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Gail's StoryOver the course of my life I have struggled with my weight—on an up-and-down roller coaster going from one fad diet to the other. I have tried a number of diets, some with no success at all and others with temporary success at different percent levels of weight loss. The struggle began in my teenage years. After high school, I became engaged to my high school sweetheart and proceeded with wedding plans. Somewhere along the line I realized that I needed to diet to fit into my wedding dress the way I wanted to. Off I went to purchase an exercise bike. I dieted by cutting back on my calories and riding my exercise bike every night after dinner. I did manage to lose 38 to 40 pounds and the wedding dress looked just great! However, after having my first child two years later, my weight started to climb again because I had not been diligent about losing the extra pounds I put on while I was pregnant. Over the past 27 years since my first child's birth and through a second pregnancy, I managed to put much more weight on. I moved on to more sophisticated diets, such as the liquid diet, which work for some people but not for me. At the time I was on the program, it was only liquid for the first portion of the plan. I lost quite a bit of weight but was so deprived that my mouth was actually watering for Brussels sprouts one evening when I made dinner for my family. The program was expensive, which led me to leave it eventually. I have tried Weight Watchers, many exercise programs, the liquid diet, and the list goes on. None of them worked for me, even though I think that everything I tried works well for the right person. Meanwhile, my health was suffering from the weight gain. I developed high blood pressure, high cholesterol, thyroid problems, hip and knee pain, acid reflux disease and simply not having the energy to make it through the day. I was ready to accept that I was just meant to be overweight, with family genetics and all, and would try to be a healthy fat person with the help of five different medications a day. Then I met a coworker whom I had noticed over the previous few months had lost a significant amount of weight. I stopped her and she told me about Dr. Roye. It was a discussion that would change my life. Dr. Roye does gastric bypass surgery, which restricts the amount of food your stomach can handle. The information I obtained was very encouraging so I anxiously went back to my desk and called his office immediately for an appointment for a consultation. I was fortunate to get in within a month. In our discussion Dr. Roye told me I was a very good candidate for the surgery and that I could reduce my physical and medical problems significantly with the weight loss alone. Dr. Roye's office would proceed to get permission from my medical insurance while I went home and discussed it with my family. My family was a bit unsure at first, but after I did much research on the Web and talked to patients who had it done—and with my confidence in what Dr. Roye's office had discussed with me—they were much more encouraged. Finally there was a method to help me achieve the weight loss forever and change my lifestyle to a healthy one. After I was informed that my insurance approved the surgery, I began a series of tests that spanned four months. I went back to Dr. Roye's office, where I was told that all the tests were fine. We scheduled the surgery for Tuesday, October 14, 2003. |
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