Talking to Patients About Expectations

[summerset 5,265]

http://bariatrictimes.com/talking-to-patients-about-expectations-for-outcome-after-bariatric-surgery/

Interesting read.

[GreenTealael 25,412]

29 minutes ago, summerset said:

http://bariatrictimes.com/talking-to-patients-about-expectations-for-outcome-after-bariatric-surgery/

Interesting read.

Very interesting read.

The problem may be having unrealistic expectations in life altogether I think.

[Bootscraper 56]

http://bariatrictimes.com/talking-to-patients-about-expectations-for-outcome-after-bariatric-surgery/
Interesting read.

Thanks for this, it was interesting. I'm scheduled for surgery on April 11th and I've noticed that my surgeon/nurse team has not discussed calculating realistic weight expectations post surgery. I have a few more appointments before I go under so I'm going to bring this up.

[notmyname 593]

Yep - my doc consistently told me that the average weight loss is 60% EWL and that if I follow the plan, that's what I could expect. On another thread where people were discussing their goal weights - I said that this was mine and that I don't want to set myself up to feel like a failure. I'm pretty appreciative that my doc is conservative in his estimates. And some other WLS patients on these boards were kind of jerks about it. Saying that by setting of goal of average I was assuming I'd fail and still be obese and why was I even doing it. Even though I'm about 10 lbs from the 60% EWL at 4 months out, so likely to exceed that, I'm still thankful for my doc setting expectation. I'd rather under-promise and over-deliver. Because I know that if I did only achieve the average weight loss, and I'd expected/hoped for more, I would feel like a failure. And that would be very bad for my mental state. Plus, I had to judge whether or not to have surgery based on the most conservative outcomes - would I still be glad I went through it if I was still slightly obese? Yep - because I will still have lost a significant amount of weight that I couldn't have lost without this tool. And, overall, it will make me more healthy, even if I don't get to a "healthy" weight.

[Swanton_Bomb 522]

I am currently 3 lbs. shy of being just "overweight". A long way from where I would like to be, but also a long way from being morbidly obese. I am very determined to keep going, but even if I didn't lose another pound this surgery would have been worth it. Being 50lbs. overweight is WAY different than being 100lbs. overweight, and far healthier, even if it isn't ideal.

[summerset 5,265]

20 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

The problem may be having unrealistic expectations in life altogether I think.

Interesting thought. Could very well be.

However, a lot of people seem to have very unrealistic beliefs/expectations/etc. about diet, food, weight loss etc. even though they seem to be standing with both feet on their ground in other areas of life.

Sometimes it seems that some part of the brain just shuts down when it comes to the topic of "weight".