I am not belittling those of us who have had complications, and people should be fully informed regardless of the WLS they choose. But this is the danger of doing nothing.

http://www.weather.com/health/obesity-death-toll-heavier-previously-thought-20130816

Wow...sobering but excellent post.

I had my own realization about the cost of obesity this spring. My grandma was in a nursing home/hospice and it struck me one day as I looked around the dining room- there were no morbidly obese old people in there. There were a couple of heavy people but not one was truly morbidly obese.

Then...it hit me. The reason you don't see many morbidly obese old people is because the morbidly obese usually don't live long enough to grow old.

I couldn't agree with you more Terry! I know for me, the weight would have killed me. I had high blood pressure, cholesterol was getting dangerously close to being out of whack, and diabetes and cancer run rampid in my family. But now I am in the best shape I have ever been in at age 46. Not to mention the sheer quality of life has soooo improved too. I am so active now and can do so many things that I could not do before. I would definitely say the benefits of me losing this weight far outweigh any potential dangers as a result of the band.

Good article Terry....thanks for posting. There's a reason the experts called me MORBIDLY obese...instead of just fat.

You know, I was worried that it would take too many people to carry me out on a stretcher if someone had to call EMT. I thought, how embarrassing that would be!

Thanks for the article Terry!

my aunt was so large, when i was younger, that once when she fell out of bed, the fir dept had to come get her up and my sis in law was over 700 pounds.......i (saw) this and still allowed myself to get nearly into that position...never again will i be (super morbid obese) and i was, mere months ago....