At 38, Carol weighed 405 pounds before her surgery. “I had a distorted body image. I didn’t think I was as fat as I was,” she says. “I didn’t like to go shopping because I’d have to look in the mirror. I’d choose sizes that I thought I could fit into and when they didn’t fit, I had to deal with the disappointment. I finally really looked at myself in the mirror and looked at my photos, and one day I just faced up to the truth.”
Carol also began to be concerned about the health problems that accompany obesity. “I had borderline high blood pressure, and I was worried about diabetes. I had problems walking. My ankles would buckle under me, and I was afraid of falling,” she says. “My ankles haven’t buckled since my surgery, and now I’m able to walk long distances.”
Carol participated in the Houston Half Marathon in January 2005, and she recently completed the Third Annual Running of the Bulls 5K Walk/Run to celebrate Draft Day for the Houston Texans. “I typically finish in last place when I do these runs, but I don’t care. It’s my race, and I do it at my own pace.” She laughs, “This year I improved – I was second to last.”
Carol was divorced at the time she had her surgery. “I didn’t do this to keep a man or to get one,” she says. “I did it for myself and also for my son. He was starting to gain weight and I wanted to break the cycle.”
These days you’ll find Carol’s 12-year-old son Zach on the treadmill next to her at the gym. “I’m down to 229 pounds, which is a miracle. My life has really changed. I’m more concerned about my health now, and I’m focused on fitness.”
“I’m able to participate in these 5K walks, which I could never have done before the surgery. But even more important than that, I’m able to do the little things that other people take for granted. I can park anywhere I want instead of driving around trying to find the closest parking space. I can walk into a store without getting out of breath. I can go to Astroworld or a theater or an Astros game without worrying if I’ll fit in a chair – or worst yet, if I’ll break the chair.”
“I can’t eat the way I did before my surgery, but I really didn’t mind giving up the food. My quality of life is more important to me than what I eat.”
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Christi S.: Not One Regret
 Christi S. was 29 when she had her roux-en-y gastric bypass on August 9, 2004. She considers the date the first day of her new life. “I celebrate it as my new birthday,” she says. “I had the surgery at a good time in my life. Now I’m ready for 30, ready to start a new decade.”
Like most people who choose bariatric surgery, Christi has battled a weight problem most of her life. “I went on my first diet at the age of 12, so I’ve been dieting constantly for 18 years. I got down to 135 pounds in high school but I really put on weight when I switched to dorm food during my first year in college.”
Over the years she tried diets and exercise in an effort to slim down. “Any diet that’s out there, I’ve done it,” she says. “This is the only thing that has worked for me. I pay close attention to what I eat, and I exercise every day. I did all that before my surgery but I just wasn’t getting good results from the effort. Now I am. Having that kind of positive feedback encourages you to stick with the program.”
Christi describes herself as the perfect candidate for weight-loss surgery. “I was tired of living the way I lived,” she says. “I did a lot of research before the surgery. I tried to eat the way I would after the procedure. I gave up beer and carbonated drinks. I did all these things in advance to see if I could live with them, and I realized I could.”
Now, just a little over eight months after her surgery, Christi has lost 110 pounds. Her goal is to lose 31 more. “I weigh 161 and would be very happy to reach 130.”
She joined a women’s gym after her bariatric surgery. “It was a great environment to start out in – only women of all different sizes and shapes, very low pressure,” she says. “Now I’m ready for a more intense workout. I’ve joined a gym closer to home now to work on building muscle.”
Committed to exercise, Christi is on the treadmill at home every day after work, watching a soap opera she tapes while she’s on the job in recruiting for Schlumberger.
“I’m committed to maintaining the gains I’ve made,” she says. “Carrying around extra weight is a physical burden. You’re always tired and worn out, and you’re hot. But it’s also an enormous emotional burden because you’re self-conscious all the time. I can tell you how my life has changed in one word: I’m happier. Since the surgery, I’m just very happy. I have not one regret.”
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Donna T.: Beating the Food Demons
 In 2002, Donna T. was a 54-year-old diabetic with high triglycerides, high cholesterol, out-of-control blood pressure and chronic back and knee pain. She was convinced she wouldn’t reach the age of 60. “My sister said I was a heart attack waiting to happen. I knew I wouldn’t survive another decade, or if I did I would be dependent on other people or living in a wheelchair.”
That was another life altogether. Today, Donna’s blood pressure, blood sugar, triglycerides and cholesterol are normal, and she can hike the Las Cruces Mountains in New Mexico with her sister without getting out of breath.
Donna is an astonishing success story. “Within three months of my gastric bypass, I was off my diabetes medications, and that included four oral medicines and insulin,” she says. “I cut my blood pressure medication in half. I lost 55 pounds in the first six weeks, and I’d dropped 85 pounds by Thanksgiving.”
At 5’8” Donna weighed 350 pounds before she had her roux-en-y gastric bypass on August 7, 2002. “You name it, I’d tried it – from liquid protein to Weight Watchers to prescribed amphetamines. Nothing worked for any period of time.”
Prior to surgery, in addition to her health problems, she had to deal with profuse sweating that made daily life almost unbearable. “My health problems were bad enough,” she says, “but the sweating was beyond anything anyone could imagine. I would get up in the morning and be sweating so much that by the time I was ready to leave for work, my makeup had run off.”
Once she’d made the decision to move ahead with surgery, everything else fell into place, she says. “I had my doctors’ approvals and evaluations completed between the second week of April and my surgery in August. I knew I was doing the right thing.”
