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Before & After There are currently no before and after photos for this member. See these instructions if you wish to submit your own Before & After photos.
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Surgeon Testimonial Andrew Averbach I met Dr. Averbach at one of his seminars at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore and I immediately thought he was the one. I then scheduled a consultation in his office a few days later. His office staff was wonderful and very helpful and organized. His office has a very structured pre and post surgery program to include nutritional guidelines, psychiatric evaluation and support group attendance recommendations. After meeting with him, I felt more at ease about risks and and anticipated complications. I am confident he has the surgcial competence to perform this surgery on me. Member Interests
Latest Surgery Support Comments
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My Story  Well, here is my story and I am sticking to it. I was born in Camden New Jersey and I entered the world an 11 pound baby on July 1st ???? ( ha ha you thought I was going to tell you the year!) Well, it is just a number!! I am the 5th in a family of  6 children, two sisters and three brothers. I grew up in the small town of Blackwood, NJ and I was always a chubby oh hell! that is too kind, I was always a fat child. Being a fat child in an Italian family was ok you see because then you were considered healthy. Growing up as child I have fond memories when I look back most of those memories evolve around food, an example is Sunday dinner at my Italian grandmother's house here is how it went- On Sunday after mass we would go to the bakery and pick up our contribution of a baked good, we would bring lemon fingers (oh how very good  they were I can still smell them warm) then we would go to my grandmothers and all of us would sit down and eat pastries then mid afternoon we would have dinner - big bowl of pasta, all kinds of meats, sauce and breads, them later in the afternoon pastry snacks, then in the evening meatball or sausage sandwiches- ARE YOU FULL YET???? We ate until we were so full and then went to  These wonderful Sundays at Grandmom DiPaola's contributed to my already genetic fat. Of course, the family always told me it was  baby fat, well at 53 I don't think it is baby fat any longer. One of my earliest childhood goals was to be a nun but that changed at the age of 12 when I started to recognize the opposite sex  and ooh how I  'd the boys!!!! I loved them so much I found myself one to marry when I was at the ripe old age of 16. The next thing I always wanted to be was wife and mother my idol was June Cleaver, I always envisioned my married life like the Cleavers  except with more children my plan was to have 6 children. But getting pregnant and childbearing did come easy for me so that number changed. My husband Tom was in the Air Force when we married and our first home was at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois it was there that I found out I was pregnant in February 1974, I no sooner found out I was pregnant the most horrible thing happened I had a miscarriage for unknown reasons. My second pregnancy happend that year and I was so happy and excited when I made it past the 1st trimester I went all the way to 2 weeks from term and then found out the baby had died. So there I was only 18 years old with so much love and maternal instincts and I had to deliver a stillborn little girl at birth, my  Anne Marie born on March 3, 1975. After that I did not want anymore children and also the Doctors told me it would be miracle if I could ever conceive a child again. So in my grief I piled on more weight I think at this time my weight was around 240 lbs up 60 lbs since my wedding day in 1972. I found myself getting  and soon found out it wa because I was pregnant and on April 3, 1976 at 20 years old I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy Tommy exactly 13 months after my stillborn daughter Anne Marie . Oh how, I adored and cherised that beautiful baby boy and I vowed that he would have the best that life could offer I still to this day, cherish and adore him. He is  handsome,  intelligent, successful, a  wonderful father and husband and fantastic son!In 1982 after a difficult pregnancy I gave birth to my twins Richard and Samantha  who are now 26. The twins were a handful, life was always a challenge, they were in fact double trouble, Richard more so than his sister. Both were beautiful and still are to this day. My daughter is lovely and thank god does not have a weight problem. Richard my son, is handsome and just an overall big guy. After the twins birth, I continued to pile  on the weight by now my weight was 280. I was always worried about my weight and over a 25 year span I tried many weight reduction programs with  no success. I even went to therapy to find out how my mind and thoughts affected my weight and realized some of why I was so heavy but still only minimal success at that. My marriage through the 36 years has had it's ups and downs and I have used food and the extra weight (140 lbs extra) to pad myself my pain and other feelings, I did not want to feel . About 8 years ago, I heard about gastric bypass and followed it through the years, the one thing that always  turned me off about it was the fact that it was major open open surgery and you had a nasal gastric tube after surgery not to mention several people died after having it. However, a couple years ago I heard it was easier accomplished and often laposcopic. In March 2007 I started  researching the surgery on the web and this is where I began to seriously entertain the idea. By fall of 2007 I was at my all time high weight fluctuating between 320 and 325lbs and seemed like everywhere I went I would run into people who had the surgery and talked about how it was the best thing they ever did. I firmly believe God put those people in my path leading me to take this journey with him by my side. My journey began in February 2008 with a weight loss seminar, insurance approval, psychiatric evalution, nutritional counseling and scheduled date for surgery. Other than my closing comment , the rest of the story will be for the future. As you may be able to tell at this point I am excited and yet apprehensive about under going the surgery on May 23rd but am looking forward to the end result of feeling and looking better. Over the past several years I have been working on my mind and understanding how important it is to have a positive outlook on everything you do! Therefore, it is with an optimisic and realistic attitude that I embark on this very important life changing event |
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the OH site, especially the message boards, I have met so many kind and caring people.
The support and guidance you get from everyone is wonderful. Now that I have been utilizing it I don't know how I would have gotten through it. My family is not 
. Something would always come up. I had my pre op appointment yesterday and it went well. I am going to get a chest xray today as part of the pre op. See Ya
They leave nothing out!! I suppose it is good, but scarey. 
I started to get second thoughts but they passed. I am so glad I have another 11 days so I have time to digest what is going to happen more. Well, on my way to my pre-op physical. See you tomorrow! 
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