TLC - My 600 pound Life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something else has occurred to me about this show. No one ever seems to have a job--not the obese person or the family member. I assume the obese person is on Medicaid? Would that pay for the gastric bypass surgery? What about skin surgery--I wouldn't that be considered elective?

TLC pays for the surgeries in these cases. Zsalynn was one another show about her BBW club, and at the end, "they" (meaning she and her husband, but probably just her husband) decided to use the money they had saved for surgery to pay for home renovations. The postscript was that Zsalynn had decided to apply for a reality show that would pay for her surgery. I'm assuming that reality show was My 600-lb Life.

The family members who help are probably paid home care workers. It actually costs less for the state/insurance to do this. My MIL was a caregiver for her sister following cancer surgery. She was paid something like $15 an hour and the doctors signed off that 6 hours of care per day were needed, and her duties were very detailed--things like preparing meals, helping with getting dressed, bathing and using the bathroom. While she had to be there with her sister pretty much 24/7 (the sister moved in with her and FIL), she was only paid for the time needed to do those things. It seems likely to me that the families are not making bank being paid 24/7 caregivers. If someone from outside came in, they would need to be reimbursed for every minute they were there, whether they were shampooing folds of skin or not.

Penny's husband Edgar works at an auto parts store and comes home during lunch to change Penny's peepoop pad. Paula was working from home doing dispatch for some company. Also, what's not mentioned is that more than one of these fabulous ladies (hint: it's Pauline!) has income from doing porn. They could very well have their own legit health insurance to cover care costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Henry Foots died in a shuttle bus accident. Someone said he had a medical problem while driving, he hit and killed a women on the street.

It was sad.

I watch because I want to see everyone succeed. When you're given a free opportunity to have a better life, you should try hard to change that life. Some do, some don't.

Actually the accident was in November of 2012 when he passed out. He died in May of the next year unrelated to the bus accident.

[Anonymous]

I really hate watching shows like this. My MIL is morbidly obese and is now suffering the effects of old age compounded by years of obesity.

It is torment watching her drag herself up and down stairs and has not been able to walk more than a few steps at a time since she was in her sixties. She uses a respirator at night. To get through the day, she is on Oxy because of the pain.

Lets encourage people to keep to a healthy weight instead.

[Anonymous]

These shows demonstrate that the proponents of "healthy at any size" are full of sh*t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are we heartbroken when someone weighing almost 700 lbs dies?

why wouldn't you be? I find it sad when drug addicts die too. There has to be a lot going on for someone to do that to themselves. I watch a lot of intervention and the most fascinating part in when they tell their story and what let them to drugs/addiction. it is heartbreaking. So many have had major tragedies in their lives or been sexually abused. You have to really hate yourself to eat your way to 700lbs and that is sad.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watch this show too. My doctor relatives are disgusted that doctors would operate on thee people, they are disqualified at nearly every hospital in the country. They all go to the one doctor in Houston, who is one of a handful who will see them.

What does this mean? That they are too obsese to be operated on by most standards of medical practice?

Their size makes them a huge liability. You have to have proper equipment, an anesthetist willing to take them on, staff trained in how to treat them. Many hospitals won't allow bariatric surgery b/c insurance companies (covering the hospital) won't allow it.

You're right about the super-morbidly obese (600 lbs) but not about bariatric surgery in general. Most hospitals want to do bariatric surgery on "normal" obese people - 300 lbs range.

Correct, at 600 lb's the operation is just too risky. Usually you will undergo weight loss the old fashioned way until you are in a more tolerable weight range for bariatric surgery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are we heartbroken when someone weighing almost 700 lbs dies?

why wouldn't you be? I find it sad when drug addicts die too. There has to be a lot going on for someone to do that to themselves. I watch a lot of intervention and the most fascinating part in when they tell their story and what let them to drugs/addiction. it is heartbreaking. So many have had major tragedies in their lives or been sexually abused. You have to really hate yourself to eat your way to 700lbs and that is sad.

This.

I think what you see on this show is really that most of these people have some pretty serious problems besides their weight -- unhealthy family relationships, emotional/psychological problems. The weight is usually just a symptom of some underlying issue for peple to get to this size. FOr me the most heartbreaking one was the girl who still lived at home in her twenties and who helped to take care of her disabled brother, as well as the one where the girl had a really unhealthy relationship with her mother who babied her and did everything for her. These people are kind of trapped in their bodies but also kind of trapped in their lives. They perhaps eat because there is no way forward, no scenario in which they're going to move out some day, get a great apartment and education and job, and get married, etc.
It lets you really see the relationship between poverty and poor education and dead end jobs and eating and weight. I know that it has made me much more sympathetic to these people.
I have struggled with my own weight and I have all kinds of resources and things to look forward to -- I'm losing weight and I have the money to buy awesome clothes and travel, etc. etc. Imagine if you were in a situation where even if you lost the weight, it's not like that was the only thing holding you back from fulfilling your dreams. It's not like these people are magically going to be able to take expensive hiking and camping vacations once they get thin, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are we heartbroken when someone weighing almost 700 lbs dies?

why wouldn't you be? I find it sad when drug addicts die too. There has to be a lot going on for someone to do that to themselves. I watch a lot of intervention and the most fascinating part in when they tell their story and what let them to drugs/addiction. it is heartbreaking. So many have had major tragedies in their lives or been sexually abused. You have to really hate yourself to eat your way to 700lbs and that is sad.

