Melting Mama: Advocacy

Posts categorized "Advocacy"

16 June 2013

It's been... #BBGC

I've got that Barenaked Ladies song "One Week" playing in my head as I write this post --

It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry
Five days since you laughed at me saying
Get that together, come back and see me
Three days since the living room
I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
But it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry

The song makes little sense - and I was being vague in saying I did a good job in not referring to An Event Which Deserves No Social Media for nearly ONE MONTH. It's been almost a full month and I have yet to receive response as to why our cash donation to the non-profit organization was returned in any way, shape or form.

Considering the status verbal diarrhea-ticus I have lately, and my increased seizure activity -- frankly -- you're lucky I haven't written a book on this single topic.

I have not allowed a single word on my support group, aside from my initial blog post about our donation denial. Of nearly 3000 members in a group - there has been zero negativity about this situation. YOU ARE AWESOME. Thank you. ((( Group hug )))

However, this is my personal blog. I can has words here. Mmkay? I have been avoiding writing blog posts for far, far too long.

Why am I self-censoring?

You should know.

You should know these things.

What have I receieved?

I have been on the receiving end of a lot of angry.

A lot of people that support the non-profit that I am not referring to in any way (...I promise!) clearly want to know What Did You Do To Cause Such A Ruckus, BY GOLLY YOU CAUSED SUCH A RUCKUS!

I don't know what I did. If I knew - I would have posted it as I am a blogger and that is what I do. I assume that whatever it was -- happened here to begin with. Many online friends have demanded answers -- "Why did they return your money?" I can't tell you. I just don't know. I looked for answers after the fact. I spent entirely too long worrying about it.

I also received several emails (...I'm not going to post them right now) from businesses, vendor-types and professionals in the community (...some in not-very-nice tones) asking demanding clarification --

"JUST WHAT DID YOU DO YOUNG LADY?"

Like I told most everyone who asked somewhat nicely - I don't really know. It was enough to be banned, and have most of our support group photos removed from the official event photography. At this point, I almost wish there were a reason.

I told you I was a "Bad Girl" many years ago -- I even trademarked it. What did you expect from me? Bad girls do good. We donate money and rally together for the good of our bariatric community. But it's not good enough for some. So. We chose to move on.

Who wants our money? We're pretty good at fundraising.

Next?

Posted at 07:25 PM in Adversity, Advocacy, BBGC, Bitch, Moan, Complain., WLS Horror Stories., WLS Success Stories., WLS Support | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: donation, IRS, non profit

13 June 2013

#YWM2013 OMG CNN

Via Obesity Action Coalition -

We are proud to announce that the OAC has secured prominent National media coverage and local outlets confirmed to attend this year's ground-breaking event in Phoenix.

CNN, one of our nation's most long-standing media outlets, has officially confirmed their attendance this year and will join us in Phoenix to provide National coverage of the event. We are honored to have CNN attend this year and showcase the tremendous strides that are being taken to provide the needed education to individuals concerned about weight and health. This is also a unique opportunity to show a major news outlet like CNN a different side to the obesity epidemic, and our hope is that their experience at this year's Convention will foster a broader understanding of the complexities of the issue.

This year, we will also be joined by the local Fox affiliate, which will provide coverage of the event to Phoenix-area residents. Spreading awareness about the cause in local communities is a crucial component and we are excited to expose the local affiliate to our important messages and community.

I was part of the Inaugural Your Weight Matters National Convention last year and felt the energy and enthusiasm of more than 275 attendees! Join me this year to learn about all things related to weight and health – August 15-18 in Phoenix, AZ.

For more information, visit www.YWMConvention.com.

Posted at 11:34 AM in Advocacy, Good Does Good, OAC, Obesity. | Permalink | Comments (2)

06 June 2013

#YWM2013 #walkfromobesity #gooddoesgood

Check this out, there are only two teams signed up to "Walk From Obesity" during the #YWM2013 event.

It is the #BBGC and the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) Board Of Directors.

*stifled giggles*

Where are you?

Please JOIN us to Walk?

If you can't make it, please consider a very small donation to make a very big difference.

We've received one donation so far! Thank you! And the #BBGC donated $1000.00! Help us help!

http://walkfromobesity.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=5562

Posted at 09:00 AM in Advocacy, BBGC, OAC, Obesity. | Permalink | Comments (3)

30 May 2013

Win An All-Expenses Paid Trip To #YWM2013 - JOIN US!

In 77 days 63 we descend upon Phoenix. And I cannot wait. No, really.

