MY vents. And yes, I do have them.

457 views and 53 comments in 2 hours   Says alot about the respect and appreciation you command on this board. Please add me to the chorus asking you: don't let the clowns get you down and please stick around.

WE NEED YOU!  I cannot imagine where I would be in this process withoug you and Tracey and Dawn and Barb, not to mention all the newbies who think up questions I haven't thought of. And Monica! I've learned lots from all of  you.  I'm sorry you feel bad, you are all very appreciated.

Julie

Oh and Erica! Don't want her pissed off either 

Good plan...

Karen, I have always had the utmost respect for the vets here.  Without them, this board would be nothing.

If I give what I feel is the correct advice, and then am corrected (and I find out about it), I will go and correct myself and apologize - as I have done with you recently.  If I get corrected, but don't go back into the thread, then I don't know I was wrong.  I don't intentionally give out incorrect advice, but it does happen, to pretty much everyone.

I am a big proponent of "pay it forward".  Otherwise, I would have left the board right after my surgery.  What experience I do have to offer I like to share.  We all learn from others - but sometimes being the teacher can be frustrating.

A Few Things I've Learned from the Vets:

1.  Your pouch isn't broken, for God's sake.  If it was, you'd probably be dead by now (or at least in the hospital).
2.  The 5 Day Pouch Test is a crock of sh*t.
3.  Be accountable.  No one forced the food down your throat to make you fat, so be accountable for what goes in your piehole now.
4.  Don't freak out if the scale doesn't move.  You're probably just in a stall.  Keep on track and it will start again.  (And no, your pouch isn't broken.  See #1.)
5.  Don't ask the same freakin' question over and over, and expect different answers.  What are you, 5?
6.  If you think you have something serious, go to the hospital, not a message board!
7.  Losing weight will not fix your emotional instability.  See a specialist for that.
8.  Follow your own clinic's instructions.
9.  Plan out your food for the day as best you can.  That way, you avoid 'Uh oh' moments.
10.  ROCK THAT WLS!!

well said... I have learned those as well as others. With out the VETS around we would not have learned or even thought of most of those.


 thanks Karen for making me laugh about the things that annoy me and yet I have not even had surgery yet.

I try helping then stop for a while because, well its just the kindest thing for me to do.

My pet peeves:

1. People in distress, post surgery, asking for medical opinions here - go to emergency or call telehealth - then post here. If you hurt, something is swollen, you are dehyrated.. uh.. don't ask a message board.. ask a professional (yes we have medical professionals here but they can be put in the situation of putting their license in jeopardy by giving an opionion or direction without knowing your full medical history and knowing you had WLS is not knowing your full medical history).

2. People who have been on the board long enough to have seen a zillion threads about optifast, optitrots, the two week *cough* stall after surgery - and then post "is this normal" Extra kudos to those that post those questions and the same thread by another person is in the current page or the page before.

3. Stupid titles that tell nothing - "question" , "is this normal" .. the answer to the second nearly always is "yeah it is".

4. People who don't want to hear the truth cause its scary or "not postive" or might scare a newbie to the board. Honey , if my advice scares you from surgery, a stranger you don't know .. well maybe you aren't ready..

5. People telling others to ignore your doc's/NUTs/centres advice. Yeah lots of the rules are contradictory but don't tell people to ignore their professionals advice. You can say what you did without telling them they should do that.

6.People giving wrong information. There is lots of it.

7. People who use weird abbreviations.. since when is typing out the word "you" or "your" so hard? Then they always tell you how they can write properly but choose to not do so. Yeah right, show me...

But then again I'm a ***** I don't think support equals "poor you". Some of the best advice given has been from friends telling me I'm being stupid or I'm wrong and I need to do things differently. Did i like hearing the truth? No not really but its the kindest thing they ever did for me.

One other pet peeve I have is the "OMG I can't believe I have to wait to see the doctor/to go to appointments/to get a surgery date"...Um, you didn't get to be that weight overnight, what makes you think that because you have now decided to make a change that the system needs to snap to it and accomidate you immediately...patience is the name of the game in wls, learning and losing and having the time to do both healthily

Hi Karen
It's true that some people can be annoying (not me, other people ; ) ). I am sure it isn't malicious. Perhaps this post will be a reminder to think before we post and be cautious not to offer advice that could do more harm than good.