S04.E12: Sean's Story

[Cherrio]

I don't understand why Dr Now doesn't have them use a medical diet delivery service. I get that he wants them to learn how to eat, but a medical diet delivery service would teach them because they will see the food being delivered every day. For someone 700 pounds, baby steps are in order. I realize that you have to be careful because there are many diet food companies that deliver highly processed foods, but there are some that deliver fresh. You can't unlearn bad habits  overnight, but if you have no food in the house and only eat what is delivered, its a beginning. 

Another doctor tried that with Dominique. I remember she had friends and neighbors bringing her additional food.  She also refused to do what she was supposed to do after surgery and even called 911 to get her out of the convalesant home.  She went home and promptly died.

[gunderda]

The whole point of him sending them home to lose weight on their own is to see if they want it bad enough.  No help, pure determination.  

Having a food service doesn't help you in the long run and they are expensive.  

 

The only way these people are going to learn to change their lives is with tough love and self motivation.

[Long Spot]

When I watched the episode a second time, I did notice Mom used "we" almost constantly including the reward chart, which is definitely creepy for a 26 yr old. 

 

 

I noticed Sean using the same verbiage when talking to Dr. Now.  They obviously consider themselves one entity and have no clue who they are or how to function independently.  

 

Like everyone else, this one really pissed me off.  Was hard to watch, even with the suspicion that Sean also likely has some behavioral or developmental challenges.

[CousinOliver]

Another doctor tried that with Dominique. I remember she had friends and neighbors bringing her additional food. She also refused to do what she was supposed to do after surgery and even called 911 to get her out of the convalesant home. She went home and promptly died.

Oh, those were classic scenes. Dominique poking at a quiche that has some water on it from the condensation from being put in a container hot. "That's water, that's not grease! I can't eat that."

God rest her soul, she was never going to be a success.

[Cherrio]

Oh, those were classic scenes. Dominique poking at a quiche that has some water on it from the condensation from being put in a container hot. "That's water, that's not grease! I can't eat that."

God rest her soul, she was never going to be a success.

Classic for sure.    I also remember her saying in a disgusted tone, dis is thee diet food.......and her doctor calling her Bobba-loo.    

[mmecorday]

 

It was weird Mom talking about Sean getting treats like he was still 6. Even after his bathroom break when they were on the road, which seemed to upset him, she hands him one of those huge turkey legs to munch on & calm down. My God, I could have made a meal for 4 with that thing.

I have never seen a turkey leg like that outside of a state fair or a movie about King Henry VIII.

[Guest]

I have never seen a turkey leg like that outside of a state fair or a movie about King Henry VIII.

Get thyself to Disney World. Those things are dietary staples. (They are also delicious! But, I should note, I ate one. Ten years ago.)

[ClareWalks]

The whole point of him sending them home to lose weight on their own is to see if they want it bad enough.  No help, pure determination.  

Having a food service doesn't help you in the long run and they are expensive.  

 

The only way these people are going to learn to change their lives is with tough love and self motivation.

 

Totally agree with what you said, they have to WANT it. Except tragically I think a home-delivered meal service would have to be cheaper than however much they spend on fast food currently. I mean, two pizzas as one meal? Dear Lord.

[poeticlicensed]

The whole point of him sending them home to lose weight on their own is to see if they want it bad enough.  No help, pure determination.  

Having a food service doesn't help you in the long run and they are expensive.  

 

The only way these people are going to learn to change their lives is with tough love and self motivation.

Right, but I suspect most of them will be dead before the tough love and self motivation kicks in. I'm not suggesting that they live on a meal service forever, but it might be a stop gap solution, combined with nutrition education and other modes of behavioral therapy (behavioral contracting, self monitoring, goal setting, problem solving, etc). So many of them have zero clue about nutrition, it may be too much to expect that they overnight have an understanding of calorie intake. But then   again, we don't see the food plan. It need to be specific, e.g one egg and dry toast, not one serving of protein and one grain. If they are that ignorant of nutrition, they will never make the connection that one egg is one serving of protein. KWIM?