From the OAC -

YOU ARE INVITED to join us for the 2nd Annual Your Weight Matters National Convention, taking place this year in Phoenix, AZ, August 15 – 18 at the beautiful Arizona Grand Resort & Spa!

“Rise to the Challenge” with the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) in Phoenix, where you can learn from the country’s leading experts and arm yourself with the knowledge to better manage your weight and your health!

The Your Weight Matters National Convention is the largest National meeting dedicated to providing evidence-based strategies for individuals impacted by excess weight and obesity, proudly brought to you OAC. As a National non-profit organization, the OAC is dedicated to helping the millions of Americans impacted by excess weight and obesity through education, advocacy and support.

The OAC’s National Convention is a 3-day educational event designed to bring together all individuals who struggle or are concerned with weight-related issues. The entire weekend is dedicated to presenting a comprehensive agenda, comprised of diverse topics that are designed to help any individual who has ever had a concern about their weight. We bring-in the country’s leading experts on weight and health and give you the RIGHT tools to be successful in your lifelong journey with weight.

Would you join us? Please do.

The OAC invites you to “Rise to the Challenge” and have the opportunity to win an all-expenses paid trip to the 2013 Convention in Phoenix.

Caesar demands - asks...

If you refer 10 or more registrants to the 2013 Your Weight Matters National Convention, you will be entered-in to a Grand Prize drawing for an all-expenses paid trip to the Convention! The individual whose name is drawn will receive airfare, three-nights hotel stay and a Full Event Registration. Participants must recruit a minimum of 10 registrants to be eligible to enter the raffle for the Grand Prize.

All individuals who refer at least one registrant will be entered-in to a Runner-up drawing for a complimentary Full Convention Registration and a free OAC Membership (or renewal). You will receive one entry into the Runner-up drawing for each registrant who indicates that you referred them to Convention.

SO DO IT ALREADY. Here is the form - Download Convention_Recruitment_Contest_2013

GET ENTERED! GET THERE. We want to see you!

(If you have not watched this - DO - embed the words inside your brain - that little dance - can you? Would you?)

Have you already registered for #YWM2013? (GO YOU!)

If you HAVE?

Please please please shoot the OAC a quick email to convention@obesityaction.org and provide the name of the individual that recruited you to attend. Because, they get a shot at winning the trip - and that's super-helpful. The more the better.

Spread the love. And see you at #YWM2013!

Posted at 07:45 AM in Adversity, Advocacy, Body Image, Childhood Obesity, Conferences, Contests - Giveaways, Events, Fundraising, Health., Helping Others., Motivation, OAC, Obesity., Support Groups, Weight Loss Peers., WLS Success Stories., WLS Support | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: blogger contest, obesity action coalition, win, your weight matters convention, ywm, YWM2013

27 May 2013

For Many, Affordable Care Act Won't Cover Bariatric Surgery

20130527_me_05

For Many, Affordable Care Act Won't Cover Bariatric Surgery - via NPR

Mr. MM newly post op

JACKSON, Miss. — Uninsured Americans who are hoping the new health insurance law will give them access to weight loss treatments are likely to be disappointed.

That's especially the case in the Deep South, where obesity rates are among the highest in the nation, and states will not require health plans sold on the new online insurance marketplaces to cover medical weight loss treatments like prescription drugs and bariatric surgery.

Dr. Erin Cummins directs the bariatric surgery department at Central Mississippi Medical Center in the state capital of Jackson. She grew up in the Delta, her husband is a cotton farmer, and although she's petite and fit, she understands well enough how Mississippians end up on her operating table.

"You have to realize in the South, everything revolves around food. Reunions, funerals, parties — everything revolves around food," Cummins says.

That long-standing food culture, as well as other factors like inactivity and poverty, have saddled Mississippi with the highest obesity rate in the nation.

Credit: Produced by Dave Anderson/Oxford American; Narrated by Debbie Elliott/NPR

Roughly 1 in 3 adult Americans is now obese. And ground zero for the nation's obesity battle is Mississippi — where 7 of 10 adults in the state are either overweight or obese. The problem is most pronounced in Holmes County — the poorest and heaviest in the state.

Dr. David Gilder gives Sally Johnson a checkup at the Mallory Community Health Center in Tchula, Miss.

Southword

Mississippi Losing The War With Obesity

Doctors here are no longer surprised to see 20-somethings with diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, heart disease and severe joint pain. And the prevalence of severe and super-obesity is growing rapidly. For those patients, bariatric surgery is considered the most effective treatment to induce significant weight loss.

Cummins describes the procedure: "We're restricting the stomach size to where a patient isn't going to eat as much. Then we reroute the intestines a little bit and realign it to delay digestion, so to speak, to bypass it. So everything a patient eats in a gastric bypass is not going to be absorbed."

