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When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
Star Jones Tells Oprah About Gastric Bypass; The View Responds
Courtney Love: "You've Got To Fix Your Karma"
Opera Singer Is Rehired After She Loses Over 100 Pounds Through Gastric Bypass
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The Queen of No
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
Gastric bypass at 240 lbs.. ? I can't believe that was approved. Granted, I don't know much about the surgery except from it being featured on television, but isn't GPS supposed to be a last resort? Oh well, she's really beautiful and it's too bad she doesn't feel it.
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The Queen of No
05/05/09

@The Queen of No is a Riot Poof: GBS*, RATHER. Guh.
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BellaTricks
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
The comments about one-piece swimsuits and tummy tucks are making me uneasy. Wouldn't that just be putting a band-aid over the real problem at worst, or feeding into it at best? This woman's problem isn't excess skin- it's her mentality about the skin.
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Where The Mild Things Are
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
I really don't want to talk numbers here, but her pre-operation size/weight did NOT seem large enough to demand a gastric bypass. I have never seen someone that thin undergo such a drastic surgery. It makes me very skeptical of whomever was counseling her through her original decision.
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zack535is
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
I just had an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck, though I detest the term) 4 weeks ago to remove skin from having lost a significant (130 pounds) of weight. This surgery is no joke, friends. It's major surgery, and after 4 weeks, I still have one drain tube in, and I wear an abdominal binder 24 hours a day, and will have to continue to do so for 3 weeks after the last drain is removed. It may well be for those reasons that this woman didn't get the skin taken off, it may be the cost, I don't know. I lost my weight through exercise and some diet modification over a period of about 4 years, so our stories are definitely not the same. However, I can completely identify with not feeling at home in your body in this way. I'm 30, and I haven't had a "normal" body type since the age of about 7. I look in the mirror now and I don't know who that person in the reflection is. I look (to me, anyway), and feel, hollow; as if my midsection isn't even there. I've got an incredibly supportive GF that tells me how great I look everyday, as well as supportive friends and family....yet I still can't quite get my head around my new body. I have a history of being melancholy, if not downright depressive, and those tendencies have reared their ugly head of late as my recovery has dragged slowly on. There are times at which I wish I'd never had the surgery done, and I can only imagine how much worse my situation would be if I'd lost the weight as quickly as gastric patients tend to do. I needed a slow transition to a normal size, and it still scares the shit out of me sometimes.

I think this will pass, given time...but I know that if I didn't have this emotional support from everybody (and reefer), I'd be beating a path to therapy, and medication too.
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Phyllis Nefler
05/05/09

@zack535is: Congratulations! I know it's a challenge but trust me, once you're out of those binders it will be worth it...

I know how you feel; I exercised and lost about 100 lbs myself, then I had a tummy tuck and lipo in September and even though I've had plenty of time to get used to it, I still finding myself walking into the plus-sized sections of the store (I am *way* out of plus sized now). I don't know if that mentality will ever go away.

If you want to talk some more, contact me via my blog (link's in my profile).
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HeddaOhlund
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
I have no sympathy for people who mutilate themselves with plastic surgery and then cry about results.
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zack535is
05/05/09

@HeddaOhlund: And I have no desire to listen to people make blanket statements about plastic surgery being "mutilation." I earned every ounce of weight that I lost, and to say that I mutilated myself be getting rid of extra skin...well that's just ignorant and rude.
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Phyllis Nefler
05/05/09

@zack535is: +1. I fixed something that's been inhibiting me since I was about 10 years old and if someone else doesn't like it, it's too damn bad.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
anyone else think she kind of looks like Michelle Williams?
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Phyllis Nefler
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
If she can afford gastric bypass, why can't she get a tummy tuck to get rid of the excess skin? Unless the gastric bypass was covered by her insurance i suppose --

I've lost over 100 lbs myself and had quite a bit of plastic surgery to give myself the "body I've always wanted" and guess what?? it's not a cure-all and things are not absolutely wonderful. i feel a lot better about myself but there's no plastic surgery to fix all the wonky issues in my brain.
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angryblackgurl
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
The skin is a CONSTANT reminder of what u were...so how can you ever heal??? You think the weight loss is sufficient, until you see all the skin. So you still have to hide..
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MissAmy
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
I wonder if she will gain the weight back? I have a distant aquaintance who went through gastric bypass. He lost over 150 pounds, but was left with tremendous amounts of hanging skin. Since he couldn't afford the total body lift he needed, he ended up eating to comfort himself and has now gained back about half the weight. I really, really don't like gastric bypass. It doesn't teach good habits or deal with the psychological issues surrounding weight.
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rednrowdy
05/05/09

