People who are WRONG

[Guest guest]

:

I have had people tell me exactly the same thing. (1) You aren't "that" heavy. ( Why don't you just diet harder? and (III) You've lost weight before. You can do it again if you just show some will power. I want to SCREAM at those people.

On the whole I've gotten very good response from my friends, especially those who really care about me and my health. But yesterday I went to lunch with one of my oldest and truest friends. He really does care about me. I've lost 96 pounds now. I still have a pot gut and an open skin graft. So I certainly don't look normal. But my arms, face and especially butt is close to what you see on real people. He asked me how much more weight I hoped to lose. I told him that a 27 BMI would put me at 177 so that left me around 70 pounds to go. My friend said that he thought I'd look on the verge of death at that weight. He strongly urged me to not lose ANY more weight. And he really does have my best interests at heart. I told him that he was simply wrong. My health would be FAR better at 170 to 180 pounds and if I could planned to go there.

I love my good friends. But I have to understand that they are not medically informed and don't know any better. So I do plan to ignore my friend and lose another 70 pounds or so if I can. Fortunately I am close enough to this friend that my ignoring his well meaning advice won't hurt his feelings. He knows that I know that he has my well being at heart so he will continue to give me bad advice and I'll continue to ignore it. And we'll both continue to be best friends.

Regards.

Joe Frost, old gentleman, not old fartSan , TX, 60 years oldSurgery 11/29/00 by Dr. Welker Lateral Gastrectomy with Duodenal Switch340 starting weight, currently 244http://www.duodenalswitch.com/Patients/Joe/joe.html

Re: Re: new

> > In a message dated 5/4/01 3:49:23 AM, duodenalswitch writes:> > << In an article my wife read me last night a doctor, I think possibly Dr. > Anthone of USC or possibly Dr. Gagner of Mt. Sinai in New York, said that > patients who reached a BMI of 40 or higher virtually never can lose weight > and keep it off by normal means. The diet and exercise solution which works > so well for those "thinner" patients simply will no longer work for you and > me. So if you are legitimately a 41 BMI you qualify and need this surgery. > Don't apologize for that. That's an interesting switch, isn't it? All our > life we've been apologizing for being too fat. Now you are apologizing for > being too thin.> > >>> > JOE: This is what Dr. Gagner told me when I went for the consult. He said > when you get to the 40 bmi mark, it is almost impossible to get the weight > off and KEEP IT OFF. > > My bmi was 45 and I saw how I had been at 35-40 bmi for a few years, without > any major symptoms and then balloon to a bmi of 45! I know it isn't > easy because you think 'hey, maybe I can try again...' and people may say > 'oh, you aren't THAT fat - why do something so drastic?' (some people > actually told me this). You may question yourself more about justifying the > procedure but if you QUALIFY for the surgery --- you definately could benefit > from it. > > I saw my mother's example and did not want to be 60, morbidly obese and > unable to walk around without being in pain.> > all the best,> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------->