So not the way i want to go
 

at first i wanted to chuckle but then i just felt really sad for a person that lived this way - if you can really call it living. i would hope that if they couldn't help me, that my family would at least euthanize me.

click here

I can see the FARK headline now:

<b>Rescue workers dig up 600 pound couch potato</b>

OK I laughed...but now I feel guilty.

So who was bringing food to this woman? She obviously wasn't getting up to go to the fridge herself. That is seriously messed up.

If she was grafted to the couch, she obviously wasn't making to the loo on her own, either. Egad.

As far as being ultra-obese, I would have thought 600 lbs would still afford some basic mobility...

My first thought. :vomit:

I submitted this earlier with a funnier headline

Did you ever see the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape? The mom in that movie was huge and recently I saw a 20/20 special on her (or maybe it was dateline). It said she was somewhere around 624 lbs (she was about 500 lbs when she made the Gilbert Grape movie). She couldn't walk, so had to ride around in a specially designed wheel chair. They showed her standing on a scale to get weighted and she was almost in tears because it hurt so bad to stand. I think once you pass a certain threshold that your legs just cant support the weight anymore.

What I want to know is how a person can let themselves get that bad. I mean once you cross the 300 lbs. milestone you think these people would get help somehow. Get their stomach stapled or something.

My first thought also when I read that article is where was her bathroom duties going. Thats just nasty, I cant fathom how someone could live like that.

I've dealt with quite a few people that for one reason or another live in their own waste. This is extreme, even for my experience, though. I have one friend who is not quite that obese, but is heading in that direction. She has already had double knee replacements, and faced consequences of that surgery (and some incorrect treatment with blood thinners that caused further damage leading to nerve damage in one leg). She's getting around a bit, but has difficulty walking, needing either a cane or a walker. She's talking about doing things like getting one of those "power chairs" and a car/van that has a specially designed seat to make it easier for her to get in and out ... she's already overstressing an ordinary automoblie bucket seat ... she is literally wedged in behind the steering wheel. When she makes a turn she has to return the wheel to "straight ahead" by hand because it won't spin back on it's own. There are bits of herself that she can't get to easily to wash, and, while she does bathe with ordinary frequency, she doesn't smell particularly fresh. She overuses Jean Nate to compensate. It's not pretty. For as long as I've known her she claims to be "on a diet" or "losing weight" but I've never seen physical evidence of it. It's quite sad.

Let everyone eat what they will, I just can't imagine being <i>grown into</i> a couch. That's just fucking sick.

Oh, this is truly sad. The article says a man lived with her--in that stench?? Oh my. I used to go into private homes to do nursing (home health care--I don't recommend it) and it is truly shocking sometimes to see how other people live. And I'm trying not to be too middle class here, either. Some things just shocked me. I wonder if this woman (only 40!) had had any health care at ALL in her two years on the couch?

This guy is seeking help

Big Nebraskan

"Deuel, who is just under 6 feet tall, is on a 1,200 calorie-a-day diet."

Wow. I don't weigh 1000 lbs (yet) and a 1200 calorie a day diet would be tough.

He's got a tough road ahead of him. Hope he makes it, he'll make major coin from some mainstream weightloss system if he does.

Lose 800 lbs and get good paying gig for just showing up and talking for a half hour....that would be a real turnaround.

This whole thing is really sad. When I was a sullen teenager my dad used to tell me the telephone receiver would grow into my face but I never believed him! It's hard for me to imagine the couch not breaking under all that weight for so long.
I really can't imagine why she would have lost mobility that early, too, unless she just sat down one day and refused to get up. I worked for a bail bondsman for years who fluctuates between about 500-650 pounds, and he's in his mid-fifties. He drives, goes on vacation, works daily, etc. My husband's aunt, whom I loved dearly, is well over 400 pounds. She is a social worker who investigates elderly abuse and neglect. She lives alone and takes care of a three-bedroom home, drives herself everywhere, goes out with friends, and two or three times a year flies up to see us. I guess everyone's body deals with extreme stress differently, though, and would likely account for the differences in people's living conditions.

Wow just reading the responses made me not want to see the article.

As someone who has been overweight since age 8 or so, I would see extremely obese people and think, "God I do NOT want to be like them ever". I can't imagine. However, after gaining 40 pounds in the last years from the dialysis (and reaching my highest weight ever), I started to become concerned. I can relate somewhat to the woman who was having pains due to the heavy weight putting a strain on her legs. It is somewhat hard getting around sometimes (it's also due to other health issues).

It ain't easy folks. :(