Brenda's Success Story

People who lose 100 or more pounds are most definitely a monumental success and their stories provide inspiration to us all.  But keep in mind that success is not always measured in pounds.

I have been asking the subscribers of this newsletter to send me their stories of success and I received this lovely story from Brenda.  This story reminds me that successes from weight loss surgery are marked by many small steps that are in themselves, success stories.

Brenda is at the beginning of her journey and will have many successful steps to come.  I hope that all of you enjoy what she has to share.

Hi Barbara,

First, I am looking forward to reading your book.  All of the questions you sent in your email are the questions I had and have.

My story started when I was 12.  I have been fat all of my life.  In school I was very active and kept the weight in check but as I got older it got worse and the more I tried the more weight I gained.  When I graduated from high school I weighed 200 lbs.  I have been on every diet ever created.  My doctor even put me on a liquid diet.  I lost weight with all of the diets but as soon as I let my guard down the weight was right back.

I have been researching weight loss surgery for many years and have been to several meetings.  After most of the meetings I left with the feeling that I was just another notch in the surgeon's belt. But then I met a lady that I work with who told me about Dr. Hess and I attended his meeting. I felt comfortable and felt he cared about me and about all of the other people at the meeting.  Even after I had my face-to-face consultation with Dr. Hess I was sure that I had made the right decision.

I also went into the internet and read Carnie Wilson’s story and that even made me feel better.  The reason I say this is because I felt like such a failure because I could not keep the weight off.  The doctor who performed her surgery said one thing that has stayed with me and that was that this surgery enables people like me who are fat to use any diet and have it work, where before no matter what we did diets would not work.

I had my surgery on May 9, 2001 and went back to work on June 4.  I have recovered wonderfully.  I was in the hospital for seven days.  I spent two and a half weeks at home having my husband with me the first week and my mother the second week.

The first week was my trial period.  I was given a brochure from the hospital about what I could eat for the first three weeks.  Well I did fine except I saw that I could have crackers.  Well, I ate the first one and it tasted so good I ate a second one and when all was done I had eaten five crackers. They sat right at the base of my throat and I walked and walked trying to get the crackers to go down but finally it all came back up.  After that I was very careful what and how much I ate because that was very painful for it to come back up.  But now I am doing great.  I don't eat very much but eat what I can and drink as much as I can.