jpc1

6. Your unit will have state-of-the-art smart-refrigerator technology that can sense what you're putting into it and, if it violates your dietary guidelines, play an audio file in Dr. Now's voice saying, for example, "Dere is no protein in mashed potato."

I don't disagree, pdlinda. However, I'm not sure there are too many long-term care facilities with the infrastructure and staff to support his acute needs, so additional financial resources would have to be found. Let's say it would require an infusion of an extra $X per year to support his acute needs. For that same $X per year, I would guess that the same long-term care facility could support the needs of 3 or 4 additional people with a modicum of ability and will to contribute to their own care and betterment. This gets into murky territory: $X per year to help 3-4 extra people who actually give a damn vs. $X per year to help 1 who doesn't but who happened to be on TV. Who's more "deserving"? Who decides? That's one of the brutal realities here - the absolute cost of helping Sean isn't the only relevant factor; there's also the opportunity cost of not helping others in order to help Sean.

You're exactly right, 3girlsforus. Much like my son when he was 6, Sean confuses "needs" with "wants". What he needs is to get well. That takes effort and commitment. What he wants is to be immune from the negative consequences of his illness without any effort or commitment.

If Phil Helmuth were on My 600-Lb Life, he'd be Steven Ass. "No, you don't need to eat something. You've already eaten 800 pound of food in you." -- Dr. Now

No that was another woman who had younger boyfriend and a daughter who too was becoming obese... That was Charity with daughter Charly and mouth-breather meth'd-out-looking boyfriend who was the (much) younger brother of Charly's father. As I recall, boyfriend was about 17 years younger than Charity and only a few years older than Charly. Was his name Josh also? I don't remember.

Kaia40, do you think the impression conveyed by her speech that she's (as my late grandmother would say) really rather limited is a conscious affectation like that too, or do you think she's really as dumb as a post?

OK, I have a theory: Bettie Jo wasn't really lying about cancer - she just mis-heard the doctor. What she heard as, "You have bone cancer," was really the doctor saying, "You're a cancer on society, you bone-head!"

A poster said she got $5.00. That'll buy a lot of bleach at the Dollar Store At the rate the money is rolling in, she'll be at her $50K goal in a quick 3.5 years. So, which is likely to happen first? (A) She raises the full $50K. (B) She surpasses 1K pounds. (C) She gets to have a face-to-face conversation with God. (D) Dr. Now pimp-slaps her with that damn pizza box.

Given the elocution skills she displayed in the episode, I believe that would be "Home Healff Aid" - she's the bes' Home Healff Aid on erf.

I want you to gain 25 comma and 5 period in next munt. If you do dat, I will approve you for remedial English class at college. And take a reality check - your attitude has not gotten any better.

Agreed, and I also think that the "to make surgery safer" part is why he gives different initial goals for different patients - fifty pound in two munt for one, tirty pound in one munt for another, immediate hospitalization and controlled diet for another. I would imagine that he calculates for each patient, given the results of the "other tests" he always talks about running but we never see on the show, the maximum weight at which going under a general anesthetic presents a still-acceptable risk. Given the presence/absence/severity of other co-morbid conditions and overall cardiovascular condition, this weight may be pretty different for different patients.

Perhaps he has observed that patients, during therapy before surgery, have to deal with long-repressed issues. If these issues have caused the patient to get to the 600-lb mark, undoubtedly these are very painful memories. They have not learned healthy coping strategies yet, so in trying to deal with the pain, they end up turning to food, which derails their quest to lose 30 lb a month. I think AnnaBaptist is on to something. I think Dr. Now focuses much more on short-term tirty-pound-per-munt weight-loss goals without much concern for long-term sustainability for the pre-surgery patients we see here than he might for his run-of-the-mill ~400-lb. patients. If he's to be believed when he says that a patient is perilously close to death - and I do believe him when he says that - his goal surely must be to get them to a condition where surgery is possible as soon as possible by any means necessary. Often with therapy, whether the dysfunctional behavior is food addiction or something else, it gets a little worse before it gets a lot better. There's more margin for a run-of-the-mill ~400-lb. patient to tolerate a short-term setback like gaining another 30 or 40 over a couple of months while the therapeutic process is kicking in than there is for many of those we see on the show.

Hell, even the bariatric-strong toilet in Dr. Now's office couldn't survive Lupe!

He's just too spellbound by her intelligement and knowledged to remember to eat regularly.

Sorry to have to drop this intelligement on you, Calpurnia99, but that should be, "Now honey, the only thing wrong with your body is you is 550 pounds too fat."