An interesting thing...

[Guest guest]

And I'd love to hear from some of you. I'm wondering if this is

common since I've never heard anyone mention it.

My brother and his wife were here just after the holidays and we were

chatting about my upcoming surgery. My SIL asked if I'd had any

counseling and I kinda laughed and said no. I mean, really, I'm

going to Mexico...how does she think I'd get that. (But, I think

that gives me a clue as to what she thinks of this. But I digress.)

I asked her why, other than the obvious " doing it for the wrong

reasons " reasons, would counseling be necessary.

Now this is the odd part. Bro and SIL went on a diet a few years ago

and SIL lost a ton of weight. She's gained it all back plus some but

that's another story. Anyway, she said that she'd lost about 110 on

that diet.

She said that her body didn't even feel like her own. What she

explained reminded me of phantom pain, where someone has a limb

amputated but still feels the sensations of it being there. She said

that when she'd shower, even thought she intellectually knew she was

smaller than she'd been, when she'd wash herself, the sensations

weren't right---like she was touching another body. She said when my

brother would hug her, rather than him just being able to touch his

hands together behind her, he could wrap his arms and nearly touch

his elbows. She said that was another strange sensation.

I mentioned this to a friend and she said she'd seen something where

the WLS people were advised to do " lotion therapy. " Once a day they

were to get lotion and spread it on every part of their body. That

way, as their body changed, their preception and sense of sensation

changed with it. Which, personally, I think sounds like a really

good idea.

So is this something that's rather common?

in AR

Two weeks, three days left to go!