S07.E15: Angela's Story

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Quote

When Angela's family is unable to accompany her on her weight-loss journey to Texas she is unsure what to do.  At the last minute, she reaches out to an old flame, Eric, who still has love for her and is willing to make the trip. 

TLC confuses "weight-loss journey" with a physical journey from wherever Angela lives to Houston.  TLC's episode synopsis writers are as strong as the folks who manage the schedule information.  Let's see if Angela fans the flames with Eric or if she douses it with either water or gasoline. 

This is the regular episode thread.  It will open after the US East Coast showing. 

Original air date 2019.04.10 

[Concerned]

Worst episode ever. Lady whines for two hours, has one doctors appointment and spins an endless web of lies. Definitely skip this one. TLC shouldmremove it from rotatation and certainly no supersizing. My only question is why did God take Kelly and not this bitch.

[ShortyMac]

1 minute ago, Concerned said:

Worst episode ever. Lady whines for two hours, has one doctors appointment and spins an endless web of lies. Definitely skip this one. TLC shouldmremove it from rotatation and certainly no supersizing. My only question is why did God take Kelly and not this bitch.

This. Can I have my two hours back?

Free Lacey!

[CrazyInAlabama]

Supersized of this train wreck in Thursday the 18th.   I think I'll skip it.   

She would have gone right back to Houston if someone had reminded her that there are Whataburgers everywhere there, and she could have one or more, of those 5 pound burgers three times a day.  And if she ever finds out about the other burgers they have on that menu, she'll start hitchhiking south.  

The only decent part was when she kept telling Dr. Now how much weight she lost, when she obviously gained a bunch by the end.    At the end her face looked like the full moon.      

I bet you anything they weighed her at the ER visit, and that was when she decided she would claim she lost a bunch, and flake on Dr. Now.    

Edited April 11, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[JJ1]

I cannot believe that TLC actually put this nonsense on the air. Two hours of absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Biggest waste of tv time since Geraldo opened Al Capone’s vault!

[Cherrio]

No Lola and her push up bra    😞

[Callaphera]

This episode pairs well with 0 calorie barbecue sauce and a gallon of w(h)ine. 

[Schnickelfritz]

Angela - would you like some cheese with that W(h)INE!?!

Oh never mind. You already ate a (75 pound) wheel of it.

FREE LACY!! (and Cupcake.. and the dog from last week... and Erica... and...)

Edited April 11, 2019 by Schnickelfritz

[ams1001]

18 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Supersized of this train wreck in Thursday the 18th.   I think I'll skip it.   

There isn't a single episode this season that I've been inclined to watch in Supersized mode.

[Stusan]

Delusional with a capital D. Wow. I am sorry I missed the live chat, even though it was two hours of nothing happening. Still so much snark to be had. 

I think her family refused to go with her because they already knew what was going to happen...nothing.

[junemeatcleaver]

Wow, this episode was a total waste of time.  Why TLC thought giving this person two hours to lie and fail to see the truth about her situation is beyond me.  These people that won't participate could easily be bundled into one episode, two hours of one person being delusional is totally unnecessary.

[slasherboy]

1 hour ago, Schnickelfritz said:

FREE LACY!! (and Cupcake.. and the dog from last week... and Erica... and...)

Cupcake Brown?

[Hellga]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

There isn't a single episode this season that I've been inclined to watch in Supersized mode.

I wanted to see (and did watch) Justin and Maja Supersized.  I watched a few others but they were rarely worth it.  I usually do at least one other thing while those things are on, though, so it is not a total waste of time.  I doubt I will be watching this one Supersized, though - nothing happened and I don't care about her to know what her favorite color or food is.  Maybe if the bonus scene is her in the ER being chewed out for coming up without a reason... but I doubt that would be it.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Hellga

[Swiss]

Well, there's two hours of my life I'll never get back.  Wasted episode and yet another person with another huge "imaginary " weight loss.  Delusional Angela must be related to Delusional Penny.    

