Our story begins at near death and ends with new lives! My wonderful husband and I both had laparoscopic Roux-EN-Y on 09/30/03 and have lost more than 300 pounds between us. We started out this journey at the age of 50 for Dan, 6’6” tall, 400 pounds and size 54. For me, I was 43-years-old, 5’5”, 264 pounds and size 24. Little did we know, when we started on this path, that it would be a complete life altering, life giving procedure! Yes, we researched and researched. Yes, we asked all the questions. Yes, we knew what changes would be in store for us. But, did we expect results and/or health improvements so quickly or the fact that we would develop such a passion for telling people about this? No! We considered laparoscopic Roux-EN-Y for about two years and had done extensive research but really had not moved forward yet. Then, one day while Dan was seeing an orthopedic surgeon (for a completely unrelated issue), the surgeon stopped in the middle of the exam and demanded Dan see a cardiologist right then. Not make an appointment… not call someone ... leave his office and go right then! See, Dan had all the symptoms of congestive heart failure and his mom died from the same at about his age. Needless to say, the cardiologist and our PCP told him how important the weight- loss was going to be and we started moving quickly ahead or we knew Dan would die and soon. Between us, we had plenty of co-morbidities, such as sleep apnea, hypertension, joint and back pain, swelling, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and the list went on and on. Literally within days of having our surgery, all of this was gone. We do not mean relieved or better... completely gone! No more congestive heart failure symptoms for Dan either. Our surgeon, Dr. Alfredo Fernandez (Tampa Bariatrics), was an absolute godsend to us and we give him full credit for returning our lives to us. We have no doubt that Dan is alive today due to Dr. Fernandez and this procedure. Dr. Fernandez performed our surgeries, same day, with Dan going first and I followed. By the time my surgery was completed, Dan was up and waiting on me to return to my room. Just a few short hours later, we were walking the halls, hand-in-hand, pushing our intravenous poles along with us. That was the day of our rebirth and the start of our wonderful new lives. Now, two years later, we are still maintaining our weight-loss and our healthy new lifestyle. Dan has gone from 400 pounds down to 220 pounds and dropped from a size 54 to a size 32. I have gone from 264 pounds to 144 pounds and dropped from a size 24 to a size four. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think such would be possible. Since that day, we have become completely consumed with spreading the wonderful word about weight-loss surgery and its benefits. We lead a local gastric bypass support group, manage a Web site and are working on a pair of books for gastric bypass patients. The need for education and legislation propels us to act and speak out every single day on the issues of the obese and morbidly obese. The ignorance level (uninformed or misinformed) of individuals regarding obesity or morbid obesity is astounding. The volumes and volumes of misinformation is mind boggling and the willingness of individuals to believe the worst stories automatically is scary. We are living proof ... healthy, active, walking, talking, living, breathing, loving everyday proof that there IS life after obesity. There are solutions and options and people out there to help and we will be grateful the rest of our lives for all of them. To view Melissa and Dan's before and after pictures, please click here. |
