Need help in justifying WLS

[Guest guest]

Recently, I have been having constant arguments with my very confident (and

thin) brother who is at the tender and ignorant age of 23.

I am in tears because he tells me ridiculous things like, " if you want to

lose weight, just diet and exercise - start small. " It's insulting and

hurtful. He's been thin and fit his entire life, whereas myself, I have been

dealing with weight issues my entire life. We are 8 years apart in age, so

he was too young to see what I went through with my weight while living at

home. I am the only big person in my family (I take after my real father

whom I was not raised by.) Are there any resouces out there (in plain

english - the boy is not too bright) that explain why " diet and exercise "

don't always work for the morbidly obese?

I understand that I don't HAVE to explain anything this pain the arse, but he

is my brother and in other ways we are close. I wish I could just make him

see that things are different physiologically for we " morbid obese. " There

are so many factors involved - I have had sleep apnea since childhood, I have

PCO, food allergies, etc. He doesn't understand how " simply " making the

stomach smaller and re-routing the intestines will be so dramatically

different than good ole diet and exercise.

I am in tears here after this latest argument - it hurts so bad when people

think that I am just lazy and don't want to get it in gear, kwim?

Man, between his attitude and BCBS (who denied me this week and refused any

appeals) I am ready to slit my wrists (not really, but I feel quite low,

kwim?)

Kathie