S04.E08: Teretha's Story

[ClareWalks]

Chris Rock had some good observations about that, how he loved big black women because "you take a black woman, 350 pounds, she's going out every Saturday night! A white woman, 350, she hasn't left her house in years!"

[Elizabeth9]

In Season 1, Dr Now is in surgery and he mentions that the equipment is not designed for the size of his patients. The person on the table was definetly not on a table sized for them. I guess he's upgraded his equipment since the .

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

Getting extra food from the hospital kitchen - what???

That would have been my breaking point as well. My grandfather once told me about a co-worker of his on the Southern Pacific railroad: this guy was a 2 packs per day smoker and went into the hospital (this would have been in the early 1960s) with severe emphysema. The doctor admitted and promised to help him, PROVIDED he give up smoking immediately. Anyway, his first night there, the nurse walks in and catches him smoking inside the oxygen tent. The doctor kicked him out of the hospital the next morning saying (paraphrase) "If you're not willing to put forth even the minimum effort to help yourself, there's nothing I can do for you." The guy went home and died within a week.

 

The minute Dr. Now heard about her tricking the kitchen staff into bringing her extra food, on top of her being unwilling to get up and walk, he did the right thing in booting her sizable ass out of the hospital. She was wasting his time at that point.

Edited February 27, 2016 by Sir RaiderDuck OMS

[Noirprncess]

Did anyone watch the "Fat Chance" show that came on after this? That trainer has been on another show, but I can't remember which one. He looks SO familiar. I kinda liked that show, although the whole "I have a crush on someone" seems super tacked-on and unnecessary. The lawyer dude was a decent guy and I admired that he was a single dad working long hours and still killed it in the gym.

I tried hard to figure out his name because I also thought he looked familiar. Of course, I couldn't find it or figure out what show he used to be featured on.

[cynicat]

When Teretha's husband said something like 'she was a little chubby' and the woman was 400 lbs, I had to smile. 

 

I was going to comment on this as well, but wasn't sure I heard correctly.  The belief that 400 lbs is just a little chubby speaks volumes. When did that become OK? I don't care who you are, that is obese.

[Rancide]

Dr. Now: "I'm checking on Teretha to see if she's made progress and can walk.  If she can't, then I will not approve her for the surgery."

Teretha proceeds to barely put weight on her feet with the assistance of a team of paramedics.

Dr. Now: "Teretha made progress, so I'm approving her for the surgery."

 

I feel like this is, like, half the people on this show.  Teretha was just an extreme example.  Dr. Now is always pretending like he won't give people the surgery unless they do x, y, or z, but then when they don't, he just lowers the goalposts.  Or locks them in the hospital so that they have no choice or whatever.

 

I'd like to see an episode where he actually says "no."  I'll believe his little threats when I finally see him follow through even just once.

[AZChristian]

If you're talking about who I think you're talking about, I think it's Bob whatshisname from The Biggest Loser.  He's becoming the Gordon Ramsay of weight loss shows . . . he's everywhere . . . but with no cussing.

[Elizabeth9]

I feel like this is, like, half the people on this show. Teretha was just an extreme example. Dr. Now is always pretending like he won't give people the surgery unless they do x, y, or z, but then when they don't, he just lowers the goalposts. Or locks them in the hospital so that they have no choice or whatever.

I'd like to see an episode where he actually says "no." I'll believe his little threats when I finally see him follow through even just once.

He said no to Joe numerous times- that's the guy who didn't get surgery until like month 11-12. And the one guy's skin removal- he said no because the person didn't lose enough weight.

[Tallulahbaby]

I've been surprised in the episodes where a patient gets gastric sleeve that Dr. Now doesn't mention later on converting it to a duodenal switch. I don't know if it's just one of those things that the producers have deemed uninteresting to the viewing public, or if maybe Dr. Now isn't qualified/competent to do the DS surgery (only a minority of bariatric surgeons are). But gastric sleeve with duodenal switch is hands-down the most effective weight loss surgery there is -- definitely better than gastric bypass for achieving and maintaining weight loss. And it's commonly used for these super-duper morbidly obese patients who initially can't be under anesthesia for long. You start with the shorter sleeve surgery, then maybe 6 months later when they've lost 150 lbs or so, they have the second surgery which is to add the duodenal switch (even more effective intestinal re-routing than the bypass model). Someone like Teretha really would be an excellent candidate for it.

