By Beth Cole

East Ridge

I had Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass on December 26, 2007, at Centennial Women’s Hospital in Nashville.

I went through a six-month program of attempted weight loss and preparations for insurance approval to have this life-altering surgery. I weighed 357 lbs on Aug. 1, 2007, and during the course of the next five months I lost a whopping 15 lbs. When I underwent surgery, I weighed 342 lbs.

At the end of February of this year, fourteen months after surgery, I reached my goal and now weigh 167 lbs. I lost 175 lbs after surgery and 190 lbs since August 2007.

I wouldn’t suggest this approach to everyone. It was right for me.

I was a severe diabetic, taking four to six shots a day plus oral medication. I was hypertensive and had hyperlipidemia. I took medications for those conditions. I had severe sleep apnea and wore a C-PAP machine to bed each night to help me breathe. I was in constant pain and was under the care of a pain management physician and took narcotics daily to reduce some of the discomfort that was my constant companion.

I was thoughtful about my decision to have surgery. It was a scary idea, however I found the prospects that my life was headed in even more scary. I was headed for a very early grave and I knew that something must be done. The fact that I couldn’t control my blood sugars and that I took so much insulin produced a huge appetite.

I don’t understand the physiology but I know that it was a battle that I could not win without some assistance. Bypass surgery was the answer for me.

Some have complications after surgery. I experienced very little. I had a constant heart rate of 125 bpm prior to surgery and because I was not taking in the usual amount of food, which produces fluid for the body, I had to drink an enormous amount of water in order to stem dehydration and a further increase to my heart rate.

As I lost weight my heart rate came down, and the amount of water necessary to stop the dehydration also decreased.

Within a couple of months I had lost 50 lbs, and had come off of insulin and the C-PAP.

I lost 100 lbs in six months, and came off all of my medications. I continued and today continue with a fair amount of chronic pain from joint damage and nerve damage in my right leg, but I no longer take anything for the pain. Instead, I exercise.

I started swim aerobics in January 2007 almost a year before my surgery. It helped me to feel that I was doing something for my health and it gave me an outlet, but after surgery my goals become more clear cut and aggressive, my goal was to get my body healthy and fit. I’m still in the process of becoming fit.

Losing the weight was my constant focus. Now, my focus is keeping it off and strategizing about how to do that.

Some people seek out group support, I chose private therapy. Together with a therapist I continue to search out the reasons for eating triggers and to work out plans for how I approach my appetite.

I’m still hungry. I will perhaps always be hungry. My success isn’t that I’ve beaten my appetite, its that I deal with it.

Today I am a full time college student, I continue to exercise and tone my body and I get on the scales every morning. I feel fearless. I have plans and the mobility and energy to fulfill them, my future is bright. I can’t endorse this surgical intervention for every morbidly obese person, it takes a great deal of focus to adhere to the diet and to alter habits, even break them.

Not everyone is ready to do that. As prepared as I felt for surgery and the after effects, I found after surgery that my preparations didn’t begin to cover the emotions that I felt towards food.

It was a battle that I waged everyday. With a lot of discipline and prayer I persevered and discovered along the way that I had everything within me necessary for success. I had always had it, and that this surgery was only a tool, it was me that was making the weight loss happen. It was my choices that took the pounds off.

I believe that Gastric Bypass surgery was the instrument that I needed to save my life, to give me the possibility of a full long life. This is my story, one that is only beginning to be written.