Does It Really Take a Brain Surgeon To Lose Weight?

I just saw on TV this morning a news blurb about a woman named Carol Poe who underwent brain surgery to lose weight. The procedure is called Deep Brain Stimulation and it is supposed to get to the core of the impulses that triggers overeating and cravings and stop them dead in their tracks.

I can not imagine the courage it took for Carol to undergo such a radical procedure, but in the same breath I had to ask myself. . Does it really take a brain surgeon?

The procedure could have had dire consequences to Carol’s physical or mental abilities. Even, as in all surgeries, the possibility of death. Are people really willing to stake their lives to lose weight, I mean really?

Is being fat such a heavy burden that we will do anything, including trading our lives, to be rid of it? Have society pushed us this far? Have they taken our pride and joy of life so distantly away that we no longer care if we live or die- just get the fat off me?

I say this in no mean or disrespectful way, and blessings to Carol with a hope for a quick recovery. But I pray to my higher power that I never get so desperate to be thinner that I am willing to toss my whole life away in search of it.
Only if Carol was slated to die soon from a fat related health problem would this be acceptable to me.

Will fat kill us? Maybe so in the long run. But we could just as easily die in a auto accident or get hit by a bus. Living life fat is not a punishment or curse, it is only a fact of life.

But for doctor’s to believe it is okay to trade life harming or threatening surgeries for thinness, and to promote these surgeries, is no more than saying suicide is the way out. If you can’t be thin, then you might as well be dead. And they pass that unspoken filth into and onto the fat community.

Life lived fat or otherwise is very much worth the effort of living without drastic attempts to alter appearances.
If for life sake, these procedures are sought out and made available then maybe the risk is un-preventable.
But to have them just to be thinner. . . is total insanity!







Carol Poe

Too Fat To Be Allowed. . . To Live

I am sure many of you, by now, have seen the shocking photo running a muck online of a hugely obese person sitting on a chair at an airport waiting for a delayed flight. No doubt you quickly made judgments about this person, maybe called them a name, or laughed out loud, possibly sent the picture on to someone you knew, so that they too could enjoy a snicker at the expense of this unknown person who will be stared at and ridiculed by countless millions via the internet.

I don’t know any more about this person than you do, but being a morbidly obese person myself let me tell a story, a piece of fiction about this person- coming from experiences of my own.

I will call this person Dana because from the picture Dana can not be identified as female or male.

Dana grew up in a small town, with a loving vibrant family. Dana’s were religiously strict parents believing in all things God and bible. An extended family member began to molest Dana at an early age, but not having talked about ‘things’ as this within the family unit, Dana had no idea how to react or what to do. Dana decided to make sure physical attractiveness was no longer a part of what made Dana up.

“No one would violate a repulsive and ugly body.” Thought Dana. So Dana set about obtaining this body of “protection”.

Dana shut down emotionally, and found that inside the mouth was a gateway to euphoria, mental utopia, because every time Dana ate, the pain magically went away for a short time. This is how Dana learned to deal with deep emotional pain, and Dana grew to a size unbelievable and daunting to society, and to Dana.

Dana succeeded in securing a form of peace from the molesting tormentor- but deliverance came at a price. One of isolation from a world that now tormented and abused Dana. Every time Dana left the security of home someone spoke a hurtful word, called a humiliating name, gave unbearable stares, released heart penetrating, ridiculing laughter that caused hardship, loneliness, self hatred, self abuse. So Dana shut doors and windows, pulled shades and affection, closed heart and emotion and existed only within a small four corner house filled to the hilt with food that comforted from, and erased the world outside.

News came that Dana’s mother was dying, the doctor said to come quickly if final goodbyes were to be offered. Dana had no choice but to leave the security of home and book a flight to see mother one last time. The flight was delayed so Dana asked an airport employee for a chair- one that was armless so that Dana could sit in some measure of comfort as the delay continued. As Dana was handed the chair a flash of concern that mother would be gone before home could be reached struck Dana’s mind. Dana opened the chair in a secluded area, behind the rest of the passengers waiting to board the delayed flight, prayed that mother would hang on, and hoped that no one would stare at or ridiculed the scared, hurt, worried, wounded soul sitting there.