Amen. For people that are morbidly obese the Duodenal Switch is the only way to go. It's an aggressive surgery but the stats stand behind it.

I don't think Dr. Now is a DS surgeon. In fact there is a little over 50 surgeons in the US who do it.

[ClareWalks]

If you're talking about who I think you're talking about, I think it's Bob whatshisname from The Biggest Loser.  He's becoming the Gordon Ramsay of weight loss shows . . . he's everywhere . . . but with no cussing.

 

No, his name is Joseph (Joey) and he is on Fat Chance, which taped on my DVR automatically with this episode. Bob Harper is a shithead, though.

[aliya]

Or locks them in the hospital so that they have no choice or whatever.

 

 

Speaking of locking them in the hospital, I was just thinking of this today... when they go to the hospital, how come Dr Now always finds them in bed when he visits? Unless you are bed bound (and not all of them are) why would you hang in a hospital bed all the time when you are supposed to be losing weight? Is it too hard for them to get in and out of bed, so they just stay in bed? I would think any walking around - the corridor, going to the bathroom, etc. would be beneficial at this point, but there they are in bed... Any ideas?

[auntjess]

I don't know unless it's because they're told to be there at a certain time for filming.
But then these are people whose default place is in bed, most of the time.

[ChristmasJones]

After watching so many episodes of this show, its clear to me that one of the reasons these people get up to these extremely high weights is due to years of severe dysfunction in the family.  So the patterns we see on this show, where the obese person is able to exert so much control over their family members, should not be any surprise at all. If the patterns had not persisted for so long, these folks would not be on this show.

 

So we should not be at all surprised by this dynamic, in fact we should expect it. We should not be surprised that these people resist change... we should expect it. They are deeply entrenched in unhealthy coping mechanisms that they've been using for years. Unhealthy is almost too weak of a word- extremely dysfunctional would be a better way of putting it.

[Rancide]

I doubt anyone who weighs 600+ lbs spends more than a few minutes at a time out of bed.  Even the more mobile folks we see on this show tend to start their exercise regimes with things like walking to the mailbox and back.  I'm not trying to be snarky about this at all, but with respect to why they're always in bed when we see them at the hospital, I doubt many of them could stand long enough to have a medical consultation in an upright position.  

[Minivanessa]

After watching so many episodes of this show, its clear to me that one of the reasons these people get up to these extremely high weights is due to years of severe dysfunction in the family.  So the patterns we see on this show, where the obese person is able to exert so much control over their family members, should not be any surprise at all. If the patterns had not persisted for so long, these folks would not be on this show.

 

So we should not be at all surprised by this dynamic, in fact we should expect it. We should not be surprised that these people resist change... we should expect it. They are deeply entrenched in unhealthy coping mechanisms that they've been using for years. Unhealthy is almost too weak of a word- extremely dysfunctional would be a better way of putting it.

 

Well said. I usually sort of watch and then forget these shows, but Teretha's story has stuck in my so-called mind for longer than the norm. IIRC, it took her just about forever to be approved for the surgery, because of her noncompliant behavior. I think someone else has posted what I also thought in the first part of the episode: it's possible this woman could die, like, right now. 

 

Teretha was so smart, and - as she made sure we knew upfront - well educated, and surrounded by her loving family. She really gave "large and in charge" a new meaning for me. But OMG, for most of the episode, she was just totally acting (and talking) out the crazy stuff that is addiction. Her vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation were certainly those of an educated woman, but she might as well have been a backwoods illiterate, for all the sense she was making in the context of the situation she was in. 

 

I mean, if you just listened to her talking, you'd not realize the woman weighed one-third of a TON and suffered from diabetes (which IIRC was not well controlled). She kept saying the equivalent of "I got this," but acting completely different. It was like listening to a hoarder on one of those old hoarding shows. Crazy talk. And, it was the addiction/dysfunction we were hearing.

 

It took me awhile to learn this as I've gone through life: people can be talking in a reasonable tone of voice, very composed, and reasonable-sounding, but not. making. sense. And if you're listening to them, or perhaps in the conversation, you may feel that you've gone through the looking glass because it's making no sense, and even making *you* feel crazy. Yep, that's because you're hearing them speaking from their addiction/dysfunction, even sometimes a serious mental illness. So, yeah, I didn't like Teretha. I keep telling myself that much of what I disliked was her acting from her disordered thinking. But still. It was hard to empathize. She had her family kowtowing and enabling. I hated to see that intelligence and force of personality being used for those ends.

