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Catherine Harner 520 South College Street Covington, TN 38019 Dear Angel Network, I would like to share my story with your readers. I am Catherine Harner, I was not an over weight child or teenager, although I grew up in an Italian family were if you were skinny you were sickly, and if you were plump you were healthy. During my teenage years I slowly started gaining weight. My days of working at Shoney’s at night & going to hair school during the day, at age 16, were I was eating on the go had slowly put the pounds on me. By the time I was 23, Married and had 2 kids I weight 220. I continued to slowly add on the pounds and when my third child was born in 1998 I weighed 250. By the time I reached 301 in 2002, I had MVP(Mitral Valve Prolapse), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a strong family history of Heart disease & Diabetes, pain in my knees and ankle, I must of sprained my ankle 20 times or more over the years, that caused severe pain for several days each time. I decided all the diets, I had tried, that I had failed miserably at, weren’t going to work for me. So I made the decision to have Gastric Bypass Surgery. I was wearing a size 26. It took a year of test to prepare for the surgery, and a commitment to loose 30 pounds before surgery date, before I had my surgery on October 25, 2004. I weighed 260 pounds the day I went in for my surgery I had lost 41 pounds so Dr. Tichansky was impressed. It was a long road, It’s not an easy task to take on. It takes a lot of patience and trial and error before I got the hang of it. It also takes a whole new way of eating and making good decisions about what you eat. By October of 2005 I had went from 301 pounds to 135 pounds, went from a size 26 to a size 5, & by December 2005 I was a size 3. I owe all my success from such a strong support team. The Angels Network, & the support I got from my Post Op appointments with Dr. Madan & Dr. Tichansky. I owe them my life, for I no longer have any of the medical issues I had before my surgery, and my MVP is no longer as bothersome as it was before. I currently am a size 5/6 and is EXTREMELY happy with my outcome. I pray my story helps others who are on that rollercoaster that never seems to stop. Thank You Angels Network, Dr. Madan & Dr. Tichansky for all that you do! ~Catherine Harner ~Facebook Catherine Mistletoe Harner