Edited April 11, 2019 by Swiss

[Pretty5Vacant]

Next

[missnoa]

There have to have been people who would have actually made an effort they could have filmed, and instead we got this mess. It wasn't even an entertaining episode! It was boring from start to finish. I pity poor Lacey, who's going to be stuck with this trainwreck when she gets old enough and she gains the weight back. Lacey will be doing the same things her son was doing, plus more. 

She not only cheated on the diet, she relapsed on alcohol too, she admitted. Total lost cause on all fronts. That's probably why the family had already given up before the episode even started.

Edited April 11, 2019 by missnoa

[Hellohappylife]

Maybe this show has set my standards low on superficial things when it comes to these people’s families,but I was shocked when Angela’s Son appeared. He was actually a good looking guy,compared to other’s in the past. It was refreshing to see a guy that looks like he actually showers daily, well dressed, healthy weight,living on his own and not wasting his life away being a 24 hour slave to the Mountain Dew Queen. 

The most depressing thing about this episode isn’t Angela, it’s the little girl who already had to leave one shitty situation only to end up in another one. 

[AVM]

Oh brother ! The  camera crew is going to need therapy after following the miserable Angela  year of whining ...placing LACY in that house proves we have a serious problem with government child protection services ,meanwhile Angela can now drive without a car seat  or safety belt for ice cream ......some progress...

[ProTourist]

I think Angela did lose weight in the few months after her one appointment with Dr. Now. She looked smaller to me, was walking better, was going out without oxygen, and was able to drive. I don't know if she put it back on again toward the end, but she did seem to stop losing.

The impression I got was that Angela did not want to return to Houston just for a check-in on her weight, because the round-trip van ride was so hard for her. I don't think she could face it a second time, but for some reasons did not want to admit it and made excuses instead. If she had told Dr. Now the truth, he may have been able to arrange alternate transport for her. But she should have allowed a local doctor to weigh her and report to Dr. Now, because I think she really did lose some weight.

Honestly, I was surprised at how little Dr. Now did for her at their first/only appointment. Considering the condition Angela was in after her trip from Ohio, I thought he was going to admit her to hospital. He didn't even examine her terrible lymphedemas. Anyway, I think Angela's dishonesty and/or delusions got the better of her -- she could have had a better outcome if she had just been candid about what she was feeling instead of spinning tales, but that kind of candor may have been beyond her.

[gardendiva]

The most puzzling thing to me was Eric and his eagerness to help Angela. He came bouncing over there immediately, doused in cologne. 

Asking someone to be responsible for a person so huge and sick that they couldn’t fit in the van like a regular human but had to be transported down to Houston in the cargo bay like a captured zoo specimen is a tall order. There was a lot of responsibility driving for all those hours, and there is a lot that could have happened. But he didn’t hesitate when asked to do this. I can’t figure out what redeeming quality he sees in her, because all I saw was a disingenuous, manipulative addict.

[ProTourist]

P.S. As some mentioned in the live chat, since Angela has already had a gastric bypass, which is the most aggressive form of weight-loss surgery, I don't know what kind of surgery she expected to receive from Dr. Now. Once the intestines have been bypassed, they stay bypassed, but perhaps he could have reduced the functional area of her stomach again if she had stretched it out. So I'm surprised she was accepted as a patient to begin with.

[ProTourist]

6 minutes ago, gardendiva said:

The most puzzling thing to me was Eric and his eagerness to help Angela. He came bouncing over there immediately, doused in cologne. 

Asking someone to be responsible for a person so huge and sick that they couldn’t fit in the van like a regular human but had to be transported down to Houston in the cargo bay like a captured zoo specimen is a tall order. There was a lot of responsibility driving for all those hours, and there is a lot that could have happened. But he didn’t hesitate when asked to do this. I can’t figure out what redeeming quality he sees in her, because all I saw was a disingenuous, manipulative addict.

Maybe Eric just wanted to be on television, or maybe he was still carrying a torch for her. 😍

[Minivanessa]

8 minutes ago, ProTourist said:

I think Angela's dishonesty and/or delusions got the better of her -- she could have had a better outcome if she had just been candid about what she was feeling instead of spinning tales, but that kind of candor may have been beyond her.