 

I don't know what really tipped the balance so that Teretha moved off dead center toward compliance, and was thus approved for the surgery. We saw her talking with a therapist. Maybe that was it. Or maybe something got through her defenses in some other way. 

 

I hope they do a follow up show in a year and she's doing OK. 

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Jeeves

[aliya]

I doubt anyone who weighs 600+ lbs spends more than a few minutes at a time out of bed. 

They aren't very mobile, but quite a few of them hang out on the couch or an easy chair at home. They sit in a chair in Dr Now's office. All the hospital rooms seem to have seating for relatives galore, yet there they are in bed, instead of sitting in a chair. No biggie. Just an idle thought from watching too many of these shows.

[Elizabeth9]

No offense to them...but maybe they're too big for the hospital chairs?

[ClareWalks]

Do you mean when they're a patient in the hospital? Because it is appropriate for hospital patients to be in the beds.

[dahling]

Do you mean when they're a patient in the hospital? Because it is appropriate for hospital patients to be in the beds.

 

Seriously. When I had my C-section, I would get out of bed and walk a loop of the floor around the nurse's station a couple of times a day (doctor's orders), but other than that, where you gonna go except for the bed?  Especially if the chairs don't fit?  

[Brooklynista]

Seriously. When I had my C-section, I would get out of bed and walk a loop of the floor around the nurse's station a couple of times a day (doctor's orders), but other than that, where you gonna go except for the bed?  Especially if the chairs don't fit?  

I don't want to derail the thread, but every time I've been in the hospital I've had nurses chase me out of bed.  Beds are only for sleeping they would say.  Get up and move around.  They would insist on it.

 

What is the point of having a life changing surgery if you have no plans on changing your life? The threat of blood clots alone should be enough to motivate these people to movement.  But most seem to want to lie around (lay around?) and wait for the weight loss to magically happen.   Dominique comes to mind.

[ClareWalks]

Oh yeah, they definitely should be getting up and moving, especially if the doctor tells them to. I was more addressing the "why aren't they in a chair instead of bed?" thing.

[aliya]

Regarding chairs - I'm a university employee and use a bunch of different university clinics. The offices all have extra wide chairs available. The first time I saw one, I was so surprised, I took a picture. Trying to stay polite here, but looking around at my fellow midwesterners, yeah, there's a reason why they have the doublewide chairs...  Also wouldn't rooms for bariatric patients have wide chairs?

[ClareWalks]

Regarding chairs - I'm a university employee and use a bunch of different university clinics. The offices all have extra wide chairs available. The first time I saw one, I was so surprised, I took a picture. Trying to stay polite here, but looking around at my fellow midwesterners, yeah, there's a reason why they have the doublewide chairs...  Also wouldn't rooms for bariatric patients have wide chairs?

 

You'd think so, since some of their relatives/enablers are almost as big as they are. Not trying to be bitchy, just stating facts. I know if I were in the hospital for months at a time to lose weight in a controlled environment, I'd probably want more furniture-sitting options than just the bed, too.

[OhioMom]

Speaking of locking them in the hospital, I was just thinking of this today... when they go to the hospital, how come Dr Now always finds them in bed when he visits? Unless you are bed bound (and not all of them are) why would you hang in a hospital bed all the time when you are supposed to be losing weight? Is it too hard for them to get in and out of bed, so they just stay in bed? I would think any walking around - the corridor, going to the bathroom, etc. would be beneficial at this point, but there they are in bed... Any ideas?

Look at them pre-hospital -- at home.  They were in bed.  They are not mobile.  The only one I've seen who was mobile was the girl who worked as a costume designer.  She's also one of the few who worked.

[OhioMom]

Oh yeah, they definitely should be getting up and moving, especially if the doctor tells them to. I was more addressing the "why aren't they in a chair instead of bed?" thing.

Because they are more comfortable lying in a bed.

[lovesnark]

Speaking of locking them in the hospital, I was just thinking of this today... when they go to the hospital, how come Dr Now always finds them in bed when he visits? Unless you are bed bound (and not all of them are) why would you hang in a hospital bed all the time when you are supposed to be losing weight? Is it too hard for them to get in and out of bed, so they just stay in bed? I would think any walking around - the corridor, going to the bathroom, etc. would be beneficial at this point, but there they are in bed... Any ideas?