@MissAmy: i feel like if there's any wls that does some good, it's the lap band surgery. the bypass kinda freaks me out.
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swedishfishing
05/05/09

@MissAmy: If you're interested in the medical issues surrounding gastric bypass surgery, including those that you mentioned, there's an interesting series of blog posts you may want to check out at junkfoodscience.blogspot.com. Here is a decent summary one: [junkfoodscience.blogspot.com] The whole series on bariatric surgery is in the sidebar, and they're all pretty interesting I think.

I don't feel like I'm in the place to judge someone who would make the decision to have that kind of surgery; I've never been overweight, so I can't imagine what kind of emotions and medical and financial decisions go into that choice. The more I read about it, though, the more I feel kind of uncomfortable with the way it's pushed on people as safe and effective, when it may not be at all. And it's irreversible and causes lifelong malnutrition. Shouldn't something that drastic be an absolute last resort?
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
05/05/09

@swedishfishing: Yes.
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rednrowdy
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
i'm guessing that the contestants on 'the biggest loser' don't look this way because they work out and reduce calories rather than lose weight quickly through diet alone...and as much as every gastric bypass producing different bodily results, not all patients are going to be putting in 30 minutes on a treadmill at high speeds only 2 weeks after surgery.
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pandorasmittens
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
This is the reason I refuse to believe that there is a human being alive that lost weight, got boobs, or whittled their nose and emerged feeling "complete"*

Completeness can't be worked from the outside in. A painted egg may have a pretty shell, but life comes only from the inside.

*This does not refer to reconstructive surgery.
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Sweetie
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
I thought you had to undergo a psychological evaluation & counseling before gastric bypass? If that had been the case, then this woman clearly wouldn't have qualified for the surgery.

The guy, on the other hand, I think just felt like crap b/c of all that excess skin - I'd feel badly too. He also clearly had food issues, however. If you watched the episode he goes on this insane milkshake binge at one point.
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mysterygirl
05/05/09

@Sweetie: I don't know... who's to say that some of these problems / obsessions didn't emerge from (rather than precede) her surgery and subsequent thinness? It seems fair to allow that there could have been side effects to the surgery, both mental and physical, that she didn't or couldn't anticipate ahead of time.
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Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
This is part of the reason why I don't champion WLS (along with the rate of regain and the terrible side effects/mortality rate). There is so little emphasis on therapy after you lose the weight. The thought is, "Your thin now, you're healthy," but you aren't always mentally healthy at your new size. This is a perfect example of that.
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Evie Havok
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
Can't she have the extra skin removed and then have a tummy tuck? That would fix how her stomach looks if that's what's bothering her. May be it might help her move along and start dealing with the internal emotional problems.
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momentsofabsurdity
05/05/09

In reply to When Gastric Bypass Leaves You Uncomfortable In Your Own Skin
The other guy on this show - Ricky - seemed to have some serious psychological issues. Kimberly did too but at least I felt by the end that she was taking steps to improve herself.

Watching Ricky inhale 7 or 8 milkshakes and play lap-band yo-yo (what an enabling doctor!) made me uncomfortable.

Also, when Kimberly was going out to nightclubs and meeting girls "for new friends" it DEFINITElY came off as her trying to pick them up. Who goes to a nightclub to find new girlfriends?
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blueberrypancake
05/05/09

@momentsofabsurdity: Yeah, I know. I felt really bad for Rocky at first - he really had so much extra skin it was like a deformity - but then seeing him binge like that? It was really irresponsible.
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momentsofabsurdity
05/05/09

@blueberrypancake: Whoa, I totally typed Ricky even though I knew it was Rocky.

I thought it was irresponsible for his doctor to play games with the lap band in the first place. And for him to gain 50 pounds that week? I mean, holy shit, how much do you have to eat to gain 50 pounds in one week??

I felt bad for him too and was hoping for him to get the full body tuck, but I felt like he was just looking for this quick fix and he figured now that he was skinny he could eat like that and not affect him -- I don't know. I thought therapy would have helped him a lot.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
05/05/09

@momentsofabsurdity: That scene when Rocky KEPT ordering snack after snack, junk after junk was REALLY disturbing. I almost had to change the channel.

And then he threw up before eating more..... I hope they both find peace.
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