1 minute ago, gardendiva said:

The most puzzling thing to me was Eric and his eagerness to help Angela. . . . 

 I can’t figure out what redeeming quality he sees in her, because all I saw was a disingenuous, manipulative addict.

Yep. Nailed it. She's still drinking, and I wouldn't bet my paycheck that she has a healthy relationship to painkillers. Her version of her backstory involved serious blame-shifting. FFS, she left her little kids at home alone while she went out and partied HARD, as a standard practice.

If Angela's really lost weight and improved her health, that's great, but she's got a lot of stuff to unravel. Maybe if she loses more weight she can find a doctor closer to her home who will take her on as a bariatric case. I know that a few years ago - remember the Half Ton Teen show? - Dr. Now was one of the few doctors in the US who would even consider doing WLS on patients of 600+ pounds. Maybe the only one. Given the US obesity epidemic, it wouldn't surprise me if there are now more such doctors. Sigh.

[FurBabyMama]

I’m just wondering though, is there really a reason that they have to move to Houston? Why cant someone diet at home and come back for weigh ins and then surgery? It’s not just the patient moving down to Houston, it’s a family member as well. And if it’s someone who had a job, a family, etc it’s a huge ask to have them also uproot their lives. And let’s be honest, Houston isn’t exactly known as being the healthiest city in the world. 

[Minivanessa]

4 minutes ago, ProTourist said:

P.S. As some mentioned in the live chat, since Angela has already had a gastric bypass, which is the most aggressive form of weight-loss surgery, I don't know what kind of surgery she expected to receive from Dr. Now. Once the intestines have been bypassed, they stay bypassed, but perhaps he could have reduced the functional area of her stomach again if she had stretched it out. So I'm surprised she was accepted as a patient to begin with.

Yes, that's a good point. It would have been interesting to see what course of treatment Dr. Now would have taken if Angela had gotten her sh*t together to participate. She certainly could have benefited from having those growths (front and rear) removed. Though we snark about the scars he leaves, Dr. Now is a well-respected vascular surgeon, and removing growths and excess skin, especially from people who have been supermorbidly obese, requires a lot of care in managing veins that have become, and remained, large in order to nourish those huge (or formerly huge) bodies. (I learned that from watching a Brit series, Botched Up Bodies, on Netflix, where a doc was doing skin removal surgery.)

[Minivanessa]

13 minutes ago, FurBabyMama said:

I’m just wondering though, is there really a reason that they have to move to Houston? Why cant someone diet at home and come back for weigh ins and then surgery? It’s not just the patient moving down to Houston, it’s a family member as well. And if it’s someone who had a job, a family, etc it’s a huge ask to have them also uproot their lives. And let’s be honest, Houston isn’t exactly known as being the healthiest city in the world. 

We've been discussing this on one of the topics around here. Here's my take on it. Dr. Now can't reasonably be expected to have patients under his continuous care, who aren't even in the area. We've seen several patients who, in the early months before they even get the WLS, have had to be admitted to the hospital for various urgent medical reasons, including infections or cardiac care. Certainly, after the WLS, with their much higher risk of complications, it could be tricky to have patients at a long distance.

We've seen a few patients who live within a reasonable car ride away from Houston, do some part of their program while living at home, but TBH even with the most compliant patient in the world, Ohio is just too far away. And Angela was a lying manipulative addict whose picture is probably right there with the definition of "noncompliant" in the dictionary.

If we ever see a really compliant patient who wants to do a few early stage weigh ins at home in Ohio, perhaps in cooperation with a local physician who will coordinate care with Dr. Now? Then this discussion wouldn't be totally hypothetical.

ETA: I think this discussion, which can get off topic from Angela, is being chewed over (heh) in the small talk or all episodes topics.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Jeeves

[CrazyInAlabama]

In my opinion, (my only medical qualifications are watching ER, and Grey's) Dr. Now could only have revised the stomach, upper intestinal portion to fix the damage Angela did.      