My guess is that one of the big reasons so many of the patients we see  in bed is because they're a very high fall risk. Most of them have serious weight related mobility problems and probably aren't supposed to get up without assistance and/or someone watching them. I have a friend that's been an RN for over 40 years and there has been a huge increase in morbidly obese patients at the hospital she works at. It's  nearly impossible to get someone of that weight off the floor if they fall and it creates a dangerous situation for the nurses trying to get them up because of the potential of injuring their backs.  They have a lift where she works just for this purpose but it won't hold more than 450 pounds.

[tpel]

I think you've hit the nail on the head, lovesnark. My father, who is elderly and not overweight, was hospitalized for a while last year, The doctors and supervising nurses were always encouraging him to get out of bed, sit in a chair, etc. But patients who are considered to be any kind of fall risk are not supposed to get out of bed on their own, and generally the staff don't want family members to help. Nursing aids/PCAs -- the people who actually help get you out of bed -- are always in short supply. So, if a patient takes the initiative, he can pester the staff repeatedly to get him out of bed. But then he must be willing to stay sitting for a long time, since there may not be anyone available to get him back into bed when sitting becomes uncomfortable. If that's the situation when one only requires one or maybe two staff members' assistance and is used to sitting in ordinary chairs, imagine what it is like when several people are required for bed/chair transfers and the patient has legitimate concerns about being able to tolerate sitting for long periods. The end result is lots of time in bed.

[aliya]

My guess is that one of the big reasons so many of the patients we see  in bed is because they're a very high fall risk. Most of them have serious weight related mobility problems and probably aren't supposed to get up without assistance and/or someone watching them. I have a friend that's been an RN for over 40 years and there has been a huge increase in morbidly obese patients at the hospital she works at. It's  nearly impossible to get someone of that weight off the floor if they fall and it creates a dangerous situation for the nurses trying to get them up because of the potential of injuring their backs.  They have a lift where she works just for this purpose but it won't hold more than 450 pounds.

The fall risk makes more sense than anything else. It's hard to imagine being so heavy that multiple people can't lift you off of the floor. On one of the Supersize vs Superskinny shows, the doctor visited a hospital here in the States that had a group of well-built guys going around the hospital doing moving patients (hopefully not up off of the floor). Sadly, they were kept quite busy.

[stillhere1900]

 

 

Can you imagine being taught healthy eating by a woman who weighs over 400 lbs (at that time)? I would have got up and left. You can't tell me she didn't get called out on that a few times. Not only that but she was the head of the Program. Damn Detroit! Why?!? There was no excuses for her because if she was lecturing than she should at least be somewhat aware of what healthy eating and portion control are as opposed some others who don't seem to know that bread has carbs. 

 

 

 

 

I don't understand this. How was she able to teach health eating/nutrition at 400 lbs ?  How do you stand there and tell someone to to eat healthy is you're not doing it yourself ? She clearly didn't believe anything that she was teaching. He husband said that she was laid off when Detroit shut down the program. I'm wondering if in reality, she was laid off because she had gotten so obese ?

[Typhoo]

Speaking of locking them in the hospital, I was just thinking of this today... when they go to the hospital, how come Dr Now always finds them in bed when he visits? Unless you are bed bound (and not all of them are) why would you hang in a hospital bed all the time when you are supposed to be losing weight? Is it too hard for them to get in and out of bed, so they just stay in bed? I would think any walking around - the corridor, going to the bathroom, etc. would be beneficial at this point, but there they are in bed... Any ideas?

I am a bariatric patient and can answer this and it is going to be long so have a pee and grab a drink. :)

Last June (2015) I got sick, very sick.  I had what I thought was the flu for a week. Chills, fever, shaking so badly I couldn't stop it. I've had it before so I figured it would pass within a few days and I would get better. By the 5th day I was feeling better but noticed my left leg was a bit red from my thigh down. It did not alarm me but I was concerned. I could still get up and walk to the bathroom and back so I figured I was okay. The next day I had some itching with the leg but nothing that would send me to a doctor. I was feeling better, had my appetite back and was still mobile.

Then the next day it all went wrong.

