A darling man named Jim from Pittsburgh, PA posted the following in response to someone who'd been told that all the postops a friend knew had gained back the weight. She'd posted looking for sage advice in how to handle the situation. Here's Jim's comments:
The amount of "experts" out there on this surgery who have never had it is staggering.
I've developed canned answers over the last year:
1) "Everyone who gets this surgery dies in 10 years."
Really??? I'll have to find my friend Tim who had this surgery 15 years ago and drive a stake through his heart then, because he is obviously undead.
2) "It's just a tool, not a magic bullet!"
Yeah, thanks. I think I figured that out one year and 190 pounds ago.
3) "So and so had it and gained all the weight back."
Wow, they must have really tried hard to do that. Fortunately, I don't have the underlying psychological issues that goes along with the small percentage of people that have that issue.
4) "Don't you miss eating like a normal person?"
An extremely small price to pay being able to look and feel like a normal person. And with few exceptions, I DO eat like a normal person, only smaller amounts.
5) "Everyone I know who had this surgery regrets it and / or is sick from it."
Then you need to get out more, because that is an extremely small minority of people who get this surgery.
6) "You took the easy way out."
No, staying fat and dying young would have been taking the easy way out. And there is nothing wrong with taking the path of least resistance. That's like telling a woman who had difficulties giving birth that she took the easy way out having a C-section. Or like telling a cancer patient that they took the easy way out by getting chemo.
7) "If you would have just quit eating, you wouldn't have gotten so fat and needed this surgery."
And if you would just quit talking, less people would think you are an ignorant a$$hole. The best thing was that this was told to me by a smoker who had tried to quit and failed at least five times. Ah, sweet irony.
I've learned that the worst thing about ignorance is its insistence.
2 comments:
Lea,
This is such a great post!! What great information to pass on... if you don't mind - I'd like to borrow this post, and the one about advice from post-ops for a blog that I work on. I'll of course link them back to your blog, but the information has been so great - I'd love to share it with others as well.
Kim,
That is fine. The link is much appreciated! And, if you copy something I shared that is linked from elsewhere, please be sure to link it properly to the original source to cover yourself in copyright issues!
Lea
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