[OhioMom]

I knew people like this (the man did end up having gastric bypass).  They would 'play stupid' and say they never got "such and such" information, or act like it was the first time they'd ever heard about it. It bought them time to continue on their destructive path.  Many in the community thought these people were "slow". I had trouble with that, because they knew how to get every deal imaginable, knew where every free meal and soup supper was being offered, and outwardly lied about money they were given when it came time to pay bills (I was asked to help them with their budget).  As I said, the man eventually had gastric bypass. When he came home from the hospital, I knew he would have problems with saying "no" to food, so I suggested to his wife that maybe she should fix easy foods for herself (he did most the cooking), like egg salad sandwiches, or salads, so that he wouldn't be tempted by the smells of frying foods, etc.  Not forever, just until they got a handle on things.  Her reply was, "But I need to eat good food too!!".   He ended up losing maybe 50 lbs.  I think he put it all back on, and then some.  He thought the surgery was like a magic wand, and that he could eat whatever he wanted, in whatever quantities he wanted.  Like I've seen on this show many times, he ate like a feral individual,  fearful that someone would take away his food before he could finish it.  Learned helplessness is a real thing.  People will do it, if it gets them the resuts they want.
 

I have never seen a turkey leg like that outside of a state fair or a movie about King Henry VIII.

And he tore into it like an animal.

[ClareWalks]

Interestingly, that giant turkey leg had more calories than Dr. Now wanted him to eat in an entire day. (As a side note, it is getting harder to find the giant turkey legs at Disney...lots of places aren't selling them anymore! I wonder if someone sued because they got attacked by hungry pigeons or something.)

[Atia]

The "caregivers" always fascinate me. Mom was probably close to 400 pounds herself and she talks about Sean like HE has a problem. Yup, but so do you!!! A few pieces of celery wouldn't hurt her either. In most cases it is a FAMILY problem. The whole household needs to diet not just the elephant in the room.

[gardendiva]

The "caregivers" always fascinate me. Mom was probably close to 400 pounds herself and she talks about Sean like HE has a problem. Yup, but so do you!!! A few pieces of celery wouldn't hurt her either. In most cases it is a FAMILY problem. The whole household needs to diet not just the elephant in the room.

Yes, especially the way she seemed to avoid walking as much as possible, and instead rolled around the apartment in that ridiculous wheelchair. She will soon be bed bound herself if she is that averse to physical activity.

[Lightning]

I think that the 800 calorie diet was in the hospital and not at home?  Maybe I'm misremembering -- but I think that he got one diet to take home, and when he couldn't follow that -- he got the 800 calorie diet in the hospital.  I've seen other shows in the past where extremely overweight people could not lose weight at home and were put in the hospital on very calorie restricted diets at around 750 or 800 calories.  I don't think you can do 800 calories without constant medical supervision -- not just a monthly visit to the doctor.

[notyrmomma]

Another doctor tried that with Dominique. I remember she had friends and neighbors bringing her additional food.  She also refused to do what she was supposed to do after surgery and even called 911 to get her out of the convalesant home.  She went home and promptly died.

ah you beat me to it!  Dominique reminded me a lot of Sean (remember, she ended up gaining weight while she was on that diet food delivery program).  I wonder what actually killed her--it was just weeks after her surgery.  I was sure Sean was headed the same way, I thought we were going to see our first death on this show (besides the S1 guy whose name escapes me right now, but he died years later from heart issues).  Anyway, if anyone is curious about Dominique (she makes Penny look like Ms. Congeniality), go to you tube and seach "600 pound mom"

 

(ETA - Henry Foots is the name of the guy from S1 who died.  SMH that I am a walking encyclopedia of all things 600 pounds, LOL)

Edited March 19, 2016 by notyrmomma

[Brooklynista]

ah you beat me to it!  Dominique reminded me a lot of Sean (remember, she ended up gaining weight while she was on that diet food delivery program).  I wonder what actually killed her--it was just weeks after her surgery.  I was sure Sean was headed the same way, I thought we were going to see our first death on this show (besides the S1 guy whose name escapes me right now, but he died years later from heart issues).  Anyway, if anyone is curious about Dominique (she makes Penny look like Ms. Congeniality), go to you tube and seach "600 pound mom"

 

(ETA - Henry Foots is the name of the guy from S1 who died.  SMH that I am a walking encyclopedia of all things 600 pounds, LOL)

Yes Henry ( let me wipe away this tear). Henry was an example of succeeding in spite of your environment. I remember him coming home from surgery and whoever was driving had to stop for fast food because his momma HAD to have something to eat. Henry never let that gt in the way of his goal. He knew what needed to be done and he did it.

Sorry to say, that isn't going to happen for this Sean man child. He has no reason to get out of that bed. Everything he needs is right at his fingertips. His mom and his Gameboy.