Was that Angela's van they took to Houston, or the boyfriend?    With the 'party plates'.   That may explain why Eric disappeared, either he got in trouble for driving that, or they got stopped constantly by the police.   I think Angela never stopped taking the pain pills, or drinking, she just had more sometimes than others.     I really wonder why CPS couldn't find a better guardian for Lacy (the little girl) than a woman who has been in rehab multiple times still drinks and relapses, takes pain pills, had her kids taken away for deserting them for days at a time, and has a history of suicide attempts.  

Edited April 11, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[ProTourist]

5 minutes ago, FurBabyMama said:

I’m just wondering though, is there really a reason that they have to move to Houston? Why cant someone diet at home and come back for weigh ins and then surgery? It’s not just the patient moving down to Houston, it’s a family member as well. And if it’s someone who had a job, a family, etc it’s a huge ask to have them also uproot their lives. And let’s be honest, Houston isn’t exactly known as being the healthiest city in the world. 

The ones who live closer to Houston do that, such as Nikki Webster who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas. When she had her weight loss surgery and then later her skin removal surgery, she spent about six weeks along with a family member in a rented house in the Houston area. But truth be told, after she went back home after convalescing near Houston from her skin surgery, a doctor in Little Rock installed a new wound vac in her, which was contraindicated and ended up slowing down the healing process. Once she saw Dr. Now again, he removed it. This has happened with some other patients too, who have received bad medical care back home, which Dr. Now then had to fix. I'm reminded of Angel from season three, who had a feeding tube installed, which defeated her bypass and prevented weight loss. Dr. Now had to remove it.

But I do agree that people like Angela who live far away shouldn't make multiple trips to Houston just for weigh-ins, especially when travel is hard on them. They should have a partnership with a doctor near home who can do the weight checks and send the records to Dr. Now. And then the patient and Dr. Now can do the Skype meetings to discuss progress. Save the trips to Houston for the surgery, unless they want/are able to relocate for a year or two. [Or unless Dr. Now admits them to hospital upon their first appointment.]

[Kid]

On 4/11/2019 at 12:45 AM, missnoa said:

She not only cheated on the diet, she relapsed on alcohol too, she admitted. Total lost cause on all fronts. That's probably why the family had already given up before the episode even started.

Can someone tell me what mental midget thought it was a good idea that this addict raise a child???  Having been a victim of alcoholism my entire childhood and a proud survivor now, this really pisses me off. And this piece of work is not only addicted to alcohol, she’s addicted to food and she’s addicted to drugs,  most likely. This kid is likely to turn out as a perpetual enabler or an addict herself.  She will spend a lifetime trying to fix what this woman broke.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Kid

[Twopper]

7 hours ago, ProTourist said:

P.S. As some mentioned in the live chat, since Angela has already had a gastric bypass, which is the most aggressive form of weight-loss surgery, I don't know what kind of surgery she expected to receive from Dr. Now. Once the intestines have been bypassed, they stay bypassed, but perhaps he could have reduced the functional area of her stomach again if she had stretched it out. So I'm surprised she was accepted as a patient to begin with.

I still haven't seen the first 90 minutes of this, and I regret that I raced home so I could join the live chat.

There was some woman (Holly, perhaps?  all these women tend to blend together in my mind) earlier this year who had had wls before. She had had her stomach stapled, but she had eaten so much after it and  regained weight that the staples were "blown."   I think maybe Dr Now picked these two for this season because they really emphasize the fact that even with WLS patients have  trouble not regaining weight unless they are super vigilant.  Melissa was a success until she wasn't, but she still isn't as big as when we first saw her. 

 this episode also  emphasizes it how much harder it is for people with multiple addictions. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by Twopper

[Pepper Mostly]

11 hours ago, Callaphera said:

This episode pairs well with 0 calorie barbecue sauce and a gallon of w(h)ine. 

dip an orange in that zero calorie barbecue sauce for a tasty snack!

2 hours ago, AVM said:

Oh brother ! The  camera crew is going to need therapy after following the miserable Angela  year of whining ...placing LACY in that house proves we have a serious problem with government child protection services ,meanwhile Angela can now drive without a car seat  or safety belt for ice cream ......some progress...

Imagine the other options for Lacy if Angela was her bet bet. Its awful to contemplate.

