[POOKIE88]

Hi all, I saw a commercial and this Monday Jan 12 --the OPRAH show will be all about WLS.

She is having one of the judges of American Idol who has had the surgery and she is also having some other WLS patients.

I have read in a couple of places that in the past Oprah has been very much against WLS, so it will be interesting to see if the program has a negative slant or not.

Listening & Learning from these Boards

Thanks, POOKIE

[peach pit]

Hey Pookie...thanks for the info. I'll try to watch it but that is usually when the kidlets are home from school and they want to watch Yugioh or Pokemon or some other such junk.

If you get a chance, could you post about it after you watch it?

I have heard that Oprah is pretty much against it.

Gosh...I hope it wasn't Paula who had it done.

ROFL!

peach

[POOKIE88]

HEY PEACH!

Just in case you were tied up with all those adorable KIDLETS here are some of the OPRAH Highlights you asked me to post.

The American Idol Judge Randy Jackson has lost 100 lbs since his Gastric Surgery. They mentioned that Carnie Wilson and Al Roeker lost 120 lbs and the singer Jennifer Holiday lost 200 wow!

Randy said he was always too tired to exercise before the surgery, but now that he has lost so much weight he exercises every day. They showed all the exercises he does now that he could not do before.

Then they went to a restaurant and showed they type of foods he eats now. He said it is very important that his food is MOIST. He no longer eats Bread or Pasta or Beef.
He used to eat a lot of sweets etc but now he gets sick if he eats them.

He also said it is very important to CHEW & CHEW.

Then they showed an animated diagram of the Gastric Bypass. They said the new stomach is only big enough to hold 4 grapes.

The Dr Christine Ren who was in the audience said that even tough the surgery is very risky ( 1 out of 200 never leave the hospital)—it is necessary for the severely obese who often suffer from Diabetes or High Blood Pressure etc.

Then they showed a mother of two who talked about her lifelong battle with weight and the cameras followed her into the operating room and showed her operation.
In 3 months she lost 62lbs but she talked about some of the emotions you have to go thru following surgery. She no longer has food to COMFORT her. When she cooked a huge meal for her family for Thanksgiving she could not eat it so she felt lonely & isolated.

She said she was “Mourning” the loss of comfort food in her life.

Then they had a teenage girl who has lost 140 lbs since her surgery but she spent a lot of time talking about the "HORRIFIC" pain following her surgery. She had to stay in a CHAIR for 3 weeks following her surgery and needed help getting out of the chair and off of the toilet. The word HORRIFIC and the “3 weeks of Horrific pain” really made an impression on me. The teenage girl decided to have the surgery after her sister referred to her as a BEACHED WHALE!! Gee people are so nice aren’t they!!!

Then all 3 of them talked about starting with liquids and then pureed foods and then soft foods and then small amounts of solids.

I hope this helps Peach. Thanks -- Pookie

[love2live]

I don't think it's worth all the pain-it should be used as a life resort-but you wonder whether or not these people could have gotten there with diet and exercise. I can't imagine not enjoying the foods I like-but as we all know moderation is they key-we shouldn't have to cut out everything from our diets IMO

[POOKIE88]

Yes Love2live I am very scared of the pain also. I had an operation a few years ago and the pain after was unspeakable.

But I know for sure that there are some of us who's metabolisms haved stopped working properly. A few weeks ago I was eating 700 calories a day and after 2 weeks I barely lost 1/2 pound. So I know for sure that there are some people who cannot lose a great deal of weight with just diet alone.

Even Oprah's website says that the severely obese have only a 5% success rate at long term keeping the weight off.

I have lost and regained hundreds of pounds in my life and have gone to bed hungry countless times. The surgery may be a last resort but it is definitely necessary for some people.
Thanks Pookie

[peach pit]

sigh....wouldn't it be nice if we didn't hit the wall when we dieted and exercised when we didn't have this tool. I'm still (or rather BOB is) watching what I eat and I am exercising (although I am not enjoying it yet)

HEY POOKIE!

thanks for the info! I did manage to sneak upstairs and watch some of Oprah. I missed the first 20 minutes but caught most of it. What really struck me was the mother of two who said she mourned her food. I felt like that for a while but now I am able to eat anything in small amounts and I don't miss it. I do remember a time a couple of months out when I went out to lunch and really felt bad that I couldn't eat the large quantities that I used to, only because it was so much darn fun to do. But! perspectives change as time goes on.

The pain, for me wasn't that bad. Far less than birthing two babies without pain meds. Three weeks and I was feeling terrific. The thing that struck me about that teenager was that she was young and maybe hasn't been in alot of physical pain anyway. Perhaps it was her first surgery? I was very happy for her, I can see how it has changed her life. I do wonder how she gets along with her sister now that she is thinner than her and after she made that comment about her being a beached whale in her journal.