After surgery, many of the complications of obesity, like sleep apnea and high blood pressure, are reversed. Multiple studies have found that about 80 percent of diabetics can stop medication in the first year.

Medicare and about two-thirds of large employers cover bariatric surgery in the U.S. But the procedure is pricey — an average of $42,000 — and many small employers, including those in Mississippi, don't cover it.

When the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, one goal was to erase those sorts of regional variations in access.

"Our hope was that there would be a single benefit for the entire country, and as part of that benefit there would be coverage for obesity treatment," says Dr. John Morton. He is director of bariatric surgery at Stanford University Morton, and has led national and state lobbying efforts to get insurance coverage for teh surgery.

But amid worries that a uniform set of benefits would be too expensive in some states, and sensitive to the optics of the federal government laying down one rule for all states, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services changed course. It decided instead to match benefits to the most popular small group plan sold in each state, in essence reflecting local competitive forces.

That's led to an odd twist: In more than two dozen states, obesity treatments – including intensive weight loss counseling, drugs and surgery – won't be covered in plans sold on the exchanges.

Bariatric surgery won't be covered on the exchanges in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi. That's where, according to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity rates are among the highest.

Shots - Health News

Study: Weight-Loss Surgery Can Cut Deaths From Heart Attacks, Strokes

Morton applauds the growing awareness around obesity prevention in the U.S., but, he says, some 15 million Americans who are already severely obese still need medical treatment.

Shots - Health News

New Clues To Why Gastric Bypass Surgery Cures Type 2 Diabetes

"If they don't have insurance, they're not going to get the therapy," Morton says. "We see cancer therapy covered routinely. We see heart disease covered routinely. Why is it that we don't see obesity coverage routinely?"

Therese Hanna, Executive Director of the Center for Mississippi Health Policy, isn't surprised that obesity treatments are excluded on the insurance exchange in her state. She says it all has to do with keeping cost down for many people who will be buying insurance for the first time.

"With the discussions around what should be covered under the exchange within the state, a lot of it had to do with balancing cost versus the coverage," says Hanna.

Hannah says Mississippians who buy insurance on the exchange will likely be the cashiers, cooks, cleaners and construction workers that make up much of the state's uninsured. And even though many of them will qualify for federal subsidies, the price of monthly premiums must be kept low.

"If you try to include everything, the cost would be so high that people wouldn't be able to afford the coverage, so you defeat the purpose," Hanna says. The discussion in Mississippi, she says has focused on providing care for things like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. "So we have a lot of needs to be covered other than obesity itself."

Posted at 08:49 AM in Advocacy, Bitch, Moan, Complain., Weight Loss Surgery, WLS Support | Permalink | Comments (0)

29 April 2013

#YWM2013 Early-Bird Contest Announced!

Posted at 02:49 PM in Advocacy, OAC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technorati Tags: #YWM2013 Early-Bird Contest Announced!

17 April 2013

Regain After Weight Loss Surgery.

Left - Fitbloggin' 2012 Right - This Week - Lost the regain - Also, 3 pounds to my lowest weight.

Several years ago, a woman messaged on a weight loss surgery forum and told me that my weight chart resembled a roller-coaster and that she wanted to "help me get control." After a quick Google search -- I noted she was seeking a new client for her weight loss surgery coaching business and dumped her "friendship."

Friends do not pay friends to help them lose weight, maintain weight loss or to help them lose regained weight after weight loss surgery. If you are paying someone for your friendship, it might be time to redefine that friendship -- just saying. I suppose this changes if your friend happens to be a weight loss professional? But how often does that happen -- and how many weight loss professionals would potentially destroy a friendship with aligning with your weight loss journey?

Um. No. A professional would NOT.

Weight loss is personal.
It is something you choose for yourself when you are ready.
Weight loss is not something you can be talked into - nor shamed into.

Regain after weight loss surgery is also a very touchy subject. Countless bariatric patients go through it -- and less want to talk about it. But it seems like everyone wants to sell "us" something to fix it.

Let me repeat -

Weight loss is personal.
It is something you choose for yourself when you are ready.
Weight loss is not something you can be talked into - nor shamed into.

Yet it seems like the larger community wants "us" (the regainers) to feel shamed for regaining and wants to sell us another quick-fix.

Let us discuss: Regain is common. How much? Some is very typical. Sometimes even a lot of regain is normal. You do not have to be sold into another diet, quick-fix, or scam. You need to remind yourself why you had weight loss surgery to begin with --

...for your HEALTH.

Some good links on regain -