[HeavenlyOne]

One of the cardiac surgeons and I had an interesting conversation just yesterday. He proposes that people who are overweight pay double health care costs because of the problems that it brings to their bodies. He was speaking of people who are overweight because they won't change their lifestyles and such.

He also said that it seems that many overweight people don't seem to think they have a problem, or that they are as big as they are. I can concur with this, as I was the same way...except when I saw myself in pictures with other people.

Since this conversation began, I took a better look around my unit. Yes, we have the little ladies who have COPD but never smoked. We have the men with heart disease but exercise regularly, eat right (I had one this past week who is a vegan, can't understand why he had to have heart surgery), but not overweight more than 20 pounds.

We also talked about how smokers should pay $10 a pack, with the extra money going to health care for smokers so the state and federal government doesn't have to foot the bill for their surgeries and procedures.

He knows my history, and asked if I thought gastric bypass surgery was the answer. I told him no. Compliance would still be a factor, and I have found that most people aren't compliant when it comes to HAVING to do something to be healthier, or even to maintain their health.

There was a lot more said, but these were the interesting parts.

In my nursing practice, I teach. I don't beat them with the information, but I am quite blunt when I need to be.

I witnessed an open heart surgery on Wednesday and the man was my patient yesterday. He's going home today, but I spoke to him about changing his lifestyle so he didn't have to come back to me.

His wife was there, who is also overweight (the kids are overweight too), and she even acknowledged that a lot would be changing at home for all of them. I warned them of the honeymoon period, where people are excited that they feel better and do well for a time, then fall back into the same bad habits. They both said they didn't want that to happen, and I told the guy (who is 47) that if he wanted to live past 57 and see his grandkids grow up (both their kids are still at home), he better stick to the changes and guidelines and doctors orders. I believe they will be doing that, but it's all up to them.

I have enjoyed this thread, and hope that we have all learned something from it.