I don’t know if pounds lost are as important as the fact that I lost 29 percent of my body weight and that’s important to me.

I have always had a weight problem since my earliest time; in fact, my first grade picture shows me as a little chubby kid. So I’ve always had this issue. I’ve never really comprehended that I could fix the issue in such a dramatic way and be able to get an entirely new life within a very limited amount of time, and I am incredibly happy with the results. I’m incredibly happy with the way I was treated. That surgery was so difficult; I swear, I’ve had more trouble having my teeth cleaned than having this surgery. I feel like I was very well prepared because Dr. Ganta was very direct, told me what to expect and told me what will happen. He was completely correct. His staff was extremely supportive; they were very caring. Even a year later I still feel like I have wonderful friends on the staff.

As a result of the surgery, I must say I have been like a little kid in a candy shop – but I’m not eating the candy. I have been more enthusiastic and happy because I could see results in the here and now. And that truly gave me a lot of joy and happiness. I strongly feel that I have just added 20 years to my life and those 20 years will be an opportunity to do things that I’ve always wanted to do because now I’m physically able to climb to the top of the pyramid. I now have the opportunity to do things that were only dreams.

I would like to volunteer for someone who’s interested in the procedure and interested in losing weight through the bariatric method. I’d like to say to them, please consider why you are as large as you are now – because you won’t change if you don’t realize the causes behind why you found food at comfort. Was it your environment? Was there other issues? Those really need to be addressed in your mind before the surgery. And if you are really confident that that you’ve done that then I cannot imagine anybody that won’t have results that puts a big smile on their face and that they will be proud that they were able to accomplish that much.