Who-actually-cares-anymore

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LAP Bands should be illegal

This post is going to deal with medical fatphobia, weight loss surgery, coercion, emetophobia, food issues, disordered eating, and just all around bad shit. But it’s important.

Shortly after I reached adulthood, I was coerced into weight loss surgery. I weighed about 250 pounds and was considered morbidly obese.

The Lap Band is a disgrace to the medical profession and is just another example of how the medical profession does not care about the lives of fat people.

To preface this: the surgery works. I lost 70 pounds and people treated me differently and I hated them all for it.

The Lap Band made my life miserable. When it was filled, I could not eat until noon without getting stuck. Even then, getting stuck was always a risk. There was a strict diet to follow and you were supposed to be safe from that if you followed it. On top of that, there were rules for how you ate. One standard I saw was not to eat in bites larger than your fingernail. Can you see yourself doing that for a week, let alone years and years?

Getting stuck is a horror you can't imagine. The food lodges in the top of your stomach, blocking off your system. You continue to produce saliva and swallow it down. Slowly, the mucous in your saliva builds up. It feels like you're drowning. Eventually, you have to essentially throw it all up. A disgusting experience (and a mortifying one if you're in public.) The saliva is thick and ropy. This experience is often called "sliming" on the forums.

I became frightened of eating in public. In a way, I became frightened of food altogether. I knew something had to give the day I reacted to someone biting a hamburger in a tv show the way a regular person would react to a killer jumping out in a horror movie. I developed the disgusting and unhealthy habit of chewing and spitting out food. I completely lost my enjoyment of many foods I had previously enjoyed because of how problematic they were (I can no longer enjoy a chicken thigh for example.) I stopped eating meals and began grazing. I developed eating habits worse than the ones that "made me fat"

After 3 years, I had the band emptied of fluid, which significantly decreased, but did not stop, these problems. I regained the weight, and found it didn't bother me. (Along the way I discovered that my discomfort with my body had never been weight related)

I had my band removed after 6.5 years earlier this year. I am in a support group on facebook for victims of this malpractice. There are 5.6 thousand members, each with their own horror stories. Some of them cannot get the band removed because insurance will not cover the procedure, though they happily covered the band's placement. Some have tried to go through with removal but have had surgeons try to coerce them into getting a different weight-loss surgery instead of just removing it. Many have long-term damage from the band eroding the walls of their stomach or esophagus, or from the band adhering to multiple organs. Many of them had the band for 12-14 years, before removal because none of our doctors told us it needs to be removed within 10.

Many practices no longer perform Lap Band surgery and now believe it is unethical. The surgeon who removed my band still performs this surgery regularly.

A study performed in 2011 with 151 lap band patients, found that 22% of patients experienced minor complications and 39% experienced major complications. The person who coerced me into surgery actually experienced major complications and needed an emergency removal.

I experienced no serious complications. Everything I described above is considered normal. And It still drastically lowered my quality of life.

I don't know why I'm sharing this or who I'm sharing it for, but here I am. If you know anyone considering the lap band surgery, don't let them go through with it without knowing the truth. And please be kinder to your body than the medical profession wants you to be.

*james and regulus chilling in james dorm while the rest of the marauders are out*

james: damn we really should start being more careful, could you imagine if sirius found us here??

regulus: you’re right, that would be a disaster

*remus walks in*

remus: omg james wtf i told you not to bring regulus into the dorm!! what if sirius sees you guys??

james: remusss don’t worry we’re gonna start being more careful

remus: you better hurry up and get out of here regulus, sirius is probably gonna be back soon

james: *jumps up wrapped in the sheet* damn it!! *runs into the bathroom* we have to hide!

regulus: james wtf no i should be the one hiding! you live here!

*sirius walks in*

sirius: hey rem- wait a second… regulus??

regulus: *wraps blanket tighter around himself* hey

sirius: remus?? what are you doing with regulus?? omg you’re cheating on me with my brother?? and in james’s bed??

remus: sirius, think about this for a minute… im not the one sleeping with your brother… he’s in james’s bed…

regulus: and for the record, i only see remus as a friend!

sirius: you guys are friends??

*james walks out*

sirius: omg james you’re never gonna guess what just happened i caught remus sleeping with my brother in your bed!

james: wow what… that’s crazy…

remus: james tell him the truth!!

james: idk that sounds about right to me

have y'all actually seen the picture of whatshisface's documents? im losing my mind

who the fuck lives like this? why is there a chandelier? how are you gonna have this crystal lighting, and then have this cheap-ass tissue box? what the hell does he do if he actually has to sit on the toilet? is that a shower behind all those boxes? you're just gonna cut off an entire, perfectly functionable bathroom like that? a bathroom, once again, with a crystal chandelier? DOES HIS OTHER BATHROOMS ALSO HAVE CRYSTAL CHANDELIERS??