"My Lap-Band disaster" is the headline of this Salon article. Go and read it, then come back and let's discuss.
This woman, who weighed 175 lbs, couldn't find a surgeon in the U.S. that was unethical enough to give her a lap band, so she went to another country to find one. She says that she read everything she could about the lap band, but if she had, she would have found out how crucial aftercare is. She'd know that flying to London a couple of times a year for a fill is not the extent of it. She'd know that the people who are the most unhappy or least successful with their lap band, tend to not have access to good aftercare (for example, this poor girl who got hers in Mexico) or go into the surgery ill-informed and with unrealistic expectations.
"Every time I tried to eat broccoli or carrots or anything healthy I used
to enjoy, it would get caught in my throat and hurt so badly that I
would race to the bathroom to puke." Nowhere in the article, does she talk about learning to chew, chew, chew, and eating slowly, all the lifetime behaviors we have to modify. Which, as you and I know, goes hand in hand with band. Obviously, her band was already primed when it was inserted. Due to her difficulties eating, she resorts to slider foods. We've all been there. But then, she goes to have FLUID ADDED.
Basically, I'm all stabby now that this woman - who did not meet the criteria for this surgery - got it anyway, and now gets to speak about it in a public forum. My husband urged me to comment on the article, but I avoid internet article comments like the plague. Comments are where hope goes to die. But I'm not above verbally abusing Salon on twitter, for that inflammatory headline, and for showcasing this author.
There is so much wrong with that article's author... and most of the comments. I am really just sad that the writer was so uninformed. She was told it was medically inadvisable to have the surgery, she did it anyway, had a horrible experience and in the end said she would do it again...
ReplyDeleteYeah, she sounds like kind of a mess. It's irritating that this is the viewpoint they went with.
DeleteThat article is a mess! UGH
ReplyDeleteIt's maddening, right?
DeleteOk, so... I am a firm believer in a "you have a right to do with your body what you wish"...but if you do it against medical advice, you don't have the right to 'speak out' against it. Further, she says she's happy with her decision, so that headline totally takes what she says out of context. What really pisses me off is that it skips over what she ACTUALLY needed to do to lose the weight. Like- "here's all the bad shit lap band did for me, and then I made myself better". I think articles like that are what give WLS a bad name!
ReplyDeleteYep. I was really upset at the idea that people might read that article or even just see that headline and decide against lap band surgery, when it could really have been what helped them.
DeleteFDA has approved Lap Band for much lower BMI than most insurance will ever cover...probably this was the case for her/why she went somewhere else. For the FDA to approve it, it is deemed safe/and safer than the risks of carrying the extra weight...but that doesn't mean most insurance will want to pay for it. I agree the article leaves tons of room to confuse people. I think I'm most bugged by the part about how you can't eat good foods/it works for obese people because it makes them eat less junk food than the junk food they ate already. :-/
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine why any surgeon would perform the surgery on someone who's not obese. But yeah, it makes it sound like the surgery also isn't for people who want to eat healthy.
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