She lost weight rapidly following her surgery. “I dropped 35 pounds in the first 10 days, and the sweating stopped.”
Today, Donna is 135 pounds lighter and continues to maintain that weight loss. “I’m healthier now, and I’m actually starting to lose again. It’s not as easy as it was in the beginning. We joke that during the first six months after surgery, all you have to do is breathe to lose weight. But after about two years, your body adapts to the pouch and you don’t lose as rapidly. Now I’m like everyone else – I have to work at it.”
For Donna, the weight-loss struggle continues. “I would like to lose another 40 pounds,” she says. “You can have the physical surgery but they don’t operate on your head. You still have to wrestle with your food demons. The time of easy weight loss is over. I was wearing a size 28 before my surgery and now I’m wearing 14s and 16s. That’s not too bad for someone who’s 5’8”. My goal is to weigh 175 and wear a 12. I’m getting there.”
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Bob N.: Master of His Own Destiny
 Bob N. has fought a weight problem almost all his life. “My mother tells me that the first word out of my mouth wasn’t mom or dad. It was ‘more.’”
“I hated being overweight,” he says now. “Even as a kid, I couldn’t buy clothes in the same department as my brothers. We’d have to go to the husky department to find anything that fit.”
The older Bob got, the more he hated his weight. “I tried everything I could to drop pounds. So being overweight was a constant reminder of my failures.”
Bob grew up one of six children in an Italian family that revolved around the kitchen. “My parents owned a restaurant, so food was always the biggest part of our lives,” he says. “My aunts, uncles and cousins would come to visit, and we’d all be there in the kitchen. But I was the only one in the family with a weight problem.”
Bob had also developed serious obstructive sleep apnea. “I was using a CPAP at night because I stopped breathing so often,” he says. “In an eight-hour period I’d sleep only about three hours because I awakened so often struggling for breath.”
While his cholesterol and blood pressure were within the normal range, he underwent a total hip replacement in 1997 because of weight damage. “I also had a bad problem with shortness of breath, which made it hard for me to move. I was fortunate in that I didn’t have diabetes, but my doctor discovered that my blood sugar was elevated. It wasn’t high enough to justify medication, but I knew it was time to do something.”
At 460 pounds before his roux-en-y gastric bypass, Bob did not set a post-surgical weight-loss goal for himself. “After so many attempts to lose weight, I was afraid that if I set a goal I wouldn’t reach it. But after I’d lost about 130 pounds, I began to think I’d like to see myself at 230 pounds.”
Tipping the scales between 280 and 290, Bob has another 60 pounds to lose. “That doesn’t sound like much considering that I’ve already lost 166 pounds, but the further out you are from surgery, the harder it is to lose weight and the more critical it becomes to watch how and what you eat. Even today I have to keep reminding myself that I’m the one who’s in charge, that I’m the master of my own destiny. I think I make pretty smart food choices but there are times that, just like everyone else, I can’t resist a doughnut.”
Bob, who is 50, says he’s thankful for the many changes weight-loss surgery has brought to his life. “My relationship with my wife is a thousand times better than it was. She was very supportive of the surgery, even though she was scared. And there are just so many little things I can do now that I couldn’t do before – bend over to tie my shoes, sit on the floor with my legs crossed. I can go to the store and buy regular clothes, and I wear a size smaller in shoes. Even my head got smaller.”
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Bobbi T.: Finding Joy and Success after Weight Loss Surgery
Bobbi T. decided to take charge of her weight while on vacation in Hawaii with her husband, Tony. A lover of water sports, Bobbi felt humiliated when there were no scuba wet suits available to fit her then 300-pound frame.
“For me, it was a quality of life issue,” says the 47-year-old Cypress resident. “I just knew I had to do something. I came to the personal understanding that I was no longer living with obesity. I was dying from it.”
Bobbi says she was obese even in junior high school. “My mother would tape a $20 bill to the bathroom mirror and tell me and my two older sisters that whoever lost 10 pounds first would get the $20.” One older sister is overweight; the other is morbidly obese.
First Failure, Then Success
In the late 1990s, Bobbi had her first weight loss surgery at another hospital and failed to lose weight. “It felt like my last hope, and when it failed, it was devastating,” she says. “I just wanted to be normal.”
After several years of coping with disappointment, Bobbi decided to give surgery one more try. In May 2005, Bobbi had the latest kind of bariatric surgery – gastric bypass – at Memorial Hermann Memorial City. Her surgeon, Adam Naaman, MD, bariatric medical director at Memorial Hermann Memorial City, had performed a successful surgery on one of Bobbi’s colleagues.
Before her surgery, Bobbi received nutritional education, counseling and emotional support from experts at Memorial Hermann Memorial City.
Healthier — and Happier
Today, Bobbi’s life has taken a dramatic turn. She’s lost 80 pounds so far and dropped several sizes. She intends to lose more weight and regularly checks in with her surgeon as part of her plan.
What’s more, Bobbi is able to do things she could never have done before. On a recent cruise, Bobbi stopped off in Jamaica for a “canopy tour.” She and fellow tourists hiked up a forested mountain and leapt from tree to tree while being hoisted by pulley. “It was exhilarating,” she says.
Bobbi feels a certain responsibility to other people who want to lose weight. “I feel so much joy when I’ve hit a milestone, and I want others to experience that,” she says. “I want people to know that success happens, and if it can happen for me, it can happen for them.”
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Halloween has proved to be a day of new beginnings more than once for Carol M. On October 31, 1988, she moved to Houston from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Exactly 15 years later early in the morning, she arrived at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center to be prepped for roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. 