[firecrackerz26]

I strongly suspect Sean has a mental or behavioral problem, or both. He's just like a child, and his mom is doing him NO favors. I mean, come on, when he announced he wanted burger and fries, she ran out and got it for him, and he would hold the food with both hands or the two pizzas in his lap and not even chew! The moms philosophy about not seeing your child hungry...Sean doesn't look very hungry to me! Dr Now was dealing with the most dietary stupid people, thinking if he only had one fast food meal a day that would work for him? Sean has been running things since he was a child, manipulating the food and getting to lay in bed all day.

[CousinOliver]

They did have two deaths in the "Half Ton" specials. One was Murphy Springs in "Half Ton Teen: Confronting Addiction", which was the third of the Half Ton Teen shows. Murphy was not the main patient (Billy Robbins was), but he was one of three featured.

Also, Renee Williams, of "Half Ton Mom", died during filming.

Both shows were early specials featuring Dr Now, produced by his son, etc. Very similar to the shows we're seeing now, except that the patients run 800+ lbs.

Edited March 22, 2016 by CousinOliver

[aliya]

 

When she lied about the intake and then said "What should we be eating? Protein?" He said "I gave you the whole diet with all the explanations! You have it all outlined in the information!!!" They were given what they were supposed to do and played stupid. 

Yup. When I looked into the gastric sleeve. the first thing they did after the inital medical intake was make you take a class with the nutritionist. We all got a nice shiny brochure with an eating plan, including substitutes for meat and dairy for vegetarians and the lactose intolerant.  They are not sending you out there without help. I was waiting for mom's pants to catch on fire, 'cause I knew she was lying like a rug. 

 

[aliya]

I'm currently semi-counting calories (I mainly only do it during the week) and my goal is about 1500/day. I'm overweight but not super obese. But if someone told me I had to restrict myself to 800/cals a day I would likely cry.   So to me that seems a little excessive.  Especially when someone is that large and they should be able to lose weight easily by just cutting out sodas.  

I think if they would have given him a more manageable limit they wouldn't have rebelled against it so much. 

When I was thinking about the sleeve, I confided to a friend (very overweight) who surprised me by saying she had a bypass 10 yrs ago. She lost 100 lbs but could still lose 100+ more.  There is nothing more they can do for her surgery-wise, so they put her on 800 calories a day. Mostly she drank protein drinks. She GAINED weight! It was so sad. Obviously I don't know if she was sticking to the 800 cals, but I know that she wanted to get serious with the additional weight loss, using a food tracker, etc., so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Eventually she gave up because at that low calorie count she wasn't satisfied and she wasn't losing. How depressing.

[Cherrio]

They did have two deaths in the "Half Ton" specials. One was Murphy Springs in "Half Ton Teen: Confronting Addiction", which was the third of the Half Ton Teen shows. Murphy was not the main patient (Billy Robbins was), but he was one of three featured.

Also, Renee Williams, of "Half Ton Mom", died during filming.

Both shows were early specials featuring Dr Now, produced by his sin, etc. Very similar to the shows we're seeing now, except that the patients run 800+ lbs.

Ricky the ton man or whatever he was called died too.     He was offered so much help, but was beyond help.  He was a drama queen too,

        Poor Billy, I wonder how he is doing.   I would of put his mother in jail.

[Barb23]

I wish they would do a Behind the Scenes type of episode explaining truthfully how things are done. Once someone submits themselves, where does it go from there? How do they choose one person over the other? Show us the first meeting of the producers & person at home, tell us what TLC pays for, how much follow up do they get, etc?

After writing this, I wonder who thought of submitting Sean's case, him or Mom? I guess it was another "we" decision. Mom seemed like she wanted him to stay bed or house bound so she could care for him & Sean really had the I Dont care what you do type of attitude. He just wanted the Wave the Magic Wand results & life.

[Cherrio]

I wish they would do a Behind the Scenes type of episode explaining truthfully how things are done. Once someone submits themselves, where does it go from there? How do they choose one person over the other? Show us the first meeting of the producers & person at home, tell us what TLC pays for, how much follow up do they get, etc?

After writing this, I wonder who thought of submitting Sean's case, him or Mom? I guess it was another "we" decision. Mom seemed like she wanted him to stay bed or house bound so she could care for him & Sean really had the I Dont care what you do type of attitude. He just wanted the Wave the Magic Wand results & life.