My youngest son, who helps care for me, went to his part time job. I was up late the evening before so I slept in a bit and he was gone by the time I woke up. When I did wake up I was feeling okay, a bit hungry and had to pee. I tried to stand up but this time I couldn't stand up. Thought what the heck and looked down at my left leg, which was feeling wet, and saw that it was covered in huge fluid filled blisters from the knee to the bottom of my foot. Never had that happen before and figured I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. The bad part about this was I was alone and could not get to my phone. Luckily I had my laptop handy so I got on Facebook and was able to reach my oldest son with a message. He was here in less then an hour, took one look at my leg and called 911 for me. He also helped me to the bathroom and back to my bed.

The paramedics came, took one look at me (I was over 500 pounds at this point) and called for the ambulance with the bariatric stretcher. When it finally got here, I had to go down to it because it was too big to fit in the elevator of my building. It took every bit of strength I had in me but (with the help of 2 fantastic paramedics) I walked to the elevator and got down to the lobby. 2 other paramedics had the stretcher waiting for me right in front of the elevator and all I had to do, once I walked out of the elevator, was pivot and sit down. They lifted my legs onto the stretcher and helped me lie down and buckled me in. Off to the hospital. My youngest son came with me. I had called his work to let him know and he came home right away.

Once I was at the hospital, I was admitted and after about 18 hours was sent up to a room. I was put on an IV, antibiotics and was told I had cellulitis. I had it once before about 5 years ago but it was not as bad as this was. 10 days worth of pills took care of that. This time I was bed bound for 2 months, on antibiotics 4 times a day through the IV and my leg was weeping so much the pads had to be changed every couple of hours for the first 3 weeks. I had my family take pics of my leg as it healed.

Anyway after 2 months my leg was healed and Physio figured it was time for me to get up and out of the bed. I was afraid to get up but they helped me take it slowly. They never pushed me beyond what I could do and at first only had me sitting on the side of the bed for a few minutes. I sat there holding the garbage can because I was feeling dizzy and nauseous. Jazzna, the Physical Therapist told me that was normal after lying in bed for so long. It took a few days for that feeling to go away so I could then stand up with the help of a walker. I couldn't believe how weak I had become. Once I could stand they had me do a few side steps along the side of the bed ..3 or 4 steps to the right and 3 or 4 steps to the left.

They also taught me how to pivot again and got me into a wheelchair. The longest I could spend at that time in the chair was 2 hours. One day I overdid it and spent nearly 3 hours in the chair but I almost passed out before they got me back into bed. My nurse said when they were putting me back in bed (she and 2 others) I went completely white as a ghost. I wasn't feeling so hot either. I learned pretty fast what my limitations were.

Eventually they got me using the commode through the day and walking forward a few steps in the room. If I was in the wheelchair I was allowed out into the hallway and I could wheel myself around a little. My time limit in the wheelchair was 2 hours. Back to the bed after that.

August 2015 and I was transferred to another hospital which had a specialized Physio program for bariatric patients. I met Lillianna, Judy and Christine and they started working with me a few minutes every day on various tasks in order to keep me mobile and build up my endurance and strength. At first they only had me out of bed for perhaps 10 minutes a day but by the time I went back home (3 and a half months later) I could get in and out of bed myself with the aid of my walker to use the washroom day and night and I spent up to 6 hours a day in my wheelchair socializing with other patients in the common room. I could also walk around the floor with my walker when I felt like it. The longer you were in the hospital the less you were restricted to the bed but with the exception of 2 they had no chairs wide enough for bariatric patients

so you ended up sitting in your wheelchair or on the side of your bed a lot. When my left leg started bothering me (gravity, edema, arthritis in the knee and ankle) I would sometimes swing my legs in the bed just to get them up for a bit.

I did lose weight in the hospital. I'm 462 now. It's not hard to lose weight in the hospital if you only eat what comes on your tray and nothing else but as for being in bed in the hospital if they don't have the proper chairs to fit you're pretty much using the bed as a seat.

[aliya]

Anyone have an idea about when these shows are filmed? I found Teretha on FB and she still looks very full in the face. I'm on a FB page for people getting or who have the sleeve and you can see the weight loss in people's faces. Also, there's no full body shot of Teretha and it looks like she sitting down; perhaps she's still bed bound or in a wheelchair. When people start losing the weight, their FB posts are full of full body shots, they are so happy with themselves. So, I think she hasn't lost much weight and perhaps isn't very mobile.

[CrazyInAlabama]

They're rerunning this one on Discovery Life now, followed by the WATN with Teretha & Chad.