Star Jones confirms she had gastric by-pass surgery.
And you know, I could make any number of snarky “Gosh, I’m stunned”-style comments, but the worst part is, there are undoubtedly people who didn’t know.
And those people probably looked at her and thought, well, there’s one more person who lost a ton of weight by being “good.” And that means I am bad.
Grrrrrrr.
Small kudos to her for finally being honest, though, I guess. Especially about this:
It was a success, she says, though she found she was “still consumed with the same anger, shame and insecurity as before.”
Once again, my gut response is, “No shit.” But there are people who don’t get that part, either. And they need to.
I posted the following earlier on “She Dances on the Sand’s” blog
I can speak from both sides of the coin.
I am 5’9″ and weigh in the realm of 250-270. I would never EVER consider a gastric byass.
My life partner of 13 years had one 3 years ago. I was not happy with the decision. She has a history of pulmonary embolism, a complication that could easily have killed her. At her appointments with the “bariatric specialist”, it seems I was the only one concerned about this. Or seemed to remember the risk and how she would need extra medical management because of this.
She had the surgery without any big complications- except she really can’t eat most foods- even 3 years later. She cannot tolerate meats, seafood, fish; many fruits and vegetables are to fibrous for her no matter how she chews, etc. She subsists on ritz crackers and cream cheese with her vitamins. That’s gotta be real healthy.
The worst part for me was about 6 months after the surgery. She looked absolutely grey in appearance, like someone I knew who had dropped dead following her gastric bypass. But instead, everyone kept complimenting her on how wonderful she looked. I thought I was in a parallel world or something, because that is not how I saw it!! Fortunately, she did finally “pink up” again the following spring.
The other big side effect is our relationship. As a girly lesbian, I was the “normal” interface for the world before her surgery. (She is somewhat masculine) Post weight loss, I am no longer the one people talk to- I am the fat elephant in the room that no one talks to or about. I have had to work very hard at maintaining my esteem and speaking up for myself in all of this.
I still reel when people refer to her as being so healthy. Who chases after our kids at the park when they ride bikes? It ain’t her- she has no energy to spare. Rather I still am way more physically healthy than her.
I just get so mad about gastric bypass surgery! It really is an unnecessary stomach amputation as someone else had said.
I blogged about this also, but with a slightly different twist. In the article, Jones confesses to being a compulsive overeater – binging on food to assuage low self-esteem, depression and such.
Just how is WLS supposed to help with this problem, other than the inherent fear of blowing your staples and suffering irreparable physical harm, even death, if you binge.
It was a success, she says, though she found she was “still consumed with the same anger, shame and insecurity as before.”
Obviously fixing the outside didn’t fix the inside, which is perhaps the more important of the two.
@rachel: I wholeheartedly agree! But according to Yahoo! news (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070731/ap_en_tv/people_jones_reynolds)
“Her husband, banker Al Reynolds, encouraged her to begin psychological therapy in the summer of 2005. She learned, among other things, that she “couldn’t control what others thought,” she says. She began to heal by talking openly about her weight loss to strangers.”
I mean, it’s a start, but judging from my own experience, she will probably need more than two years of therapy to overcome a lifelong ED. And the WLS plus sudden weight loss won’t really help her recover.
Purely from an aesthetic viewpoint, she looked so much healthier, more radiant, and attractive before. She looks sickly now. How can this possibly be ‘a success’?
Agreed Karin. And treatment for EDs like compulsive overeating have a dismally low effectiveness rate, as it is.
She may have started treatment in 2005, but she had the WLS in 2003. I think she should have started with treatment first before having any kind of surgery.
Divajean,
I’m so sorry about what a crappy experience you have personally had and even more sorry about your partner.
I had WLS 3 1/2 years ago. I have plenty of my own struggles as a result, and/or despite it. But I am not suffering like you have described. I know nothing of numbers or statistics… what I did learn in the first year, from attending a ‘support’ group (not really very supportive once I started eating ‘too much’ of the ‘wrong foods’ is that every single person reacts differently after the fact, after the initial surgical healing mends. I heard people who couldn’t touch chicken, others who lived on it. A woman who, after two years, couldn’t keep eggs down. Eggs are my lifeline. Once the science of the surgery is over, no one has a clue how people will react.
Me, I can eat practically everything. Meats/chicken are more difficult because they are dense and so it is too easy to overeat in way fewer steps. I’ve also gained a boatload of weight back.
But overall I am content with my decision, although the entire situation makes me a bit sad. But when I hear stories like yours, I realize how incredibly lucky I am. My color is just fine. Any unhealthiness in me is well, cause I still eat a lot of crap and don’t exercise enough. Same as it ever was…
Am I allowed to say that your situation makes me think that the families of WLS patients go through struggles similar to families of alcoholics when the alcoholic first gets sober? Or will I get in trouble for implying that being fat is like being alcoholic?
(I don’t want to get in trouble, Kate!)
But it may be its own interesting topic… anytime a family member makes a change this drastic, the effects do ripple…
PS, regarding therapy…
YES you should get treatment before. But I accurately predicted that I would need it two years after my surgery. Once all the flutter simmered down and I was a lot more adjusted, I knew I would back to Is That All There Is? and the real work would begin.
So yeah, anyone should seek help before such a radical decision. And I wish Starr had. But two years later… I’m telling you, it’s kind of right on schedule.
Way to leave the itals on.
It was a success, she says, though she found she was “still consumed with the same anger, shame and insecurity as before.”
Precisely what I’ve started telling every single client of mine who comes to therapy talking about dieting or other weight-loss plans. “You might lose weight, but you’re not going to lose the self-hatred. When you’re not ashamed of your body, what new thing will you be ashamed of?”