I would love to see a show like you describe too, but TLC is not known for their honesty. I would rate them lowest on integrity and exploitation, especially of children.

    As far as this show, most of the people featured seem to be very low income so I think exploitation plays a huge part.    People exposing themselves, showering, going to the bathroom.

       I have always seen TLC exactly the same as those old side shows at carnivals with bearded women and others.   No difference in my mind.

[auntjess]

 

Quote

I don't understand why Dr Now doesn't have them use a medical diet delivery service. I get that he wants them to learn how to eat, but a medical diet delivery service would teach them because they will see the food being delivered

Aside from the cost, I think that in this case, they'd consider the delivered food as a supplemental snack.

[Peanutbuttercup]

I swear Sean's mom wanted him to fail. I don't know why. She wanted to maintain complete control over him? She likes the attention she gets from church members and friends from needing help and having a hard life? She wants to punish him for something? She has a secret life insurance policy on him? Whatever the reason, she was actively sabotaging him, and more than once, when Dr. Now was talking to Sean about how he was doing badly, gaining instead of losing, in extreme medical danger, you can see her on the side of the camera view smiling and looking positively gleeful. It was very disturbing.

[Brooklynista]

I swear Sean's mom wanted him to fail. I don't know why. She wanted to maintain complete control over him? She likes the attention she gets from church members and friends from needing help and having a hard life? She wants to punish him for something? She has a secret life insurance policy on him? Whatever the reason, she was actively sabotaging him, and more than once, when Dr. Now was talking to Sean about how he was doing badly, gaining instead of losing, in extreme medical danger, you can see her on the side of the camera view smiling and looking positively gleeful. It was very disturbing.

Munchausen by proxy perhaps? Mom was very definitely responsible for his condition.

[Cherrio]

I swear Sean's mom wanted him to fail. I don't know why. She wanted to maintain complete control over him? She likes the attention she gets from church members and friends from needing help and having a hard life? She wants to punish him for something? She has a secret life insurance policy on him? Whatever the reason, she was actively sabotaging him, and more than once, when Dr. Now was talking to Sean about how he was doing badly, gaining instead of losing, in extreme medical danger, you can see her on the side of the camera view smiling and looking positively gleeful. It was very disturbing.

I totally agree,     

[notyrmomma]

I would love to see a show like you describe too, but TLC is not known for their honesty. I would rate them lowest on integrity and exploitation, especially of children.

    As far as this show, most of the people featured seem to be very low income so I think exploitation plays a huge part.    People exposing themselves, showering, going to the bathroom.

       I have always seen TLC exactly the same as those old side shows at carnivals with bearded women and others.   No difference in my mind.

I call shenanigans a lot when I watch this show.  The biggest thing is the frequency in which they weigh these folks in the hospital...yeah right they only weighed Sean at the end of his month!  It also bothered me that they never used the bed scale on Marla (they guessed she had a starting weight of 800) and they didn't weigh Penny weekly.  Daily weigh-ins would be excessive, but how could they not do it at least once a week?

[firecrackerz26]

Saw the Munchausens by proxy mentioned here, and while I'm not a doc I did take a lot of psych and science courses. I think there's a chance MBP could be happening here, this disease wants to have the child (in this case the adult, Sean) being totally depend and on the adult figure in the situation, his mother.

Sean is the small child in the relationship, he's the manipulator and controller on this whole situation.

[CousinOliver]

Ricky the ton man or whatever he was called died too.     He was offered so much help, but was beyond help.  He was a drama queen too,

        Poor Billy, I wonder how he is doing.   I would of put his mother in jail.

Oh, that's right!  Ricky Naputi was another one that passed.  His special was called, "900 lb man: Race Against Time", I believe (at least in the US; the Nowzaradan specials usually have another title in the UK.)  I had forgotten about him and his affiliation with Dr Now.  If I remember correctly, he was in Guam.  Angie Flores, one of Dr. Now's success stories (who went from ~300 lbs to a healthy weight; not one of his TV featured success stories) visited him, but they were trying to get him surgery on Guam or someplace much closer to him than Houston.  

 

(I maaaay have written an -- unpublished -- paper or two on these kinds of shows, so I've seen many of them more than once.  A luxury I don't have now that I've moved and the DVR is gone, sigh.)  

 

I would love an update on Billy, too.  I'm guessing from the lack of any recent pictures, he's not close to goal weight.  Heck, I'd like to see that middle Half Ton Teen documentary that never seems to get air time. 

