Abstract

Saundra Beauchamp-Parke outlines the practicalities of considering, undergoing and recovering from gastric surgery. Her readable and thoughtful account will enable families and friends of sufferers to understand the problem better and people who are seriously overweight to recognize that they are not alone. Interwoven with the stories of people who have undergone the surgery, it is also an essential guide for health and social care professionals working with this group of clients.
Saundra Beauchamp-Parke has been a critical care nurse for fifteen years and has also worked as an insurance on-site care manager.

Morbid obesity, defined as the point at which a person's weight reaches life-threatening levels, is becoming more and more prevalent. What does it feel like to undergo gastric surgery (which is known to be an effective treatment) - and adjust to living inside a new smaller body?

`It is estimated that there are approximately six million morbidly obese persons in the United States and that some 60,000 operations are performed annually in the hope of controlling the condition and its attendant diseases. Hence the need for this book which expresses the anguish, fears, hope and joy of those who have undertaken the journey from the chronic intractable, progressive immolation of morbid obesity towards the long wished for glorious anonymity of physical normality.'

`A nice feature of this book is that it presents the problem from the points of view of many different patients. This is useful in that these patients have a multitude of different types of problems and presentations. The book also covers the differing motivations that these patients have in proceeding with surgery. Reasons are obviously not limited to personal body image but also to personal health, financial status, and social pressures. The book discusses in some detail what physicians had to do to get patients to be compliant with different plans and gives physicians insight into this set of problems. Lastly, the book shows a lifestyle contrast between the different kinds of patients. For example, comparing an older obese patient with joint degeneration to a younger patient with recurrent infections is very powerful to help understand that these patients are different.

`This would be an excellent book for educating patients about gastric surgery for morbid obesity. The book is useful at all education levels in patients with average intelligence and reading skills. It is an excellent method to educate other people about this problem including family, friends, and healthcare workers. It would also be very useful for our young physicians coming up in the medical school system.'