This.

I think what you see on this show is really that most of these people have some pretty serious problems besides their weight -- unhealthy family relationships, emotional/psychological problems. The weight is usually just a symptom of some underlying issue for peple to get to this size. FOr me the most heartbreaking one was the girl who still lived at home in her twenties and who helped to take care of her disabled brother, as well as the one where the girl had a really unhealthy relationship with her mother who babied her and did everything for her. These people are kind of trapped in their bodies but also kind of trapped in their lives. They perhaps eat because there is no way forward, no scenario in which they're going to move out some day, get a great apartment and education and job, and get married, etc.
It lets you really see the relationship between poverty and poor education and dead end jobs and eating and weight. I know that it has made me much more sympathetic to these people.
I have struggled with my own weight and I have all kinds of resources and things to look forward to -- I'm losing weight and I have the money to buy awesome clothes and travel, etc. etc. Imagine if you were in a situation where even if you lost the weight, it's not like that was the only thing holding you back from fulfilling your dreams. It's not like these people are magically going to be able to take expensive hiking and camping vacations once they get thin, etc.

So true. My thought is that most are probably getting governmental disability benefits due to their morbid obesity. However, once they lose the weight, are mobile again, and are featured on the show, will they lose these disability benefits? Will they go to work?

[Anonymous]

It seems like almost everyone they have featured has been impoverished and living in an apartment or trailer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are we heartbroken when someone weighing almost 700 lbs dies?

My father weighed around 350 to 400 lbs. It is heartbreaking because it's an addiction. It's a mental illness. From my personal experience, there is something truly wrong mentally with a lot of these people. They are not healthy mind, body and soul. Most of us see these people as just lazy and gross with no self-control. But there is so much more that's going wrong under the surface.

[Anonymous]

Henry died in 2013. Shuttle accident was 2012.

[Anonymous]

I think is very nice for all the people the try to lose the wait is not easy but just trying is great for their own good sad to hear about Henry the die wen I hear about it it make very sad just to see what he went to get n feel better n merry the love of he's life can not believe it but just keep trying to lose da wait n feel better for you n da ones da loves you keep trying proud for all the ones the accomplish this great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are we heartbroken when someone weighing almost 700 lbs dies?

why wouldn't you be? I find it sad when drug addicts die too. There has to be a lot going on for someone to do that to themselves. I watch a lot of intervention and the most fascinating part in when they tell their story and what let them to drugs/addiction. it is heartbreaking. So many have had major tragedies in their lives or been sexually abused. You have to really hate yourself to eat your way to 700lbs and that is sad.

This.

I think what you see on this show is really that most of these people have some pretty serious problems besides their weight -- unhealthy family relationships, emotional/psychological problems. The weight is usually just a symptom of some underlying issue for peple to get to this size. FOr me the most heartbreaking one was the girl who still lived at home in her twenties and who helped to take care of her disabled brother, as well as the one where the girl had a really unhealthy relationship with her mother who babied her and did everything for her. These people are kind of trapped in their bodies but also kind of trapped in their lives. They perhaps eat because there is no way forward, no scenario in which they're going to move out some day, get a great apartment and education and job, and get married, etc.
It lets you really see the relationship between poverty and poor education and dead end jobs and eating and weight. I know that it has made me much more sympathetic to these people.
I have struggled with my own weight and I have all kinds of resources and things to look forward to -- I'm losing weight and I have the money to buy awesome clothes and travel, etc. etc. Imagine if you were in a situation where even if you lost the weight, it's not like that was the only thing holding you back from fulfilling your dreams. It's not like these people are magically going to be able to take expensive hiking and camping vacations once they get thin, etc.

I'm struck by how many of them were sexually abused and/or neglected. Some people have their souls murdered and their bodies show it.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone surprised that the doctor himself is likely in an obese weight category?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone surprised that the doctor himself is likely in an obese weight category?

You shut your whore mouth about the king - a short 74 year old man with a wee teeny tiny belly he earned because he's SEVENTY FOUR.

But on a positive note, is anyone else feeling uplifted by all the positive stories this season? The last one especially, had me in tears - his determination is just incredibly admirable!