How To Do An Intervention

You have come to this blog because you are considering weight loss surgery or you are a loved one of some considering weight loss surgery. If you get the facts on weight loss surgery from this and other unbiased sources you will find out that weight loss surgery is a terrible solution to a problem that can be fixed in a safe and sane manner

The chances of your fatling reforming his or her piggish habits are slim and none. There are ways to motivate and get people to do the right thing but it takes an intervention of sorts. I would suggest that you watch the show Intervention and observe the behavior of junkies and the frustration of their love ones. You will undoubtedly see parallels. It can be quite maddening. 

I can explain how it is done but it takes examples, a support system, preparation, and the ability to learn strategies. It takes a skilled interventionist running the show and since there are no interventionists that work with gluttons you have to become that interventionist. 

Like Sow Mother Like Piglet Daughter OINK!

The behaviors of the druggie or drunk are pretty much like the behaviors of the glutton but with some major differences. First, a person can live without drugs or booze but we humans need food, water, and air. Food is not considered a dangerous drug but it kills more people than all the drugs and booze combined. Also, the very thing that is there to sustain life has become addictive, unhealthy and deadly. 

When confronting your glutton you will be met with the same resistance as you would if you confronted a junkie or a drunk. You will be met with denial, lying, hostility, the excuses, and the guilt. Addicts are very unpleasant people for the most part and your impulse may be to slap the shit out of them which would work but in this PC world we can't legally do that. We have to be clever and use verbal judo.

An intervention usually includes the following steps:

Make a plan. A family member or friend proposes an intervention and forms a planning group. ... 

Gather information. ... 

Form the intervention team. ... 

Decide on specific consequences. ... 

Make notes on what to say. ... 

Hold the intervention meeting. ... 

Follow up. 

You can't be concerned about hurting their feeling because they are going to play the victim card in an attempt to turn you into the bad guy and to garner sympathy but the truth is, they don't care about your feelings or the damage their behavior does to you, your relationship your kids.  Keep in mind your fatling is a masterful manipulator who knows how to push your buttons so you have to make your behavior during an intervention unpredictable, cool, calm and collected. 

Before you try this watch some interventions on TV or Youtube and watch them with your team. You may fail the first time but you may succeed eventually. You have to decide if it is worth the effort. 

http://www.aetv.com/shows/intervention


Leave your questions in the comment section.

A Typical Weight Loss Surgery Horror Story

I have not had the gastric sleeve, but my sister has and this is her horror story. In the month after her May surgery, by Dr. Chua of Aurora Sinai in Milwaukee, my sister (Jane) came down with flu-like symptoms. Although she contacted her primary physician, who was aware of the recent surgery, and I believe she had an office visit with Dr. Chua, nobody showed any concern about infection. This is despite the fact that EVERYBODY knows that infection mimics flu-like symptoms and it was nowhere near flu season. Nobody ever did any scans post surgery to determine of there was any issue with the healing of the internal surgery area - even though I have since learned that other patients had experienced similar issues to what my sister was about to go through.





It turned out (after three ER visits in three days, despite the fact that I said I was worried about infection from the very first visit) that a staple hadn't held and that food/fluid had been leaking into her abdomen from the stomach causing a MASSIVE infection. By the time Aurora Lakeland in Elkhorn paid any attention to this she was almost dead. She barely made it through and it was literally touch and go for WEEKS!! AND that hospital wouldn't even treat her because they don't do bariatric surgeries - she had to be airlifted to Milwaukee.



What followed were numerous surgeries, months in ICU and then regular hospital (from July 4th weekend into October), an induced coma with her hands strapped to the bed so she wouldn't inadvertently pull out tubes and wires, being intubated for breathing assistance, additional infections, memory loss of that entire time, and leaving on a feeding tube. She has been on that feeding tube for over two years now.



Oh, she's thin alright. woohoo. But she gets her food from a bag hanging on an iv rack and has to grind her meds and flush them through the feeding tube line, as well as a drain that collects Fluid from her abdomen and open wounds that need daily care. She has NO muscles left. She probably couldn't walk a block if she was allowed to.



She came home from that hospital stay with a GIANT open wound the length of her abdomen - I mean it was big enough for me to stick both my hands into - and a wound vac installed in it to constantly vacuum up the fluid and goop that goes along with healing. That fluid drained into a plastic container that hung from tube(s) coming out of her abdomen - which she had to have with her always. It was all very painful and really gross.



That was just the first hospitalization. By January she was back in the hospital with another massive infection that had burned through her diaphragm and into her lungs. This time she spent her time in pulmonary ICU. You see they told her to start trying to eat - that they thought the holes in her stomach had closed, but they didn't do regular scans to verify this....again! They were wrong. Again.



Only this time her primary physician, Dr. Rosol of Aurora Lake Geneva, had diagnosed her with pneumonia over the phone and had given her a prescription not even strong enough to deal with pneumonia. So when she didn't get better, by the time the Aurora ER took her seriously she was again near death. This time they had to do lung surgery AND abdominal surgery to clear out and treat the raging infection caused by fluid and matter leaking from the stomach into everywhere.



So apparently this type of thing isn't that uncommon with this surgery, nor are the "fistulas" that develop as a result of this complication from this type of surgery. If the tissue around this fistula isn't so damaged that it can heal on its own it could take years. If it's damaged - as hers was from all that infection - there is no sewing it closed and it doesn't heal on its own. Imagine being on a feeding tube for the rest of your life - never tasting food, never enjoying a meal or a drink or a dessert or a holiday with your family again. Never a chocolate bar, or a bowl of Cereal, or a salad, or a glass of juice. NOTHING. All because someone convinced you that gastric sleeve surgery was the answer.



So if you are considering this surgery, don't. It's just not worth the risk. I know, if my sister could go back, she would choose fat over this lack of a life any day of the week. I grew up thin and am now fat and I would NEVER EVER EVER have a surgery to reduce my weight. Although I haven't been able to be disciplined enough to do it I know the only solution is eat less, move more. Two steps. The only solution.