an odd change

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

My family doctor has just made an odd change in what he is telling me. Up

until yesterday he was very supportive of the MGB and of me having it. He

is the one who was going to fly to Durham when I have the surgery.

Well, he's not really against the MGB or anything like that, but suddenly

he thinks that I should just try to lose weight with diet and exercise

(again). It seems that he has gotten involved with another doctor who has a

clinic where they do a whole weight loss program, a whole lifestyle change

sort of program. So now he thinks that I should try that. This doctor

knows that I have tried innumerable diets and exercise and have never, ever

been able to lose weight and keep it off. I asked him how long this other

doctor has been doing this, and he said five years. I asked what his

statistics were on people being able to keep off the weight they have lost,

because the studies show that only a very tiny percentage of the people who

are morbidly obese are ever able to do that. He admitted that the

percentages are extremely low, but then he tells me that he thinks I am the

kind of person who can be in that small percentage! He says that since I

am so intelligent and so motivated that he thinks I can do it. I suppose I

should have been flattered that he said that, but I was just frustrated!

He says that if I would just turn my enthusiasm and motivation from trying

to have the MGB to trying to lose weight through diet and exercise, that he

thinks I could do it. I told him that I probably could get myself all

geared up again and make a supreme effort and lose some weight, but that I

do not believe that I could keep that weight off in the long term. (I

didn't say anything about the mental and physical agony I have experienced

every time I have tried to lose weight through diet and exercise, and that

I am just not willing to go through that again, only to fail in the end.)

Anyway, he ended up by telling me that, of course, it is my decision, but

that if I do decide not to have the surgery, that he would love to use me

as a test subject to see what I can do with this other program.

This is a very nice doctor, but I just wish he would not be so blind about

my situation. The last time I saw him he was in total agreement that WLS

is the best option for people who are morbidly obese. Now, suddenly, he

has changed his tune. He even told me that I don't look at all to him like

I weigh 255 pounds (His nurse had just weighed me five minutes before, and

that is what I weighed!) What difference does it make what I look like

anyway (he never said before that I didn't look like I weighed that much,

and although I don't consider myself to be ugly, I do look fat)! This is a

health issue to me. Better looks from weight loss will be a nice,

emotionally satisfying side benefit for me, but mainly I want and need to

feel better physically.

I'm sure he will still be supportive in that he will carefully watch over

me after I have the MGB, but it would be nice if he were still behind me

wholeheartedly, because I am going to have the MGB!!!

Thanks for listening, friends!

Sara

255 lbs.

BMI 43

waiting for insurance approval