watching an old episode of ER

I'm watching an old episode of ER (I always liked that show) and in this episode, an obese patient comes to the hospital complaining of stomach pain.  The patient had weight loss surgery just a few days ago and was discharged from the hospital on a liquid diet.  The surgeon asks him what he had to eat that day and he said a smoothie.  The surgeon asks what was in it and the patient begins naming all kinds of food.  The surgeon says, "That's a whole Christmas dinner!" and the patient says, "But I blended it all up so it was a liquid."

I think it's supposed to be funny, but it's really not.  First of all, it appears this patient did not undergo a psych eval before surgery and that he received no pre op education whatsoever.  Second, it looks like the patient has no self-control at all, and no common sense, either.  for instance, the patient is running around the ER stealing food that he's not supposed to be eating.  It's kind of insulting, I think, because I think the implication is that morbidly obese people have no self-control.

The patient then has to be rushed to the OR because his staples burst in his stomach.

That's so very sad, but I guess that is what "naturally skinny" people see about us.  let it go - it's just tv. Like so many other things on it, it's not real at all. :)

I love that show!
Unfortunatly there are people like that out there. When I was in the recovery room after my surgery, there was a girl in the bed next to me who had been in surgery because two days after her surgery she decided to go eat a whole plate of orange chicken! she said she couldnt help it. She was complaining that she was hungry and when the nurses left she said that as soon as they discharged her she was heading to Mcdonalds cause she was hungry! I couldnt believe my ears! the lsat thing on my mind was food! and here she was and all she talked about was food. She was telling me "Don't believe what they tell you. You will be hungry and you'll have a ton of complications". So far I havent really had any (except that time I drank alcohol, which I'll never do again!)

I know there are people that do that.  But most WLS patients don't.  It's the stereotype that I find objectionable.

Sounds  like the girl you were in the room with had a real addiction to food.  It's too bad the surgeon operated on her without insisting she get treatment for the addiction first.

Yeah, I don't understand how that happened, cause one of the requierments to have the surgery have a phsyc evaluation, so I dont see how she passed if she was having that much trouble with food. Of cours, not everyone is like that (I know I'm not) but there are a few, and those few are the ones who people base their opinions on sometimes.

Lots of people lie during their psych evals.  One of the things we are trained to look for are signs of deception so we can dig a little deeper.  Not everyone does that, though.  Sadly, some psychologists are just there to "check the box" as long as the are no very obvious signs of a problem.  I heard one man, who has been a psychologist for a long time and is semi-retired, comment that even with surgery most people won't be successful at keeping the weight off, so he saw little point in investing too much time in trying to "guess" who was being honest and who was not.  

I think he needs to make his retirement permanent.  

Lora

Sigh. It bothers me that we are still viewed as lazy and lacking in self control. If someone has any other condition that requires a surgical intervention/treatment, no one says a thing.

You wouldn't probably see an episode about a heart patient who was sneaking out to light up a smoke after surgery.

The stereotypes suck.

I'm a certified food addict and for 8 weeks you could NOT get me to eat solids. I was only supposed to be on pureed and soft foods for 6 weeks, but I was too afraid of breaking the surgery and my new stomach was SO sensitive. I very slowly added small amount of solid food after 8 weeks. By 3 months I was half solids and half soft foods. The thought of even eating like that newly post op made me want to cry and vomit.

 Related... when I went to my 3 week post-op appointment, there was a guy in the class who had the Lap Band surgery.  We were transitioning off of liquids and on to smooth foods.  He kept asking ridiculous questions like "Can I have applies dipped in honey butter" things like that.  Finally the nutritionist said "You can have whatever you want, but here is the list of things we advise" because it was starting to tick off the people in the class.

It's sad when you realize that guy probably failed at his surgery. He just wasn't ready and his psych eval should have caught that. Then again, I guess people are good at faking.