[Dittohead]

I missed the beginning of this episode where they tell us the patient's traumatic backstory.  Would someone please fill me in?

[ProTourist]

35 minutes ago, Twopper said:

There was some woman (Holly, perhaps?  all these women tend to blend together in my mind) earlier this year who had had wls before. She had had her stomach stapled, but she had eaten so much after it and  regained weight that the staples were "blown."   I think maybe Dr Now picked these two for this season because they really emphasize the fact that even with WLS patients have  trouble not regaining weight unless they are super vigilant.

Yes, it makes sense for people who have failed with other types of weight loss surgery such as stomach stapling and lap bands -- they could benefit from the sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass. But for someone like Angela who has already had the bypass, I don't think there is anywhere else to go. Except perhaps to repair any damage done to the bypass. In the case of Angela, I think she was also looking for help with the lymphedema.

Edited April 11, 2019 by ProTourist

[Elizzikra]

1 hour ago, Jeeves said:

We've been discussing this on one of the topics around here. Here's my take on it. Dr. Now can't reasonably be expected to have patients under his continuous care, who aren't even in the area. We've seen several patients who, in the early months before they even get the WLS, have had to be admitted to the hospital for various urgent medical reasons, including infections or cardiac care. Certainly, after the WLS, with their much higher risk of complications, it could be tricky to have patients at a long distance.

We've seen a few patients who live within a reasonable car ride away from Houston, do some part of their program while living at home, but TBH even with the most compliant patient in the world, Ohio is just too far away. And Angela was a lying manipulative addict whose picture is probably right there with the definition of "noncompliant" in the dictionary.

If we ever see a really compliant patient who wants to do a few early stage weigh ins at home in Ohio, perhaps in cooperation with a local physician who will coordinate care with Dr. Now? Then this discussion wouldn't be totally hypothetical.

ETA: I think this discussion, which can get off topic from Angela, is being chewed over (heh) in the small talk or all episodes topics.

I agree with all of this and I'll also say that Dr. Now has been doing this for a long time and he knows what works for his program and his patients. I think Angela's mantra of "there's a first time for everything" is akin to all the patients who say "I'm going to do this my way." I think Angela's stay-at-home-weight-loss argument makes some logical sense but I'm more swayed by Dr. Now's "I've seen it all and I know what works and what doesn't" logic. In other words, I don't really need to be able to articulate why he's right if there is substantial evidence that his way works.

I do think that Angela lost some weight. She could move around much better and it didn't seem to be such a strain for her to walk. But I think her weight loss had stalled and I think that she will eventually regain what she lost, and then some. I don't see a long life for her.

Quote

I really wonder why CPS couldn't find a better guardian for Lacy (the little girl) than a woman who has been in rehab multiple times still drinks and relapses, takes pain pills, had her kids taken away for deserting them for days at a time, and has a history of suicide attempts.  

I can answer this - and let me say upfront that this is NOT an argument that Angela is a good placement for Lacy.

Also, I missed the reason that Lacy was in foster care so if someone could fill me in, that would help.

On any given day in the United States, there are approximately 500,000 children in foster care.

500,000.

There aren't enough foster homes. Every state in the country has this problem. Since the opioid "epidemic" the problem is even worse. So options for placing children who need to be removed from their biological parents are very limited. Angela provided a safe, clean home for Lacy. She kept her fed, clothed and (apparently) in school. And the two of them, by the end, seemed to have a decent relationship. Does this child deserve better? Absolutely. But given what's available, Angela isn't nearly the worst option.

Also, I thought I saw that Lacy was somehow related to Angela. Child services will always look for a family member to take a child so that's another reason they would choose Angela over a non-relative foster home.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Elizzikra

[libgirl2]

I really thought she was going to do well. She seemed very candid about how awful she was feeling etc...... I turned to another channel when she said she didn't want to go back to Houston. Glad I did. 

We need a success or an epic trainwreck. 

One question, what happened to Eric at the end? 

[Kid]

10 hours ago, junemeatcleaver said:

Wow, this episode was a total waste of time.  Why TLC thought giving this person two hours to lie and fail to see the truth about her situation is beyond me.  These people that won't participate could easily be bundled into one episode, two hours of one person being delusional is totally unnecessary.

