My Patients

 

Personal Stories

Kelly - San Diego, CA

Kelly After Gastric Bypass SurgeryI was overweight for as long as I can remember. My mother who herself was overweight put me on my first diet at around 8 or 10 years old. She was trying to spare me the struggles she had had with her weight. I have two older brothers who were very thin and could eat anything and everything they wanted. It was so unfair to me as child when they got cookies and treats and I didn't. Being nagged by my mother or teased by my brothers and other children didn't help, my weight only increased.

Kelly Walking After Gastric Bypass SurgeryAs an adult I tried just about every diet available, Atkins, weight watchers, eating once a day, only eating certain food combinations, optifast, etc. They all worked temporarily, but you can't eat only tuna forever. And after one of my diets I would eventually gain back all of the weight I had lost plus more,[ If your reading this you know what I mean ].

By the time I was 40 I was extremely obese [not just “overweight'], I was eating myself into an early grave. Both my mother and grandmother became diabetics in their early forties and died in their early sixties and I didn't want that to happen to me. I knew I had to do something about my weight, I thought about food or dieting constantly; it controlled my life.

Kelly After Gastric Bypass SurgeryWhen you're morbidly obese and need to lose one hundred or more pounds, the very thought of another diet is overwhelming. I could lose 30 or 40 pounds and no one would even notice. I had thought about weight loss surgery before, but I thought I can do this myself, I don't need someone to fix this for me, I'm a disciplined person, I can do this. But I couldn't. So I finally decided to have gastric by-pass surgery.

When I made the decision to have surgery I decided to have the surgery done at Alvarado Hospital with Dr. Ellner in April 2003. And it is the best decision I've ever made. I feel great, I've lost 240 pounds. Kelly After Weight Loss SurgeryBut I want to emphasize that this is not the magic fix. If that is what your expecting this is not for you. If you have the surgery you need to follow the program, which is eating your protein, drinking the water and horrors exercise, I know I know the dreaded E word. But it is the only way to keep the weight off. And if I could go to a gym and work out when I weighed 400 pounds you can too.

I now feel like a new person, I'm doing things that I haven't done in years like walking up stairs without getting short of breath and flying in an airplane without having to ask for a seatbelt extension. Now my brothers struggle with their weight and I'm the skinny one in the family.

*Refers to private practice only. Excludes cases that may have been performed as part of a surgical training program.

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