 

I don't know that I would have jailed the mom (who clearly had her own psych problems), but I would have hoped for foster care for a young Billy while she got some counseling.  She certainly caused the problem, IMHO. 

[aliya]

I'm not sure that Ricky was one of Dr Now's patients (although I guess it is the case that Angie works for him).  Dr. Duc Vuong visited Ricky. See: https://www.facebook.com/duc.vuong.73. From what I've seen, he is well thought of in the WLS community. When I was investigating the surgery, I watched his YT videos and bought his books. Unless he has some kind of network relationship with Dr Now, I don't recall him ever mentioning Dr Now's name.

 

Dr. Vuong has a good attitude - eat real food, mostly vegetarian, and don't depend on protein shakes. I enjoyed his approach.

[Singingflutist]

Someone mentioned a big mac and fries are 2500. I don't know what kind of big make you are eating but there are 540 calories in a big mac and 510 in a large fries (340 in a medium) so 1050 (or 880 if medium fries). Not great but not 2500 calories.

[poeticlicensed]

Someone mentioned a big mac and fries are 2500. I don't know what kind of big make you are eating but there are 540 calories in a big mac and 510 in a large fries (340 in a medium) so 1050 (or 880 if medium fries). Not great but not 2500 calories.

That burger And fries was not McDonald's. It looked much bigger. We have several places near me that serve supersized burgers and fries. They dwarf a big Mac. The black plastic tray did not come from mcds. I was looking at nutrition menus from those places. An oversize burger and fries can indeed be 2500 calories.

[ClareWalks]

Someone mentioned a big mac and fries are 2500. I don't know what kind of big make you are eating but there are 540 calories in a big mac and 510 in a large fries (340 in a medium) so 1050 (or 880 if medium fries). Not great but not 2500 calories.

 

I said a Big Mac meal with a Coke is around 1500 calories. Someone else said that particular burger/fries (not McDonalds) looked like 2500.

[notyrmomma]

(I maaaay have written an -- unpublished -- paper or two on these kinds of shows, so I've seen many of them more than once.  A luxury I don't have now that I've moved and the DVR is gone, sigh.)  

 

I would love an update on Billy, too.  I'm guessing from the lack of any recent pictures, he's not close to goal weight.  Heck, I'd like to see that middle Half Ton Teen documentary that never seems to get air time. 

 

I don't know that I would have jailed the mom (who clearly had her own psych problems), but I would have hoped for foster care for a young Billy while she got some counseling.  She certainly caused the problem, IMHO. 

I would really be interested in reading your paper - right now I'm obsessed with all things weight loss as I am paranoid of gaining all my lost weight back. (as an unrelated aside, I chuckled a little when you spoke about your unpublished paper--back in the 1990's I wrote a paper for one of my women's studies classes on that show Married With Children, which I often hate watched (before hate watching was even cool, LOL)--ah the college life!)

 

Also, I had never seen the half ton son so I watched it on You Tube yesterday - and holy crap!  Billy's mother makes Sean's mother look laissez-faire.  The only thing good was that Dr. Now and even Melissa Morris were on to this lady's game, but it seems that there was little they could do.  I did a little search and tried to get an update on Billy, but I couldn't find anything recent.

 

Moms like this make me sick.  Shouldn't we be raising our children to take care of themselves some day?  I'm the mother of two boys who are a little older now (11 and 14) and this may sound horrible, but I just don't want to wait on them anymore. I'm trying to set them up for their future by encouraging to do things on their own...both can use a microwave, make a sandwich, and use the washer, dryer, or dishwasher on their own.  

Edited March 20, 2016 by notyrmomma

[Jeeves]

I would really be interested in reading your paper - right now I'm obsessed with all things weight loss as I am paranoid of gaining all my lost weight back. (as an unrelated aside, I chuckled a little when you spoke about your unpublished paper--back in the 1990's I wrote a paper for one of my women's studies classes on that show Married With Children, which I often hate watched (before hate watching was even cool, LOL)--ah the college life!)

 

Also, I had never seen the half ton son so I watched it on You Tube yesterday - and holy crap!  Billy's mother makes Sean's mother look laissez-faire.  The only thing good was that Dr. Now and even Melissa Morris were on to this lady's game, but it seems that there was little they could do.  I did a little search and tried to get an update on Billy, but I couldn't find anything recent.

