If the NHS only treated people who were ill with non self inflicted problems then there would be many many people not treated.
Any diseases secondary to smoking drinking or substance abuse is all self inflicted too, isnt it??
Obesity is another addiction, only because it is food, does that make it less serious, or the sufferers less worthy of being treated?? They still get illnesses that cause them pain and make them suffer and some pay with their lives, but you think that is allright, that it is their own fault.
As Caroline says you need to know all the facts surrounding obesity and the co morbidities, and psychological factors that go with it.
It is not a cut and dried, 'dont eat so much and you wont have a problem'. If the millions of people who are in this predicament could do that there would be no obese people. There are many many reasons why people become obese, they dont just get up one morning and think, sod it I am going to eat myself fat , heck no I will go the whole hog and become morbidly obese.
Also I cannot believe the attitudes of dont expect the NHS to sort out your problems, do people really think again it is that simple.
If you know what struggles and trauma and pain, both physical and psychological people go through in the early stages of obesity to try and conform and get back to an accepted weight, there would be no comments such as these as you would be able to empathise. Also have you noticed on this board how many people are turned down for surgery?? It certainly isnt handed out on a plate, and it certainly isnt 'the easy way out'. If you read all the side effects and trauma many of the people on this group have gone through post op you wouldnt even think that far less say it!!!
As a nurse when I was nursing cancer patients, are you suggesting that if they smoked they were less worthy of my care than if they hadnt?? Yes their illness may have been brought on by smoking but ask yourself, isnt that a hard way to learn a lesson, paying with your life?? You obviously have no idea..........
Caroline is also correct about the fact that most of us have worked many years paying NI and so have no need to feel 'guilty' about having an operation for whatever it is we need it for, and if someone has only paid in small amounts of NI, the NHS was set up so that all people in this country could receive treatment and care whether they were rich or poor, the latter of whom had previously died from their illnesses as they could not afford to pay for doctors far less treatments.
Okay so I need to get off my box now, but please in future think before you say such negative things about people and be informed, and if you cannot be caring and supportive then maybe best not to comment at all.
As for Georgia can you imagine how hard that child has worked to reduce by 18 STONE?? thats a massive amount, and hopefully because of her experience she may be more knowledgable about what not to do when she returns home.
Jay xx
For all of us here i'm sure it is a last resort, after years and years of trying to "do it ourselves". At the end of the day WLS is only a tool that we have to work with to lose the weight, so is in no way an easy option