Actually, I don’t think it was a waste of time. It gave a very clear picture of addiction. Does not matter the substance, the behavior is the same no matter what the “fix” is.  

It showed denial, both in the addict and in their enablers, in all it’s ugly glory.  

Not all addicts get clean.  And the best lesson for their enablers is to get as far away from the addict as they can get, get their children away from the addict,  and start working on their own issues.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Kid

[libgirl2]

2 minutes ago, Kid said:

Actually, I don’t think it was a waste of time. It gave a very clear picture of addiction. Does not matter the substance, the behavior is the same no matter what the “fix” is.  

It showed denial, both in the addict and in their enablers, in all it’s ugly glory.  

Not all addict get clean.  And the best lesson for their enablers is to get as far away from the addict as they can get, get their children away from the addict,  and start working on their own issues.

Poor Lacy. I couldn't help but thinking this is the best they can do for her? 😥

[Trees]

4 hours ago, Hellohappylife said:

Maybe this show has set my standards low on superficial things when it comes to these people’s families,but I was shocked when Angela’s Son appeared. He was actually a good looking guy,compared to other’s in the past. It was refreshing to see a guy that looks like he actually showers daily, well dressed, healthy weight,living on his own and not wasting his life away being a 24 hour slave to the Mountain Dew Queen. 

The most depressing thing about this episode isn’t Angela, it’s the little girl who already had to leave one shitty situation only to end up in another one. 

I thought that guy was her brother?  The guy who took her to the grocery store?  When it was over, I was thinking, where was her son?  

[Elizzikra]

1 minute ago, Kid said:

Actually, I don’t think it was a waste of time. It gave a very clear picture of addiction. Does not matter the substance, the behavior is the same no matter what the “fix” is.  

It showed denial, both in the addict and in their enablers, in all it’s ugly glory.  

Not all addict get clean.  And the best lesson for their enablers is to get as far away from the addict as they can get, get their children away from the addict,  and start working on their own issues.

I think that this episode was much more typical of a "day in the life of Dr. Now." I suspect the majority of his patients are some version of Angela, with some successes and some deaths along the way. So I found it interesting from that perspective. Given how frustrated I was with Angela, I don't know how Dr. Now does it.

I was a little disappointed to hear him say "eating habits" when he first met her though. I love Dr. Now's regular inappropriate use of singular nouns. I also had to giggle when he commented that Eric must be a very good friend to drive Angela from Ohio to Texas and back. Are we ever going to see Lil' Now Now in his track suit again?

[Trees]

2 hours ago, gardendiva said:

The most puzzling thing to me was Eric and his eagerness to help Angela. He came bouncing over there immediately, doused in cologne. 

Asking someone to be responsible for a person so huge and sick that they couldn’t fit in the van like a regular human but had to be transported down to Houston in the cargo bay like a captured zoo specimen is a tall order. There was a lot of responsibility driving for all those hours, and there is a lot that could have happened. But he didn’t hesitate when asked to do this. I can’t figure out what redeeming quality he sees in her, because all I saw was a disingenuous, manipulative addict.

There's very little "reality" in "reality TV".  As soon as I heard them talking in their unnatural voices, "how are you?" when he sat down, skipped over the conversation when Eric showed up because I was certain that it was acted.  I am 99% sure that they arranged for Eric to drive her, then told him to show up for filming and pretend to discuss it.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Trees

[Trees]

2 hours ago, FurBabyMama said:

I’m just wondering though, is there really a reason that they have to move to Houston? Why cant someone diet at home and come back for weigh ins and then surgery? It’s not just the patient moving down to Houston, it’s a family member as well. And if it’s someone who had a job, a family, etc it’s a huge ask to have them also uproot their lives. And let’s be honest, Houston isn’t exactly known as being the healthiest city in the world. 

1) Gets them out of the environment where they got into their bad situation.

2) Demonstrates a commitment to the program.

