standing at the fast food place, stuffing down fries and triple burgers with a diet coke and having to sit on 2 chairs while they eat.