When did 60 Minutes stop doing news and start doing Infomercials?

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It's taken me five days to get this post out. It's taken me five days to try not to make this post so full of vitriol and so that I could make a coherent point.

I waited five days so I could try and write this because I had to get my head straight.

See, as a Gastric Bypass blogger which I guess would be what I am, when I write here-I don't want to be radically of one unbending opinion. I want people who are considering doing this to come here and read what I say and believe that I'm not going to take a dump on something just because my experience is negative (which it has not been universally) - I want you dear reader to come here and not think I'm an anti-anything.

It's like (when you read an article by Anne Coulter)...you know that regardless of how valid a point is going to be, she's going to take a shit on it if it's suggested by a Democrat. That's not what I want to do. What I want to do is try and spread some information to conquer some of the disinformation which is being spread by people who on the whole have a hell of a lot more money and resources then I do, or more than anyone I know does.

The medical community makes a good deal of money on this type of surgery and because of that, frankly they want to present it in the best light possible.

I am saying that what you're being told is a partial truth that has some key important health related issues left out about bariatric surgery. And before you go and do this, I want you to know exactly what could possibly happen to you so that you can make the most informed decision on what you are going to do with your life as possible. – That’s why I and other people write these types of posts.

I’m not against the medical community, I’m grateful to it. I’m not (as someone suggested), trying to keep any more fat people from getting to be thin.

I don’t hate my surgeon more than hating his bedside manner.

He did what I asked him to do-and in fact, I make it a point to try not to hate at all.

I guess that what I am shooting for here is trying to be as unbiased as someone can be, and still be affected. I have a gastric bypass so there is only so much balancing I can do, because what I write has a slant of coming from my experience which is really only mine and not anyone else's, even if they have a gastric bypass. As I have pointed out ad nauseum, while there may be a commonality of side effects or complications, none of us have the same combination so we are each unique.

While to some extent I certainly write these articles for my own health, part of me hopes that I'm also writing it for yours. If you have had WLS, if you're considering having WLS, if you're a support person for someone who is considering or has had WLS, I want you to come here and get some real information. Because one thing I can assure you of and I promise no bias about is that what you see mostly in major media is misinformation- hell, to be honest- a great deal of it is bordering on blatant propaganda.

We bloggers, citizen journalists, nerds whatever... or at least most of the good ones try and get proper source material, look at the issue from both sides, sort the shit from the truth and then post an honest article based on the evidence that is available mixed with personal experience and to a certain extent then take our personal opinion and, well- we try and justify it. And if we cannot then and if we are doing this correctly and morally we don't publish the post, or we do and go back and edit it, or go back and delete it or something.

So here is what I want to know. Who Paid off Leslie Stahl? Or the producers of 60 minutes? Or the CBS Corporation to put that boldly biased piece of shit that they are trying to pass off as a news item?

Did someone catch a producer or someone of importance or maybe Leslie herself banging an underage prostitute or something? Is this the blood money they demanded in order to save someone's career? This dangerous commercial that is kissing the ass of every bariatric center and surgeon in the world. Because I can't see how any organization which wishes to have their news department looked on as actually reporting news in a fair and unbiased way… so they can maintain their journalistic integrity, would allow that over hyped, untrue, dangerous story to be presented in that way.

Yes, losing a great deal of weight via Gastric Bypass can cure diabetes (in a way). So can eating the pancreas hacked out of a small baby with a chain saw but I wouldn't quite say you should do that and yes, WLS will help with your apnea , so would cutting your head off at the neck but again I think that’s a bit extreme. Though apparently CBS news thinks that presenting what is arguably that equivalent in my opinion is fine.

