Do no harm...

It's a simple statement, and those who take the oath understand that we must practice by truth and honesty. The whole purpose of the Hippocratic oath is to treat others within your professional scope with respect and trust to care for someone to the best of our ability. I see that we should all live with such conviction and do no harm unto others for the sake of all. 

It hurts my soul to see good people treated badly.  Kind acts not going unnoticed, but acknowledged publicly then refused privately, through email in a cowardly fashion for no given reasons.  In this journey together as a community, we must honor and respect each other's individual experience.  In doing that, you must realize that not everyone will be friends.  We are not all cut from the same cloth.  We all have different passions, goals, dreams and desires that do not have to mesh into one.  

We all have opportunities to do what is right, in our personal lives and our public image.  Some people will do anything to destroy the public image of others out of greed, envy, jealous and sometimes, just pure evil.  It is each individual's personal responsibility to choose to engage or not to engage is drama. Every single person has a choice in whom they choose to associate their allegiance or their claim to neutrality.  

It is in choosing to do something to give back to others and share your experiences that is important. Love one another, or walk away. It is not always about who does it better, but it is honorable to be righteous. It's easy to choose to do the right thing when your heart is in the right place. We are all righteous babes-- warriors in our journeys. Each story is different. Some of us tell our stories on blogs, others choose individuals they feel comfortable with to share in private. When others ask for help, we should always strive to be honest. #1 if you ask for help, you should be met with an abundance of compassion and opportunity to receive accurate information or an account of another's experience. 

Greatness comes from rising from the ashes like the Phoenix. 

In searching for your truths, please employ the basics of social etiquette. My experience in bariatric support groups has been that whenever someone who is not present to defend themselves is not available, it is likely advisable to not engage in criticizing or defending a person. I can't say I always live up to this, but I have been in the position of being a group member where someone who was not there was criticized for her food choices. I was offended this was allowed to go on in the group, and I left the group for quite due to my ethical dilemma with this situation. 

When I went back to the group, the dietitian actually let me work with the group. We focused on specific philosophical questions that were directed inward.

"What have you had to let go of within yourself to improve your life (after surgery?)" 

"How do you handle difficult, embarrassing, or tough situations with people who judge you for having surgery?" "What can you choose to do differently this week to be successful?"

"How have you implemented exercise into your daily life?"

The ideas shared were always inspirational. As a group, everyone had insight in their own behaviors and most of us could relate to other people in the group's experiences. It was uplifting to attend group at that point. We shared and laughed and grew together. That's what this journey is about, finding yourself and others to grow with and share your experiences. We don't all have to be friends, but we should ALL be nice to each other.

Bullying in the Bariatric Community

Some might say that after my snarky posts about the Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America, that I wouldn't care to be there this weekend to Meet and Greet with so many of the wonderful, honest and supportive, lovely people I know there enjoying themselves.

Quiet frankly, I wholeheartedly support the social bonding that goes on in the organizations that exist for weight loss surgery patients and I continue to support the communities people have established to raise awareness of the obesity issues.  I especially want to send out a shout out to all of you there.

However, I want you all to remember to act nice, be pleasant to one another, and remember that we each have our own story.  Treat others with respect, kindness, and act like responsible adults.  Take care of yourself, first and foremost.  If you choose to imbibe, please limit your libations.  You are a grown person, and you need to act like it.  Please do not bully others, take part in the bullying, or let someone else be bullied.

 Size of your ego matters.  The words of truth matter.  Being a good person and act out of compassion of other's struggles:

THIS IS WHAT TRULY MATTERS.  

Being a "Bad Girl" does not mean doing bad things.  It means finding yourself, being open to other ideas, going outside of your personal beliefs and cultural norms to except other human beings' experiences.  Practice humility.  Have patience.  Let LOVE guide your actions. Take pride in behaving like a lady, cursing like a sailor, swinging your chickens like a Voodoo Queen, 

(Well, maybe Elvis, y'all are in Vegas-- Swing yo' batwings like a Diva!)

ALL IN ALL, my best advice to each of you is:

And if someone isn't playing nice, just tell them to go "Go have a Cupcake!"

 Peace be with each and all of you.  Save travels, good fun, and Be Sweet.

Being a Bad Girl means to change how you think, look inside to find peace within. 

Response to Criticism / Recovery Gardens?

Is it so hard to think about the Lapband procedure as being, "Outdated?"

The fact of the matter is that we have advanced in our scientific abilities to aid in the correction of obesity.  The vertical sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass procedures have less maintenance physically over the long term, though still pose significant risks.  Those risks include but are not limited to: comorbid disorders, surgical complications, metabolic conditions that continue, develop or ensue-- also, the treatment of risky behavior patterns not being addressed in the post operative education. The maintenance of restriction coupled with external risk factors, flu viruses and food poisoning causing vomiting alone are instances that could potentially do damage to the position of the band.  Erosion, malfunction, and water retention-tightness issues are serious with the band procedure. It makes sense to alter the size of the stomach and require less food, educate post-ops on the choices, vitamins, nutrition and exercise will go much further and create greater successes than what science presented 15 years ago.  

So, this is my clinical position on the gastric banding procedures.  I recognize that in instances where improper education and/or significant health complications occur, the band over bypass or band over sleeve may become necessary for the treatment of obesity.  I get that.  However, I encourage our public health care system to initiate programs to promote healthy aftercare-- or for that matter, health care for obesity.

Is it so far fetched for us to consider initiatives that integrate public farms where people are allowed to come and volunteer their time, work on the farm for food credits during a harvest?  Is that too much to require of people?  We can all do our part in the obesity recovery. Dr. Connie Stapleton of Post Op & A Doc offers a program she calls "Your Recovery Garden." I love this imagery, this idea that we are always growing. Our bodies, our minds... we are in control of the growth process through our choice to educate ourselves through knowledge and experience.

Why can't each community establish recovery gardens like the one to be built in Seattle?