Meet Henrietta and Earl

My aussie/border collie/snapping turtle, Stella, just loves her Henrietta and Earl chew toys.  When chewed, Henrietta emits an obnoxious squeel and Earl emits rather realistic flatus-like noise.  It’s pretty hilarious –  for about 30 seconds.

But Henrietta and Earl have  redeaming qualities in that they are very useful as an obesity teaching tool.

Henrietta has mostly cosmetic obesity issues in that her extra fat is just kinda all over – chest, hips, back, upper thighs and tummy.  This external fat just looks bad but is not really a health issue.  Earl, on the other hand, has health issues.  He has the dreaded internal belly fat.  His fat is a health issue. 

 Earl, who has  rather inappropriately elevated self esteem, will just say, “Hey, feel it.  It’s hard.  It’s muscle, baby”.  But it’s not muscle.  It’s fat,  belly fat that is encasing his abdominal organs and is putting Earl at high for diabetes, high blood pressure, stoke, heart attack, etc.

Henrietta’s fat can be addressed with body contouring surgery such as tummy tuck, breast reduction, liposuction, etc.  Weight loss, of course,  will also help Henrietta(and be a lot less expensive).   Earl’s fat, on the other had, will only respond to weight loss.  It cannot be removed surgically although Stella is doing her best to chew it off. 

Thanks for reading!

Your easily amused Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Lisa Lynn Sowder