weigh-in wednesday

it's that time again...and so how about this week's WIW question?

Where do you stand on weight related surgery? Are you in favor of it? Why or why not? Do you agree with it in certain circumstances and what are those circumstances? Would do you it if you had to?

I believe that it depends on the type of surgery it is, and it depends on the health of the individual. If we're speaking of just weight-loss surgery and not cosmetic surgery, I'm for it for the morbidly obese whose bodies have been unresponsive to other treatments. I don't agree with it as a first-try kind of thing. If a person has a BMI of over 40 and has tried to do other things to control his/her weight, then I'd say stomach-stapling or that band thing (I don't remember the name of that procedure off-hand) are options to consider. I also think that if there is an urgent medical need for quick weight loss, then it should be done and insurance should cover it. However, I think that it should only be considered after all other options have been exhausted. The risks are high, and recovery can be painful and long.

As for it ever being an option for me, if I had to...it's really a moot point. Since I have never been more than 80 lbs overweight (BMI of 36, I think), even at my highest, I'd never have to. From a strictly emotional standpoint, I don't like the idea. For me**, opting for surgery reeks of weakness and failure. I know that I can lose weight without it, if I just put in the effort and be patient...having surgery would be giving up, admitting that I couldn't go the distance the way thousands of others had. Maybe it's a bad thing, but my pride won't let me do that.

**Not necessarily for everyone who might ever consider this surgery. I have never been classified as morbidly obese, and (God willing) never will be. I cannot speculate what that would be like, and maybe for someone who is dangerously large, this would be more like a step in the right direction and less like giving up on other means.