 

Moms like this make me sick.  Shouldn't we be raising our children to take care of themselves some day?  I'm the mother of two boys who are a little older now (11 and 14) and this may sound horrible, but I just don't want to wait on them anymore. I'm trying to set them up for their future by encouraging to do things on their own...both can use a microwave, make a sandwich, and use the washer, dryer, or dishwasher on their own.  

 

And, bless you for this! I'm lucky to be part of an extended family in which it's the norm for girls and boys to be taught useful household skills as they grow up, and expected to use them before leaving the nest. It makes me sad to encounter young people who don't have a clue, often because nobody ever taught them stuff when they were youngsters.

[ClareWalks]

 

Moms like this make me sick.  Shouldn't we be raising our children to take care of themselves some day?  I'm the mother of two boys who are a little older now (11 and 14) and this may sound horrible, but I just don't want to wait on them anymore. I'm trying to set them up for their future by encouraging to do things on their own...both can use a microwave, make a sandwich, and use the washer, dryer, or dishwasher on their own.  

 

That doesn't sound horrible at all! My boy is only 1 but I am going to teach him to do his own laundry at 8. Maybe sooner. Kids enjoy learning things and being more independent...at least, they usually do. Not sure what happened to Sean ;)

[QueBueno]

(I maaaay have written an -- unpublished -- paper or two on these kinds of shows, so I've seen many of them more than once.

Hah! I'm in grad school right now. A couple of weeks ago I had to write a paper on motivation to reach goals. I wrote it on My 600 Pound Life.

[crazycatlady58]

That doesn't sound horrible at all! My boy is only 1 but I am going to teach him to do his own laundry at 8. Maybe sooner. Kids enjoy learning things and being more independent...at least, they usually do. Not sure what happened to Sean ;)

What happened to Sean was his mother.

[Katt]

I've just watched Billy's story, too and I didn't dislike him anywhere near as much as Sean!

[Singingflutist]

Sorry guys I misinterpreted your posts :)

[petalfrog]

 

I've said this before, but, I do think one of the main reasons Dr Now seems "slow" to send patients to other specialties like psychiatry immediately is because so many are on some form of state medical health plan. From what I've seen, a number of states still operate like old school HMOs in that they require referrals and approvals FIRST before a patient can see a specialist.

These patients don't necessarily need psychiatry as much as psychotherapy and psychological assessment. Dr. Now, quite frankly, should have a health psychologist working in his clinic whose sole job is to psychological assessment on these patients and do structural behavioral therapy as needed. They could arrange a fee structure that would allow the state medical health plans to cover it or roll it into the services needed for bariatric evaluation.

[Lightning]

Yes!!! to teaching your children to be self-sufficient.  My mother-in-law did me the biggest favor ever.  My husband knows how to do his own laundry, cook, and clean.  Sean's mom not doing her job as a mom -- teaching her son how to be a man.  I know that's usually reserved for the Dad, but with no Dad around, it was up to the mom to do it.  I think they both need months of counseling. 

[mrsjoe]

Something that would have been interesting to see would be Sean following the liquid diet most surgeons require before bariatric surgery. Before my gastric sleeve, I had to go a full week without eating any real food, but I was actually their first patient the staff could recall that the surgeon hadn't made do it for at least 2 weeks (I got the lower time because I had a fairly low BMI for a surgical candidate, being only somewhat obese). In my readings, I have heard of really large patients being required to keep up the liquid diet for at least 3 weeks.

 

Anyway, in my experience, the hunger is terrible the first few days, but then it sort of tapers off a bit, but you still continue to feel weak and cranky as the time goes on. I mean I lost over 5% of my body weight in just a week on liquids and I wasn't super big, so it's no wonder I felt screwed up. My point is though that my issues with food were not even remotely as deep seated as most of the patients on this show, so I'm wondering why we never see them try to keep to a liquid only diet. We almost always go from surgery approval to surgery scene. Does Dr. Now not require it? That seems unlikely because the main point of the pre-op diet if I'm remembering correctly is to shrink the stomach and empty it in preparation for the surgery. I can't imagine that Dr. Now is able to perform the surgery with 2 pizzas and a burger still in the stomach.

 

If Sean struggled with "cutting back", he had to completely lose it if he was only allowed protein shakes, broth and jello.  Even good people struggle with the liquids only pre-surgery, so I would think TLC would be all over that crap and exploiting the moments of weakness to their fullest.