This is exactly why we need to have open discussion in the msm about body hatred. If I can not love myself because I am fat, even though I am smart, funny, sexy, nurturing, helpful, clean, sober, employed, etc., then how will I look past the “new” imperfections I will see after the fat is gone?
It’s really sad that so many people coming on here are talking
about weight-loss surgery. I used to work at a health insurance
company and have heard horror stories about people who
died and/or experienced complications as a result of having
it.
I personally cannot stand Star Jones and I’m a straight black
woman. She looked better before; now she looks sickly.
And when you think about it? Is her life really that much better
after WLS. Most people I know can’t stand her, she got
kicked off The View and she has a gay husband.
Yeah, as a size 24 woman, I’m really envious of her.
*sarcasm*
In 2000, I was 44 years old, 5ft. 2 inches tall and weighed in at almost 300 lbs. I had my first heart attack. It scared me enough to start looking at loosing weight to save my life so I could watch my children grow into the people they will become. I researched (in secret) and finally after extensive research and talking to various bariatric centers I decided to have the surgery. My family was scared but supportive. I told them the risks (which are about the same as any overweight person has just having a appey or a C-section) but I also added the risks of strictures at the site, dumping syndrome and pulmonary embolism.
I had my surgery 2 days after my 45th birthday. That was 6 years ago. I lost about 180 lbs and began walking and exercising, not to excess, but to the ability I could now do. Before, my activity level was low because I worked all day and was exhausted when I came home.
Now, as far as the psychological aspect of things; I did not want to lose weight so I could be more attractive, fit into tight clothes, look sexy to the opposite sex; mine was out of desire to see my children as long as I could. Some people have WLS for all the wrong reasons and soon find out that what they thought their lives would be is not even close to the expected.. For me, the “side-effect” of the surgery was being able to buy clothes without paying an arm and a leg for them.
I have never had self esteem problems or self loathing problems, neither when I was 300 lbs or now. What I did have problems with is the way I was perceived; not how I was perceveived then, but how I am perceived now. When I was “fat” I was stupid, lazy, and just out of control; now, suddenly what I have to say has some validity. (big eye roll). I was told by a person who has known me for a long time that “I have changed.” I shook my head and grinned. “No,” I said, “I haven’t changed a bit, I’ve always been the same inside, but your perception of me has changed. Now I’m a person of “worth” because you perceive me as a “person” you used to see me as fat or a non person. I smiled again and said, “It’s a shame you never saw me as I always was, because now I can see clearly how you are.”
Bariatric surgery isn’t for everyone. All sides have to be weighed and you need to do your own research and make up your own mind as to “WHY” you think you want to have this type of surgery. If you want this surgery to look good, you are doing it for all the wrong reasons, you should be able to look in the mirror right now and see the beauty within. I look in the mirror and see the exact same person that I was in 2000.
Oh, and by the way…. after my 2nd heart attack in 2005 complete with a 6 vessel bypass I quit smoking. Buttttttttttt… maybe that’s a story for another day!
This is just me rambling…. take me or leave me…. but I’ll still kinda like ya whether you want me to or not!
MOW, I’m curious…were you not a smoker at the time of your first heart attack, before the WLS? Smoking is a much more serious risk factor for heart disease than being “obese,” so if you were smoking then as well as being fat, what makes you so sure it was the fat that “caused” your heart attack, rather than the cigarettes?
Meowser, I’m wondering the same thing. My aunt was (and perhaps still is) a chain-smoker. She is not obese, but she also had a heart attack at a relatively young age (mid-forties). Smoking is the real problem here IMO and IME.
So, you had your second heart-attack 4 years after surgery, but the surgery was obviously a success because you lost weight. Even though you still had another heart attack which supposedly was the reason you needed the surgery in the first place. But you lost weight, right. So obviously, it was a “success”.
Fat people aren’t walking times bombs. A fat person has more of a chance to live another year without the surgery than with it. All of the condemnations of the health of fat people doesn’t change that.
Oh my goodness, I think I’ve lead everyone astray. I had my WLS after my first heart attack because I thought that this change would help me live a longer life. Yes, I smoked back then too…….and yes, it was the smoking that precipitated the second heart attack. The first MI was the combination of the two (in my humble opinion), the second was a direct result of my smoking.
I don’t think I “needed” the surgery as much as I “thought” I needed the surgery. I was in denial. Everyone, including the doctor told me the reason for my MI was because I was fat; if I lost weight, I would lower my risk. I lost weight, didn’t modify my smoking and bang, I had another MI.
I didn’t write this post to criticise or to help anyone decide whether to have WLS or not; I wrote it merely to let others know that simple or surgical weight loss does not solve all of life’s problems. Those “problems” have to be dealt with internally.
I guess my whole post should have said…. “if you want to have WLS merely to look better; you will not win. You will always be as beautiful as you are inside right now.
Oh, and btw, I quit smoking right after my 2nd heart attack and gained 40 lbs….. and I’m still the same person I was at 300 lbs and 130 lbs.
Oh shit…. I’ve so messed up with my messages. Can I just start over and we can all be friends? My quit smoking episode cost me 40 lbs so now I weigh in at a steady 170 lbs.
My Own Woman, thanks for clarifying, and I’m sorry I didn’t respond earlier, because I didn’t have the same reaction as BStu.
His point, in the larger scheme of things, is a good one. Too many people don’t consider the surgery itself as a possible reason for subsequent heart attacks, just as too many people don’t consider dieting as a possible reason for subsequent health problems. It’s all fat, fat, fat.
But that doesn’t mean that’s what you were saying, necessarily.
Consider the slate cleaned, MOW. :)