My name is Laura Coratti, I was born February 8, 1952 at only a mere 6 pounds, 11 ounces. I was what society calls a normal person until I was in the 4th grade when things started going out of control.

My family is Italian/Irish. My mother is Irish but cooked Italian for her Italian American husband and seven children. There was nothing better than Mom's spaghetti and meatballs. She made her gravy every Sunday. Sausage, meatballs, raviolis, ziti, eggplant, you name it we had it. We were poor but gravy was cheap to make. Homemade pizza was also cheap to make and Mom would make her finest.

Being the second oldest, I was fast and smart at getting the bigger pieces.  I knew all the secrets to licking the bowls of icing when Mom made her cakes and I knew that over eating some how made me feel better. Mom's cooking was very comforting.

In school I was always the second largest student. Thank God for Sue who was the biggest....sorry Sue....but I at least had that. At least I am not Sue, I would think. What a loser I was. Don't get me wrong I had tons of friends; some are still my close friends to this day. I was the funny one. I never had the dates like the thin pretty girls but I had the laughs and of course the food.

I would be lying if I said it did not bother me when others made fun of me. I would laugh at first and come up with some kind of cute little saying and then inside I would cry. Sometimes I would just turn off and go and eat something. It didn't have to be sweet. I actually preferred the bulk food, the meat, potatoes, macaroni, pancakes or French toast. If my thinner siblings didn't want to eat the rest of their dinner there was Laura just waiting for the chance when Mom or Dad was not looking.

I graduated without going to the prom or senior ball; or on a date for that matter.  Pretty sad! No one wanted the fat chick. It would make me angry and I would always wonder why? We put too much emphasis on looks in our society. If we were all born blind we would all look the same, right? Believe me I lived by that. I still believe it to a degree.

I graduate in 1970 and went on to work in an office in the medical field. I started out as a receptionist, then worked as a secretary and worked my way up to Physician's Office Manager which is what I am today.

You would think working around doctors who are always putting people on diets that I would have caught on. NO, NO, NO! I tried every diet in the world.  We had no Barbara Thompson books then. I tried everything to fasting one day a week, to Weight Watchers where all I did was watch my weight go up and up and up, to Atkins, to grapefruit, to tuna, to salad, to Slim Fast to blah blah blah. You get the picture.

All I thought about and wanted to think about is food. I love food. It was me, Laura Food Coratti. I got up to 380 pounds, which was my weight in my before picture. Then bariatric surgery came into my life. I found reading books on it, seeing TV documentaries on it and research, research, research was the key.

I went to see Dr. Andrei from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N. J. He told me I was an excellent candidate for the surgery, but I had to see a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, an internist and psychiatrist before he would perform any surgery on me. I wanted the gastric bypass surgery and wanted nothing in my way.

I went to all these doctors and they all gave me the thumbs up. I was on 13 different medications. I have chronic obstructive sleep apnea, severe hypertension, diabetes II, C.O.P.D., bronchitis, slight asthma, sinusitis, cervicitis, osteoarthritis of both knees with a bone spur in my right knee, severe osteoarthritis of my lumbar spine with four herniated discs, edema in both ankles, acute anxiety disorder and tachycardia of the heart.

Because of my lung problems, they were worried about the anesthesia, so there were three anesthesiologists in the operating room with me.

After my initial visit with Dr. Andrei and all the testing and consults I had to do in between it took almost nine months before my surgery date arrived, which was November 20, 2002, just over one year ago. The decision to have gastric bypass surgery will forever be the best decision I ever made in my life.

So far I have lost 124 pounds. I am off my diabetic medication; and I am off all my inhalers and lung medication. In fact, I am down to only 5 medications. I am still on

my c-pap at night with oxygen but they just checked my oxygen levels at night and they are normal. In February I have to repeat my polysomnography to see if they can remove the oxygen I use at bedtime to sleep. I will have to continue to use the c-pap machine when I sleep for awhile but that is OK. I am still on blood pressure medicine, anxiety medicine but less of it and one allergy pill a day as well as arthritis medicine. So that is a huge drop from 13 different medications.

I feel great; I am doing more and guess what? I am being noticed by everyone in a good way finally in my life.  No one is making fun of me or turning their heads. Those people I will always think of as cruel people. No one is better than me or you. We all have to know this in our heads and in our hearts.

Laura Coratti
Point Pleasant, New Jersey

Laura at 110 pounds lost