BEFORE & AFTER GALLERY

Amanda C.

Procedure: Gastric Sleeve

My Story: As I sit here on an early July evening listening to the thunder from a storm rolling through and watching it rain, it has cooled down to an unseasonably pleasant temperature of 75 degrees. I am sitting at the kitchen table, in my workout clothes, hair in a ponytail, padded biking shorts on, anxiously waiting for the lightning to stop so I can get on my bicycle to enjoy this beautiful evening. About 19 months ago my story was SO drastically different and I knew my life was headed in a horrible direction. I knew I would eventually die from my situation. I suffered from morbid obesity. With obesity, I had developed sleep apnea, was on the verge of high blood pressure, had developed heel spurs and plantar fasciitis in both feet, my knees were starting to give me trouble, my hips would go out regularly and it revealed a heart issue I was born with. I had been on a “DIET” since approx. 1998, had tried everything in the books to lose weight. I had resolved that I would be overweight and physically and mentally miserable for the rest of my life and I was doing all I could to accept it and make the best of it. In my attempt to “make the best of it” I was hiding from life, living a lie and was letting life pass me by. I would skip going out with lifelong friends, I put up walls between me and others, I had avoided my class reunion, and group vacations, all out of shame and embarrassment from my weight. When I pushed myself outside of these comfort zones I would hide in the bathroom and cry because I was so embarrassed by who I was or I would cry myself to sleep out of disgust for allowing myself to get to that point. I was depressed and headed down a slippery slope. I had been lectured by people close to me, that had NEVER had a weight problem, about how I was just not exercising enough or I just needed to cut this out of my diet or try this home remedy. These people had NO clue what I was going through, how hard I had tried, and how hard this was for me and others, just like me, dealing with the weight loss battle. In my life I had lost hundreds of pounds so I was good at losing weight. I was just even better at gaining it back. I had the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, Hiatal Hernia repair and Cholecystectomy on November 9, 2015 and that was the 3rd best day of my life, only behind the day I married my amazing husband and the day our sweet son was born. That was the day that DFW Bariatric Institute saved my life. Period. I finally had the tool I needed to make the life style changes that would save my life. As the weight started coming off I started experiencing small changes. For the first time in my adult life I was finally NOT hungry all of the time. I started getting urges to exercise, I started to be a little more social and I cried tears of grief a little less. I got to where I could go to baseball games and concerts again because I finally could fit in the seat and I no longer had to use a seatbelt extender. About a year into my journey came a few bigger victories such as getting startled by the thin lady walking next to me only to realize it was my own reflection in the mirror (I totally did not recognize myself), or running into a relative at the grocery store who had not seen me in about a year and when I walked up and said hello to her, she had no clue as to who I was and I started to love to exercise and I stopped seeing it as an obligation or punishment. I was riding 60 – 80 miles a week on my bike, just because I wanted to. The most important victories have been the numerous people whose lives have changed for the better because of my journey. I NEVER expected positive experiences to come out of this for others around me. I never expected to become a role model or a cheerleader for others. As I started on this journey I had various people watching, inquiring, questioning and later joining me in this journey. Because I finally woke up one day and decided that I was worth fighting for and picking up the phone to start this process people in my life have lost more than 700 pounds as a whole. To me, this has made every struggle, insecurity, doubt, fear and tear worth it. I still do cry, but now it’s happy tears. Tears of relief, tears of thankfulness, tears of hope and tears of gratification. As I was writing this I stopped to go for my bike ride. As I rode I noticed a beautiful double rainbow above me as I watched a duck waddling across the road in front of me. I cried on my ride, because I was so happy that I am living life again, to where I can experience the beauty of the rainbow (and I possibly shed a few tears because I no longer waddle like that duck) LOL. This journey has been hard, I have had to totally change my relationship with food, I had to relearn my body, I had to work through a lot of mental challenges and push myself physically more than ever in my life. But this has been the most rewarding thing I have EVER done for myself and my family. The only regret I have is that I didn’t do this sooner. People often ask me how this journey has been for me and I always respond with “I didn’t realize how miserable I was until I was no longer miserable”. I am so incredibly grateful for the tools, resources and support that DFWBI has given to me. I started as a size 24 and am now a size 4 (in dresses) and 8 (in pants).