Surgical Anorexia

With much chagrin, I admit that I watch a lot of daytime television, but every once in a (very long) while, I find a little seedling of something interesting mucked in with the manure of Hollywood gossip and "baby daddy" DNA dramas. Dramatic weight loss bios on talk shows have always piqued my interest just because I am fascinated with the idea of "shedding" (the favorite term) the weight equivalent of two grown adults from a single skeletal structure. Mostly I am curious about logistical concepts like where do all the excess muscle tissue and blood vessels go? The human lymphatic and endocrine systems are amazing.

Anyway, in the past year or two, these stories have revolved less around the sheer triumph of the human will, and have focused instead on a horrifying quick fix: surgery! Gastric bypass is fast becoming a drive-through fix for fast-food consumers. I have seen many evening news programs with interviewees talking about having nearly died from this procedure. Mostly these people had submitted to the knife only because they were so morbidly obese that their health was failing, or their quality of life was miserable due to their inability to engage in even simple activities. In other words, their weight had taken them to the point of disability and near-death.

Gastric bypass surgery is a procedure that REMOVES most of the stomach as a way to restrict caloric intake and force the body to burn its stored reserves. Successful patients are committed to life-long strict dietary management, and any mistake or trouble healing can be life threatening, resulting in serious problems.

I have lately been astonished and horrified at some womens’ flippant attitude toward this procedure. I recently worked in plus-size women's retail and the atmosphere there is very young, hip, and fat-positive. The associates and management are “fat fashionistas,” and many of the store employees are even cuter than the corporate models and did their best to try to pump up the clientele as well.

However, some people cannot be reached. I was helping a woman in the store one day who I presumed to be a complete stranger, until I was running her credit card. She turned out to be an old friend of my mom's who had lost a significant amount of weight--160 pounds. I exclaimed, "Holy shit, how did you do it!?" Her response: "Oh, I got that surgery. It's great!" It did not look great ladies and gentlemen. Her skin was hanging in deflated flaps from her chin, waist, and hips. I can only imagine what her arms and legs must have looked like.

A few days later a different woman returned a sweater. She changed her mind, which is sufficient reason, but people are generally driven to give too much information: "Yeah, because, well I'm going in to have that surgery so this won't fit me in a while anyhow." O.k., nice to know... But then I took a better look at her and this woman was smaller than me, and I'm a solid size 20! She was a plus size, sure, but nothing a committed exercise regimen can't cure. "Morbidly obese"? NO.

Then a few days after that, I had just about had it. I was talking with a candidate for a sales associate position and she mentioned she had been out of work for a while due to complications of having had gastric bypass. This woman was the same size as me. She gotten a septic infection from leakage and ended up IN A COMA. I wanted to ask, “Was it worth almost dying?”

I wonder who these hack doctors are that are letting just anyone undergo these procedures. They should have their licenses revoked. In the cases I am talking about, the risks of the surgery far outweighed the risks of the patients maintaining their current state of health. NONE of these women needed a little go-cart chair to get around the grocery store. All were perfectly capable of climbing a flight of stairs, and probably could fit comfortably into movie theater seats.

As far as I am concerned, the bypass is merely surgically induced anorexia. The patient is restricted to eating portions of only THREE OUNCES of food at a time. That’s like 1/4 cup of food! Caloric restriction on that scale puts the body into starvation mode, becoming more efficient by storing fat calories and burning muscle. What it going to happen to these women in the long run as their bodies try to become accustomed to so few calories?

No, forget about that. Because what this is about is what’s going through a woman’s mind when she’s sitting on the operating table in her hospital gown signing a waiver on her life: when it comes down to it, she--and millions of others across the country--WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LOOK LIKE ME. Call me narcissistic if you like, but there are times when my resistance is worn thin and I take it personally. I get pissed.

Obviously, I am no decathlon-er either, but someone like me can still get out and exercise—shit, I can even jog a 5K (albeit pretty slowly). I've got rolls where I'd rather not, legs like tree trunks, and stretch marks. BUT I LEAD A FULL LIFE. I surround myself with people who love me, and I respect myself. I cannot comprehend how someone in my weight class could gamble with their life over some extra fat. The very idea that so many women starve themselves, puke after every meal, take prescribed or illicit drugs that wreck their hearts, even go under the knife rather than look like me, is completely absurd. I just want to say, “You know what sister? Get over it.”