[ethalfrida]

Our family knew a lady and son like Sean and his mom. My mom and aunt would occasionally say something to the mother about the amount of food she allowed him to eat. They moved away and when he becams an adult he completely cut himself off from her, got married and lived his life. Thankfully he never go to the 600 pound weight. It would be like two Hungry Man dinners for a snack and things like that and she would not allow him to socialize and really didn't want him to attend school.

[slasherboy]

I saw that book, apparently a kid's book, and was like, I hope that's in another language. Otherwise I couldn't make sense of it.

How much food is 30K calories? I'm guessing a lot and it would get expensive really quickly.

 

If a person eats 2,000 calories a day, he could eat for 15 days on 30,000 calories.  That kind of puts things in perspective for me.

[Pixel]

That seems unlikely because the main point of the pre-op diet if I'm remembering correctly is to shrink the stomach and empty it in preparation for the surgery. I can't imagine that Dr. Now is able to perform the surgery with 2 pizzas and a burger still in the stomach.

If Sean struggled with "cutting back", he had to completely lose it if he was only allowed protein shakes, broth and jello. Even good people struggle with the liquids only pre-surgery, so I would think TLC would be all over that crap and exploiting the moments of weakness to their fullest.

The point of the pre-op liquid diet is not to shrink the stomach. It's to shrink the liver, in order to provide easier access to the stomach and minimize the risk of accidentally nicking the liver during surgery. A fatty liver is a dangerous obstruction to this procedure. The more obese you are, the more enlarged and fatty your liver is likely to be, which is why the more obese have to do liquids longer.

It only takes about 8-10 hours to empty a stomach for surgery. That's why you're always npo after midnight for next day procedures.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Pixel

[Elizabeth9]

Sean's episode is the perfect example of why the show should cover two years and not just one. (Or update us- hello TLC!). Sean was like 910 when he first got weighed. Dr Now doesn't like to do surgery until the person is in the 600s. So, this guy has to lose ~250 lbs! That alone will take a while at any rate, and there's usually that "false start" where the person tries but not really, goes back to Dr Now and gets the "you're not taking this seriously" speech. And in Sean's case, he gained! This all takes months and months. By the time they have the surgery and are on their way, it's Month 12 and the credits are rolling.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Elizabeth9

[CousinOliver]

I'm not sure that Ricky was one of Dr Now's patients (although I guess it is the case that Angie works for him).  Dr. Duc Vuong visited Ricky. See: https://www.facebook.com/duc.vuong.73. From what I've seen, he is well thought of in the WLS community. When I was investigating the surgery, I watched his YT videos and bought his books. Unless he has some kind of network relationship with Dr Now, I don't recall him ever mentioning Dr Now's name.

 

Dr. Vuong has a good attitude - eat real food, mostly vegetarian, and don't depend on protein shakes. I enjoyed his approach.

 

You're right.  I should have been much clearer; he never saw Dr. Now (at least not that cameras showed.)

 

The way it was portrayed on the special, Ricky reached out to Angie Flores, who works/ed for Dr Now (she was featured in some of the original Half Ton series.)  She was touched, went to see him, and realized he couldn't come to US for surgery, so "she" found a more local doctor.  Who knows how much of that is manipulated for our viewing pleasure. 

 

In fact, I am now wondering if this was even a show produced by Jonathan Nowzaradan.  It's not on his IMBD profile, so I'm guessing this one really had very little to do with the Nowzaradan family, regardless of the Flores link. 

 

Earlier, when someone said that it was surprising that none of the patients had died, I wanted to mention the (televised) patients of Dr. Now's that had passed (Murphy Springs and Renee Williams), but, you're right, Ricky Naputi was not one of them.  

Edited March 22, 2016 by CousinOliver

[Barb23]

That burger And fries was not McDonald's. It looked much bigger. We have several places near me that serve supersized burgers and fries. They dwarf a big Mac. The black plastic tray did not come from mcds. I was looking at nutrition menus from those places. An oversize burger and fries can indeed be 2500 calories.

The first time they showed him with his "snack" burgers, that looked like McDs. You could tell by the building when Mom drove in parking lot. Sean also asked for &got one of their caramel sundaes. Wonder how many calories are in them? I thought it was funny that he asked for Medium fries like he was trying to cut back. That burger in the black tray was huge but it did look good. I could have easily made two meals out of that one burger. Maybe cuz it had fresher looking lettuce & tomatoes on it, they thought it was healthier.