But what really gets me is the one sided view of the whole thing. Where is anyone more then a year out on that panel eh? That's what I really want to know. Gastric bypass prevents cancer? Almost all cancers can be prevented by losing weight via WLS? Not just losing weight but losing weight specifically via WLS is what they talked about and nothing else. And if you think that there are not people too scared or ignorant to not have thought of the whole losing weight without WLS thing you are wrong. Some misguided soul who’s borderline overweight but paranoid is somehow going to have this done to themselves because of this thing they put out there. I suppose that prophylactic radiation or chemotherapy might prevent many cancers as well but I would again say that’s a very extreme answer for that.

If it is true Leslie that this surgery is such a lifesaver and a walk in the park, why couldn't you find one person who had this operation in say 2005 or 2006 and had them discuss their outcome or their feelings? Yea, ok...it cured Diabetes for some people- hell- it even cured it for me. You know what I have in place. I have at the least a very severe case of Hypoglycemia.

What I do know is that while I may not be a diabetic anymore , about three times a week I wake up at 2 or 4 AM needing sugar so badly that I have to crawl down my staircase for fear of falling down it, just to drink juice for an hour or two so I feel like I'm not going to drop dead on the spot, I keep hard candy by my bed because when it happens it feels like I'm going to die, and I thought that was really something that was very unique to me. But when I went out and talked to several nutritional experts on WLS it turns out that that's one of the most common things that happen to people who have WLS, but most WLS people are not as lucky to be sugar tolerant like I am-they have dumping syndrome instead. So what do those people do…when you cure them of diabetes but they have Hypoglycemia? So it's not Diabetes but it'll kill you just as dead and I saw nothing about that on 60 minutes.

Forget me, take the hundreds of thousands of people who have had WLS over the last five years alone and you're telling me that 60 minutes couldn't find one person to be on that panel that might have had a less than rosy experience, so they could give people some perspective before essentially putting in a bold endorsement of this procedure via faux scientific news? That fluff piece about how you should go and have your stomach chopped up, resectioned and stapled down and have a few feet of intestine rerouted? That’s a little funny isn't it?

Hell, I have sustained my weight loss. I've never gone over 175 since the day I hit that mark. I was operated on at 388, I’m three years post op, and if you will go back through this blog, I have never ever said yet that I am totally on the side of wishing that I had not done this. I mean I’ve had my days but I'm not seeking a reversal and am pretty sure that yes, knowing what I know now I might still do it again.

Even though for the most part it sucks and yeah, I still think it will probably kill me; I don’t know how much faster the weight related issues would have killed me. Maybe in the end it’s a wash. There is that whole quality of life thing though and right now to a point it’s still better than it was on my good days at nearly 400 pounds and I guess I will have to wait and see what happens with that.

Why didn't 60 minutes call someone like me? The Bariatric association didn't approve the call or something?

Don’t tell me that CBS couldn’t find another guy like me? Shit, my Mom always said that I was a unique little snowflake and I wanted to believe her.

But I’m not a unique little snowflake. There are plenty of people, some not even like me at past a year or further who are more happy, even thrilled with their experience who still could have provided some actual real perspective that yes, even though they were happy, that it's not a tea party and it is hard work- frustrating at best, possibly a mind fuck and at worst it could kill ya dead.

And even those of us with the decent outcomes (and I guess I would consider still putting myself there) because I feel ok most of the time would say that it's hard work and has a real strong emotional component that is in a great deal of the cases and for a great many people is sometimes overwhelmingly negative.

One question about suicide from an “expert” (when are surgeons experts on Psychology by the way?) who says," Yeah, well, we don't know about suicide yet, because some people realize that being fat wasn't all the problems they had in the world.” And then back to the parade of health benefits

I'm sure I'm not the only guy in the world who kept their weight off (but don't think that I won't be at all surprised if a year from now that changes too and I'll be equally unsurprised if it does not)…why couldn’t they have a few people a few years out? Maybe one, two people whose experience was less then rosy.

So know this. This clip above ...it's fluff, it has no real journalistic integrity, it's untrue and CBS should be shamed for presenting this to people like they have.

To reach out to me please send an email to blogger(at)fatjewguy(dot)com