Around 10 years ago I actually got the application to go into the rehab Tammy Slayton was at, but elected to get at home PT, and other programs and got diagnosed with Lipedema stage 4 in 2014, and got treatments so was working on a lot. I lost a little back then got PT, occupational therapy, my hospital bed and other medical needs met locally and was doing better so did not go in. Remember these are the therapists who helped get me diagnosed. The PTs even noticed they saw visible swelling when I was up and moving around and this was put in the record.
There's times now I consider going into rehab because I am still so heavy and now getting old. It's complicated for me because of major money issues and the fact because I am still mobile, and don't need to be in a wheelchair, I may be deemed unqualified and insurance may not pay for it. Covid worries me too. If I won the Lotto tomorrow, I definitely would sign up for some type of program.
I asked my lymph therapist about a Lipedema/lymphedema specialized rehab but she told me I already do at home what they would do for me. I spend 2-3 hours still a day on leg and body fluid removal. My friend who recently died of cancer spent weeks in rehabilitation and told me, eating is not your problem, and your food quality at home is far higher. You aren't going to get health food, vegan and vegetarian food at most rehabs. This worries me too. I get sick so easily from what most call "normal" food. I've asked doctors to stick me in the hospital to get a 100 off multiple times before.
The option is far more complicated for me, then it was for Tammy. My weight has been "stable" [515 and 522] are the last weights but obviously not budging even though I am following nutritionist recommendations and also improved kidney/UCTD problems via increased vegetarianism. I worry about my mobility but obviously it's much better than Tammy's is.
That place she was at Windsor is known as one of the best obesity rehab in nation for the supersized and extremely obese. Tammy was dumb to leave, she should have gotten 200 off in her case for functionality. Their program was working for her.
Here's one thing Tammy has tons of support that many supersized people do not have. She doesn't realize how bad it could get if she did not have that family of hers. I have a husband who is loving but have no family if something happened to him, I would have no one. My family scapegoated me and hated me for being fat as you all know. My life did improve going no contact. There was no patience for my obesity problems, medically caused or not. My family was well-off and wanted little to do with me even when I was in contact.
My mother refused to be seen in public with me for 20 years. My siblings had nothing to do with me too. As my long time readers now, even before I went no contact, my sister would do her 10 minute stop offs on the way home from my mothers house and even those stopped. My brother refused to visit and I had no money to visit from my end. Despite her family's endless faults, Tammy's family remained involved in her life. Her sister Amy and Chris while sometimes ignoring their own serious problems or projecting onto her, still have been there for her and tried to help her. She seems to take that support for granted same as she takes the support of social workers, therapists and other programs for granted.
Tammy is throwing things away all of us wish we could have. I need a therapist now for some anxiety/PTSD related problems--Covid hasn't been nice to. Even the OCD I overcame when young is knocking back at the door a bit. Also continuing recovery from extreme religious cults, while society seems to be going apocalyptical is another issue. I'm hanging in there with my UU church but the love of the Covid narrative there has been very HARD on me. The UUs know about my young adult life in their church and about my time in evangelicalism, but I never talked about the extremes of my fundamentalism. It was just too personal and complicated.
I can't afford a therapist. The money isn't there. The state people are so overloaded in my area, unless you are hallucinating, they aren't going to have the time or the space. She sits there with a therapist and refuses to answer questions and pouts like a three year old. Maybe she is three years old inside.
Even keeping her HOME, to go to rehab, is RARE. That's one thing disabled people lose their apartments to go into rehab, because the rehab is paid by your disability check and you get 30 bucks a month of spending money like for makeup or maybe a book or two. Yes I know how it works. Some households need two incomes to remain afloat. If one income disappears, the household would collapse. That is true of my own.
Tammy has money, family to maintain her home and she ditched the place after 60lbs WHY? While still on oxygen and in a wheelchair? Her eating addiction alone she needs stability and a structured environment. I also find myself wondering why she still has her own guardianship. People know on here, I have warned of aspies and others being abused by seized guardianships, but she seems to be someone with some severe learning disabilities and other problems that is not making fully rational adult decisions. She is someone that system was made for. There's times when it does have a reason to exist and perhaps this is one of those times. Also I don't think CICO based will power dieting is going to work on Tammy, her hyperphagia or extreme hunger is out of control. She definitely needs more medical testing, perhaps for Prader Willi and other related conditions. I am continuing my battle to try and get genetic testing and more treatment for myself. There's a point where I know I can't fix this. I did what I could. Tammy is in another place where she doesn't seem to care about herself. That's something therapists need to address.
My search for an extreme Bariatric specialist is now ongoing for myself. I want more answers why I am maintaining such an extreme weight and dealing with such hunger pain. After I found out there can be help that isn't always weight loss surgery, I thought I would search for this type of specialist. Someone eating the level of calories I am eating should not be at this weight. I cried when I had to quit my gym you know over stupid Covid, I paid the fees for 18 months hoping I could go back. I'm trying to figure out where Covid is at now, because I have to get some exercise outside of the TV stuff. I'll go rejoin the gym or find another as soon as I can.
Tammy has access to full exercise facilities and even a pool. She's already had Covid, so she had natural immunity and didn't have to worry about catching it anymore. I have lived socially isolated and wear masks, and it's taking a toll on me psychologically and medically.
Tammy gets care and help many people could not ever get who are supersized. I do have husband to help me with things, but I noticed Tammy doesn't seem to worry about becoming utterly helpless or bedbound, I fear it, and that is strange to me. Also if Tammy never cooks, does she just order food out? I can spend two hours in the kitchen a day cutting stuff up, cooking and doing dishes. If you are on oxygen too, you are dying. As screwed up as I am with bad lungs--I have to go use my nebulizer here soon for my daily COPD med--I never needed oxygen before though I could one day. She needed to stay at her rehab. Maybe the family should have just refused to pick her up and say "You need to be there longer" She can't drive so how'd she talk them into picking her up? Her brother Chris, did her a huge disservice.
Getting into rehab isn't always easy if you are super-obese too, she has resources she is spitting on. She needed to stay there. Maybe she should have gone home on a visit and gone back, if she missed everyone.
Right now Tammy Slayton is on a trach, and many predict she is going to die. I don't find her chances to be that high either. She has severe disabilities both of the mental and physiological type, that have destroyed any wise decision making and seems to be a path to total destruction. She should be in a structured institution or group home at this rate. Sometimes due to my autism and other problems, I know I definitely needed some intense services when I was young, so I say this without judgment. Tammy's lack of insight and desire to take the help offered could lead to her death.
I'm trying to figure out what more I can do and what help I can get. It's sad to see someone throw away so much help.
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