This week's, "My 600 lb Life - Where are they Now" featured a lady who lost most of her weight and ended up in the 180's after skin removal surgeries.
Interesting
to note was the massive loss and new style of eating, took its toll on
her relationship. Sadly it was a "common law" marriage i.e. they were
living together as husband and wife but not legally married (common law
marriages are no longer acknowledged as legally binding in most states).
And
one might ask "why". There are hints in the show. First of all, the
husband has Multiple Sclerosis, a serious neurological illness which
only a few years before TV checked in on the couple, paralyzed him at
one point. The show said Laura had "nursed him" back to health but he
obviously was disabled to the point of not being able to work - always a
strain on the marriage to begin with.
Second,
Laura was very addicted to food and had used food all of her life to
"feel better" in the presence of adversity and certainly, having the
burden of supporting the couple and other stresses she alluded to
(probably connected with her partner), were difficult for her to deal
with, without the help of the food which had helped her in the past.
Her weight loss had come to an standstill, so the good doc revised her
gastric sleeve to a gastric bypass, which, of course, zapped her
strength because of the non digestion of nutrients (we need some 100
micro-nutrients a day and that's in addition to macro-nutrients, most of
which cannot be digested by gastric bypass patients since the very
important digestive organ, the duodenum, the first several feet of small
bowel, is bypassed in this surgery.)
Less
than 25% of surgeons still do the bypass because of not only, the short
term repercussions, but long term ones as well. The inventor of the
gastric bypass, stopped doing them in the early 90's, pointing out the
numerous issues with this surgery. But of course, the 72 year old
doctor "Now" on "My 600 lb Life" is likely not up with the current
science and doesn't realize that people who get pretty sick (as Laura
DID after her bypass - she suffered a lot of nausea and most things she
ate didn't stay down), may need a takedown immediately. I'm sure that
she felt badly did not help her patience with her husband.
The show put out a note that 85% of bariatric patients end up divorcing their spouses.
Let's
hope Laura gets herself to a doctor who is more up with the science of
digestion and realizes she badly needs a takedown NOW.
