I have to post this -
Nov. 5th, 2009 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kyburgIf for no other reason than - no, I wasn't making it up:
Gordon's size makes everything more complicated -- even diagnosing his ailments. Whether the growth was a cancerous tumor (unlikely) or a glut of swollen soft tissue caused by poor lymphatic flow (probable), Gordon needed an MRI. But no MRI machine at Cedars -- or any other hospital his doctors could locate -- would hold him. The maximum weight limit of the largest MRI machine is 550 pounds.
Gordon and his medical team speculated that the Los Angeles Zoo might have one big enough. (It doesn't. Urban myth, says the zoo's chief vet.)
But before anyone found out for certain, Gordon took action. He began dieting -- not so much to fit into an MRI machine as to prepare for the likelihood of high-risk surgeries to remove the mass.
After a lifetime of diets and a diet pill disaster, after seeing his weight drop into the 300s and soar close to 1,000, Gordon opted for an 1,800-calorie-a-day, mostly liquid protein diet, aided by the diuretic Lasix.
No, where the rubber meets the road - weight loss is not about the pretty. Believe it.
(And I love Cedars-Sinai. For really important stuff, nothing better.)
I sure hope things work out for him.
Gordon's size makes everything more complicated -- even diagnosing his ailments. Whether the growth was a cancerous tumor (unlikely) or a glut of swollen soft tissue caused by poor lymphatic flow (probable), Gordon needed an MRI. But no MRI machine at Cedars -- or any other hospital his doctors could locate -- would hold him. The maximum weight limit of the largest MRI machine is 550 pounds.
Gordon and his medical team speculated that the Los Angeles Zoo might have one big enough. (It doesn't. Urban myth, says the zoo's chief vet.)
But before anyone found out for certain, Gordon took action. He began dieting -- not so much to fit into an MRI machine as to prepare for the likelihood of high-risk surgeries to remove the mass.
After a lifetime of diets and a diet pill disaster, after seeing his weight drop into the 300s and soar close to 1,000, Gordon opted for an 1,800-calorie-a-day, mostly liquid protein diet, aided by the diuretic Lasix.
No, where the rubber meets the road - weight loss is not about the pretty. Believe it.
(And I love Cedars-Sinai. For really important stuff, nothing better.)
I sure hope things work out for him.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-06 06:06 am (UTC)My sister is very large and has lymphodema very similar to this. Beyond a certain point, the swollen mass areas become uncontrollably large, they develop their own systems. It can also happen as a result of scar tissue, people are starting to develop a different attitude about it as a result of lymphodema in the arms from beast cancer surgeries.
It's a chronic condition, you manage it every day the best you can. I daresay you'd have a few things to say about that.