Client Profile: Joy

Before		After

Joy's Story:

I am a 57-year-old wife, mother and grandmother. I was active in high school and never had a weight problem until I got married at 18 and was alone a lot while my husband was deployed overseas. When he was home, I wanted to impress him with my cooking abilities but ended up eating most of it myself. I have battled with my weight ever since. I have even managed to lose 100 pounds -TWICE! My challenge was keeping it OFF!

My health problems were starting to add up and I knew I had to do something or one of these problems was going to be irreversible. I spent a year and a half working out and lost 65 pounds. I gained it all back in five months. The diabetes was back, the cholesterol was too high, my knees were shot, my foot and lower back were hurting all the time. I was left kicking myself again for "failing."

I looked at gastric bypass as my last ditch effort to gain control over this issue. But I also had to get past my own feelings of "taking the easy way out." I just decided that I was tired of being ashamed all the time. I was ashamed of how I looked, how many times I failed, losing and then being stupid enough to gain it all back and failing those around me who loved me enough to support me every time I lost the weight and then were kind enough not to mention it when I gained it all back-plus more!

I spent months checking it all out and going to the required classes, learning as much as I could. I didn't tell many people before the surgery as I didn't want to have to "defend myself" and really didn't want their opinions or horror stories!

I had my surgery April 19, 2010 and it went great! Recovery wasn't fun but it was on track and I was back to work in three weeks-not at 100% but able to do my job. At the six-month mark, I was 20 pounds ahead of the projection and I feel very capable of achieving my goal of a losing 110 to 120 pounds!

The changes are HUGE. It is so much fun to see the shock on people's faces when they look at me and suddenly realize they know me! My health is better than it has been since I was a teenager, and most of the aches and pains are gone. I fit in the shower, the towel fits all the way around me and I get to put on clothes that I have bought at Forever 21!

What a feeling of confidence and pride in what I have (and continue to) accomplish with this tool that I was blessed to receive! Would I recommend this surgery? In a heartbeat! When you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, when you am tired of being a failure in your attempts to gain some control over your weight and when you want a future that you can enjoy with health and happiness for years to come... take the leap, use the tool and see what good health can feel like again! (Not to mention being able to buy skinny jeans for the first time!!!)