I still think that Oprah doesn't get it nor does she approve of the surgery but she did seem to be cracking a bit in her perspective. Oprah looked pretty darn good...good for her!

peach

[VOW]

With all the yo-yo dieting that Oprah has done in her life, and her very public display of her successes and failures, it's surprising that she isn't more supportive of WLS.

Wouldn't surprise me a BIT to find out years from now that she secretly had the surgery herself....sorta like Rush Limbaugh's "do as I say, not as I do" secret.


Peace,
~VOW

[Chickadee]

Hey Pookie,
Was any mention made of Lap Band surgery, or did they focus only on bypass surgery? Just curious because I missed the darn show and if they talked about Lap Band, I'll try to find a rerun sometime.

Chickadee

[POOKIE88]

Sorry Chickadee but they did not mention LAP BAND on the Oprah show.
--Pookie

[POOKIE88]

Dear Peach

I'm glad the adorable Kidlets did not prevent you from seeing the show. Don't worry the first 20 minutes was about Oprah in her shiny leather boots at the People's Choice Awards so you did not miss any of the WLS info.

Thanks ---POOKIE

[Rowan Bailey]

I think that Oprah's being against WLS has more to do with the fact that she questions whether or not the surgery addresses the issues that got you overweight. What I think got expressed in the show was that WLS forces you to deal with all of the these things....kind of a surgical intervention.

I still toy with this option, some days I consider it, but I just love food and entertaining, and am so afraid that I will be removing one of my great joys in life. When I am ready to either bring myself to the place that I manage my weight or say that I am done and have WLS is still on the fence.....

I think that Oprah did change her position about the reasons after seeing the success of these people and acknowledging how hard it was/is for her....she needs an army to keep her on track and then she still had to do the same work as anyone else......it is such a challenge and I try not to judge...I would consider lapband instead of bypass, my insurance will pay, but I LOVE to cook and entertain, everyone callls me and asks me to give them a dinner party as a birthday present...and frankly I love being that in my posse......

rb

[jiffypop]

rowan:

there's nothing in this surgery that will prevent you from enjoying food or eating what you want... AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS. it won't be immediate, but the enjoyment of food generally does return. and it won't affect your ability to crank out fabulous food, either.

more later...

[cathyxxx]

Hello Ladies! I watched the show yesterday also and found it very interesting.

Pookie88 - you brought up a question that I have about the surgery. You mentioned only eating 700 calories a day for 2 weeks and only losing a 1/2 pound. I also have a very very very slow or what seems like a non existent metabolism and I'm wondering for people like that - that cannot seems to lose weight even on a very low calorie diet, how does that work for them after the surgery? I mean if someone can't lose weight now on 500 or 700 calories a day how do they lose weight after the surgery? and what keeps their bodies from going into "starvation mode" and hanging on to their weight? I have never seen anybody really explain that and I've always wondered how that works??? anybody know?

I guess I'm wondering what the surgery does to someone's metabolism since they are taking in so few calories?

I was reading something new the other day about "Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome" (low body temperature) and he was saying that a woman with low body temperature had had the stomach surgery done and still did not start losing weight after the surgery, until they were able to get her low body temperature up to normal. I just wonder if there are people that have the surgery and still don't lose weight?

Cathy

[POOKIE88]

One of the things I love about these boards is being able to communicate with folks from all around the world. Just in this thread I see NYC & Louisiana & Southern California.

CathyXXX. I asked your exact question to one of the WLS surgeons I met.

He said for some reason even people with VERY SLOW metabolisms seem to lose the weight after the WLS. I don't know if they really understand why.

It is just like that article on the home page of 3fatchicks that says they discovered that WLS cures diabetes. They do not understand why at this point. They originally thought it was because of the resulting weight loss.
But now they see they even rats who were not overweight to begin with are cured of diabetes after WLS.

I guess it somehow changes the system.

This is just what I heard from one surgeon -- I'm sure some of the ladies who actually had the surgery can answer your question even better than I can.

Thanks--POOKIE

[mish]

This episode of Oprah hasn't arrived in Australia yet, but I went to the Oprah website and checked it out - wow! I really appreciated what Randy Jackson said about exercise: "Now that I've lost this weight, I want to work out. If I don't do it, I'm mad, because I have all this energy!" I want that toooooooooo!

Chickadee, I'm sorry they didn't mention the lapband, too. It's quite the favoured option in Australia but it seems relatively unknown elsewhere.