3) Proximity to Dr Now for problems that come up and resources, like the therapists he works with. One thing we've seen hints of on other shows is support groups for bariatric patients.

I totally get why he wants them there.

[libgirl2]

8 minutes ago, Trees said:

I thought that guy was her brother?  The guy who took her to the grocery store?  When it was over, I was thinking, where was her son?  

That was her son. He didn't seem to want to be on camera very much. 

I do have to admit, her cheesy eggs looked good. I love eggs with a ton of cheese. I don't eat them often because they are eggs with a ton of cheese! 

[Trees]

I saw 3 questions above asking about parts of the show they missed:

1) Her traumatic back story - didn't think her mom loved her and mom didn't like that she was chubby.

2) What happened to Lacey's parents - "they have been making bad choices".  (Drug addicts?)

3) What happened to Eric at the end - they never mentioned him again.  I suspect that TLC paid him to make that drive the first time and that's all the "relationship" was.  Or, he really was an old friend, he realized that he had been massively used, and got out of her life.

[Minivanessa]

18 minutes ago, Kid said:

Actually, I don’t think it was a waste of time. It gave a very clear picture of addiction. Does not matter the substance, the behavior is the same no matter what the “fix” is.  

It showed denial, both in the addict and in their enablers, in all it’s ugly glory.  

Not all addicts get clean.  And the best lesson for their enablers is to get as far away from the addict as they can get, get their children away from the addict,  and start working on their own issues.

From your keyboard to God's ear. I wish I could "like" this post a thousand times. 

[libgirl2]

1 minute ago, Trees said:

I saw 3 questions above asking about parts of the show they missed:

1) Her traumatic back story - didn't think her mom loved her and mom didn't like that she was chubby.

2) What happened to Lacey's parents - "they have been making bad choices".  (Drug addicts?)

3) What happened to Eric at the end - they never mentioned him again.  I suspect that TLC paid him to make that drive the first time and that's all the "relationship" was.  Or, he really was an old friend, he realized that he had been massively used, and got out of her life.

thanks. I do think he was paid to drive her out there. They might be friends but not that good of friends. Or as you say, he saw the ship sinking and got out. 

[libgirl2]

Did anyone notice her saying "oh my leg" at one point? Not because she was hurting more more sarcastically. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by libgirl2

[ProTourist]

• Although it wasn't mentioned on the show, I found an article that says Angela has Multiple Sclerosis, and her daughter Andrea too. [Starcasm] Don't know whether or not this is accurate.
• Found another article that says Lacy's parent(s) were in prison. [Monsters & Critics] Must have been due to those 'bad choices' they made.
• Regarding the ice cream run at end of the episode, that was for Lacy only. Angela did not get any for herself.
• As for Angela's son Chris, he was the one who took her grocery shopping, and also assisted her to get situated in the van when she was leaving for Houston. An article said he had been a caregiver for his mother for years, but had just got a job and was about to move out on his own. He was 19.

[CrazyInAlabama]

The man who went to the grocery store was Angela's son (by the boyfriend who also dumped her when she had gastric bypass the first time).   Andrea, is her daughter by the husband, who left her after she cheated on him.     Andrea also has a child. 

After the son was born she started partying, for days at a time, and on one occasion the kids were left alone (and I'm betting a lot, not once) and the police and CPS were involved, and she lost custody to her mother for a while.     At this time there were rehab stints, at least one suicide attempt, and Angela was foster/guardian for Lacy, an 11 year old cousin who had parents who had issues.      Eric, the man who drove her to and from Houston, was an ex-boyfriend.   

Edited April 11, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[AVM]

48 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

I really thought she was going to do well. She seemed very candid about how awful she was feeling etc...... I turned to another channel when she said she didn't want to go back to Houston. Glad I did. 

We need a success or an epic trainwreck. 

One question, what happened to Eric at the end? 

Eric chewed his leg off like a  trapped animal would and ran !

[Schnickelfritz]

10 hours ago, slasherboy said:

Cupcake Brown?

Cupcake Assanti. I really hope that poor cat escaped! Along with Schenee's dog and James K's daughter, Bailey and every other animal and minor child featured on the train wreck episodes.