Patient Stories: Weight Loss Surgery

Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center

Samantha, Weight Loss Surgery
Instant Self-Control

It wasn't unhappiness with obesity that prompted Samantha to have bariatric surgery. "I was always comfortable with being overweight," she says. "It really didn't bother me. I had the attitude if you didn't accept me for who I really am, that's fine, I don't want to be around you. I didn't let it interfere with my daily life."

But in addition to confidence and self-esteem, Samantha had diabetes, sleep apnea, low thyroid, Barrett's esophagus and asthma. Just 34 years old, she weighed 304 pounds and suffered chronic back problems that had led to an L-45 decompression and spinal fusion. "I was having a lot of really bad health problems," she says now, "but it was my dad's death that pushed me to the decision."

When her father died of obesity co-morbidities in March 2003, Samantha knew that if she didn't do something about her weight, she would have the same outcome. "My health problems were getting worse," she says, "and they were the exact same problems my dad started with 15 years ago. In fact, I had so many things wrong that my insurance company didn't even question the need for bariatric surgery. They approved me within an hour after they got the letter."
   

Samantha had always had a weight problem. "I was a chronic diet pill user in high school," she says. "I got pregnant with my first child at 21 and gained 134 pounds during the pregnancy. When my first one was six months old, I got pregnant with the second. The same thing happened with my third child. Because they were only 15 months apart, I never really gave my body a chance to recover."

After her last pregnancy, Samantha stayed large for 13 years. She remembers her worst experience, which took place at a neighborhood Splash Day. "There must have been four- or five-hundred people at the pool," she says. "There was only one chair left. I sat down and it broke. I laughed about it at the time because it was either laugh or cry. Sometimes it took a lot of humility to get through the day."

Today, over seven months after her roux-en-y gastric bypass on September 15, 2004, she weighs 184 pounds. She's also free of all her previous health problems. "The surgery was the easiest thing I've ever done for myself and the best thing," she says. "I'd do it every year if I had to. It's been that worthwhile."

She also says it gave her a new lease on life. "I can do things with my children that make all our lives more enjoyable and memorable, instead of sitting on the sidelines. You'll actually see me in the pool now, instead of sitting there in my shorts pretending I don't feel like swimming."