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Surgeon Testimonial David Kim I first came across the Live Life Again Center for Bariatrics through an online search. Their website is great but it is the testimonies and informative videos that really inspired me to move forward. I felt that Dr. David Kim was very understanding to the discrimination that overweight people endure day in day out. He was up front and was real about the procedures and what he expects from you as a patient. It made me nervous that I might not be able to \"live\" under those obligations not to Dr. Kim but to the surgery. Dr. Kim's staff Shelly in particular was very encouraging that it sounds harder than it really is. If we have lived a portion of our lives overweight at all and have survived the ridicule and looks then the requirements of the surgery after life is a drop in the bucket so to speak. The great thing about Dr. Kim's Practice is that they offer wonderful \"university classes\" to inform the patient all about their procedure and what they will need to do to be successful after surgery. The after care that is offered is wonderful too. There is plenty of support and they offer once a month support groups and they also offer get togethers for things such as playing the Wii or even just working out together. I would give Dr. Kim and his staff a 9 out of 10 rating just because of the treatment, information, and support that is offered alone. I personally feel that surgical competence trumps bedside manner however this is an emotional decision and change so therefore bedside manner carries a little more considering this choice. So even though I believe surgical competence trumps it, bedside manner is ONLY a fraction behind. Member Interests
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My Story Ok well this could be a little lengthy so for right now I'll try and put it in a condensed version. I've been overweight all my life. There was about 2-3 years in high school where I decided if I wanted to get muscled up I needed to get on the football team and power lifting. So I did. I converted most of the fat I had to muscle and looked "average (somewhat muscled up)". It wasn't long after High School that this turned back to fat. For the most part I've always wanted to be a firefighter, and I always knew in the back of my mind this type of occupation would also keep me in shape. I became a firefighter only a year after high school and soon found out that even though I was working out as hard as the other guys and was constantly active in my career and home life, it did not "help" me lose weight or even keep weight off. I gained weight. Every year older I turned I was working that much harder to keep myself at a decent weight to perform my job. During this time I took in criticism from other firemen, and even at times the citizens would comment on my weight. I felt very defeated. I've been on the fire department just over 10 years now and even though our department has an annual physical assessment that we mandatorily have to pass (which I did and still do) I somehow still managed to gain approx 20 pounds every two years. Last New Years 2008 I found myself pulling out all stops. I dedicated 2008 to my health. My New Years Resolution was to not drink any sodas, diet or anything else carbonated. I stuck to it and did not have one soda for a year and 3 weeks. During 2008 I really dedicated myself to running. I was training at 16-20 miles a week, running organized 5k's and 10k's every month. By summertime I wanted to start training for a triathlon. I had a non-cheat diet consisting of a ton of chicken, tilapia, brocclii, veggies, salmon, edamame (soy beans) etc! I was not dropping weight! My family couldn't understand why, the other firemen couldn't understand why, I couldn't understand why! At this point I was about 120-130lbs overweight. My officer even emailed me about my weight and how he saw what I was doing and didn't understand, and suggested I go to a doctor. Not neccessarily a bariatric doctor but maybe a thyroid specialist or something like that. I went and saw a number of doctors, all while continuing my training. Come to find out I ended up having painful knee pains and ended in Nov of 2008 having a 4th knee surgery. While I was off work for that, I began packing on more weight because I couldn't work out. I didn't know what to do. I'm getting older and nothing I'm doing physically or diet is helping my weight issue. **Side Note** I had a huge problem with eating too late at night. I would eat high carb stuff or even another full meal because of my bad sleeping habits which I was a night owl. I however did not do this in 2008. But this type of eating was playing against me losing weight prior to 2008. Last November 2008, I began to look into bariatric surgery. It was a long, investigating process. To make a decision to voluntarily alter my insides. To run the risk of severe dehydration if I were to really over-expend myself in a fire. To do a risks vs gains analysis of if this is worth it for me in my situation. I found that it was, and on September 21, 2009 I had Gastric Sleeve Bypass. I am currently a couple of days past one month post op, and I've lost somewhere in the range of 40 lbs. That is approx a third of what I need to lose already!!! My profile pic was taken only a day ago, and most people are saying my face is really slendering up, and I believe my waist is following cause I can fit into some clothes I havent fit into in like 6+ years! Anyone needing encouragement or want to know more about my story, and yes there are a lot of details I left out, just message me!!! |
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