When will bariatric care catch up with the science?

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

During one of my consults with my surgeon (not sure if it was pre- or post-op) I asked him: "Why did you choose to do bariatric surgery?" FYI, this guy is a general surgeon in his 40s who also started doing bariatric surgery, I'm guessing, about 10 years ago. He does other kinds of surgeries too (he operated on my husband for something else), but has done literally thousands of WLSs and is the surgeon who's rated the #1 WLS surgeon in our city.

He answered: "I really wanted to do bariatric surgery because I figured out early on that it's the work I can do that really changes people's lives more than any other kind of surgery I could possibly do for them. This surgery literally changes their lives. Even if I operate on them for cancer and have a great result, they just go back to the life they had before my surgery. But with WLS they come in here for the first consult, sometimes barely unable to walk from the waiting room to the examination room. And a year later they're out there running for exercise, looking great, feeling great, able to work again, getting married, playing with their children, and in the full swing of everything life has to offer."

(Sniff. Seriously!)