MM - BBGC - Life After WLS

Walk From Obesity 2008 - Walk On The Capitol

(This would be part of a cool road trip to take with the kids.  I've never been to DC.)

Walk on the Capitol Date:
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
6:30 pm

Walk Location: Washington, DC
National Mall - Monument Park

Presented By: The ASMBS Foundation and The Obesity Action Coalition

info@asmbsfoundation.org

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I was part of a Walk From Obesity last fall, up in Lowell, MA - and I plan to do another one this year, once the schedule is posted in May the walk website.  I am SO hoping that someone suggested a Walk From Obesity on the Cape at the Canal - because - Beth wants to take pictures.  Not that the only reason I want to go is to take pictures - but - it really helps when you have a gorgeous backdrop - not that Lowell isn't, um, gorgeous.  Sure, I could have set it up myself, but the deadline is today, and there was a lot of paper involved.  A lot.

Beth isn't so good with paper.

She's good with chocolate.

Your Mom Blogs, And She's One Hell Of An Influential Blogger.

After my recent forays into the world of getting screwed by companies in exchange for selling my soul to review products - I am seeing articles like this.

Hopefully as companies start to see that we, as bloggers, particularly women, and apparently "mommy-bloggers," specifically, are especially influential. 

We have so much power.  Why?  According to Pro-Blogger, there are five reasons:

1. Moms Can Blog At Home (Thus no need to leave the house, no need for daycare - did you see my video today about my "job?")
2. Moms Need The Sociality Of The Net (Because, we don't have friends anymore.  We all email and blog together.)
3. Moms Have A Wealth Of Material To Use (We tend to pick a topic that we live.  We write about what we know, and generally in our own honest to goodness voice.)
4. Moms Are Record-Keepers (Aka Scrap-bookers, Baby-bookers, etc.  Not me, but... I do have a mad amount of photographs.)
5. Mom Blogs Wield Economic Power (And, by God Do We Know How To Use It.  If you have a good product, we will buy it.  All of it.  By the case, yesterday.  If something works for my family, I am going to tell you about it.  As boring as it may sound, you would NOT believe how much I wanted to blog to you about my laundry softener today.  It. is. to. die. for.  I had to soft myself from taking photographs and making a scratch and sniff product review.  Had I done so?  You'd have bought it.  I am powerful.)

Companies are also lucky sometimes, that "mommy-bloggers" can be sweet, loving and write genuinely good reviews, because, when provoked, they can be scathing and bitchy - and tell the world how they screwed you and how their product really did suck donkey dick.  That would be wrong, though, because we're trying to maintain a nice good "mommy" persona here.

Moving on!  I do hope that companies start to take us more seriously, and view bloggers as business people. (She says as the words donkey dick are fresh in her mind.)  I am honestly fed up with people taking advantage of the fact that I have a lot of traffic, without considering what's in it for Mama.

Mama needs a new pair of shoes.

Winnahs.

A post you must read from Junkfood Science - The Other Side Of The Story.

The Other Side Of The Story - Part Two, by Sandy Szwarc - Junkfood Science.

"Television networks are in the entertainment industry. And when a show — even one that’s the most successful in television history, has all the resources imaginable and has won virtually every broadcast journalism award there is — airs a medical news story, it is entertainment. Yet, how many of the some 13.6 million viewers who tuned in to watch 60 Minutes last Sunday really understood that?

How many believed the story — reporting that bariatric surgeries are wildly successful, safe and can instantly cure diabetes and lower risks for cancer — was giving all the facts?" 

I was disgusted when I saw 60 Minutes myself, because I viewed it at a giant infomercial for bariatrics, and it relieves me to see other people writing and discussing it.  I thought I was hearing things.

She explains many things, but this part about nesidioblastosis is explained in easier terms:

"...bypass operations not only restrict food intake, they also cause malabsorption. But, in addition, they cause food that hasn’t been digested to reach the distal small bowel, stimulating the (ilieal brake) hormone GLP-1 to be secreted, which interferes with the normal regulation of insulin secretion. It stimulates the beta cells in the pancreas to grow and produce more insulin, and this continual stimulation of the pancreas can result in an overgrowth of cells (hyperplasia) in the pancreas and islets.     

What he is referring to is nesidioblastosis, a previously extremely rare disease of the pancreas that is usually seen in newborns and results in severe hypoglycemia uncontrolled with diet and leads to brain damage, retardation and death. It usually requires (all or partial) removal of the pancreas, although hypoglycemia can persist even then, resulting in permanent insulin-dependent diabetes.

They said that just in the past five years, 40% of the confirmed cases of nesidioblastosis they’d seen at Mayo had occurred in persons who had undergone Rouxen-Y gastric bypass surgery, whereas less than 0.1 percent of the general population has had this procedure. In other words, nesidioblastosis is seen in gastric bypass patients 400% more than in the general public."

In response to growing reports of nesidioblastosis in gastric bypass patients, Dr. Mason had written in ISBR back in 2005 that what may be a rare complication can become too frequent in absolute numbers when treating an epidemic with the projected 200,000 RYGB operations for 2006. 

RYGB causes weight loss but also loss of many important body regulatory systems that keep a normal person healthy. Lifelong medical care following gastric bypass is expensive and difficult to obtain, but it is necessary. 

Free Shaker Cup Offer.

Wanna Free Shaker Cup?  Click here and fill out the questions.  I'm doing it now, because, I'm all about a free shaker cup.  As for the protein, um, it's been about four years since I tried Spiru-tein.  I remember it being the FIRST protein powder I ever tasted while freshly post-op, in serious physical pain from my weight loss surgery and nauseous. 

When I see the containers of Spiru-tein at the store, I equate it with OMG, The Pain!  The Vicodin!  So.   I haven't reviewed it.  Maybe it's time.