SleevedSophisticate
Hi! I’m Sara, a 27-year-old Gastric Sleeve patient. Like many weight loss surgery patients, I have been overweight since childhood. I struggled with teasing throughout elementary, middle, and high school, but my weight never really held me back or negatively affected my physical health. Overall, I maintained a good level of self-esteem by excelling in school, involving myself in extracurricular activities, and surrounding myself with a large group of fun, supportive friends. This pattern continued until I transferred to my second college, which had a demanding 24/7 schedule. I also worked late hours at my part-time job, and while I was happy, I began eating unhealthy food because it was convenient — and I gained about 75 pounds over the course of a year. After graduation, I went through a long transition period, trying to find a job in the music industry and eventually going back to school. The stress of this time caused me to binge eat, and I suddenly found myself with a full-blown case of binge eating disorder in 2004. I had also gained another 75 pounds! Through all this, I had, of course, tried every diet known to man, including Weight Watchers, Atkins, Xenical, grapefruit juice, cabbage soup, and even New Lifestyle, an all-liquid diet. Weight Watchers worked the best, and I lost around 50 pounds, but since I hadn’t dealt with the binge eating disorder, all the weight came back and then some. Finally, in 2006, I left school for a semester, took classes on-line, and sought treatment for my binge eating disorder. Luckily, a few sessions with a therapist from my local hospital’s counseling program got me on the road to recovery, and I was able to return to college, even graduating summa cum laude in 2007. After graduation, I knew it was finally time to deal with my weight, once and for all, before moving on with my “adult” life. I had overcome binge eating disorder, and I was mentally ready to lose the weight. Unfortunately, 150+ pounds of excess weight wasn’t going to disappear overnight, and might not disappear at all without something drastic. This is when I began to research weight loss surgery, and I finally decided on Lap-Band in October of 2007. After attending an informational seminar at my local hospital, I had a consult with Dr. Ray and started the process of becoming a Lap-Band patient. Since I didn’t have a job with insurance at the time, my parents offered to refinance their house to pay for the surgery, which was absolutely amazing of them! But the refinance couldn’t be done until January 2008, so I had to wait for the surgery. In the meantime, I got a job with insurance, saw a plethora of doctors, and found out Dr. Colquitt, the other surgeon in the bariatric practice, was offering Gastric Sleeve surgery. Because it is still considered “investigational” by most insurance companies, self-pay patients were really the only ones who had the option of the new surgery. After researching this new option, I decided it was a better fit for me than Lap-Band, so I made another consultation appointment, this time with Dr. Colquitt, and became his first Gastric Sleeve patient! I hope this surgery will help me lose my excess weight and get physically healthy, so I can move on with the rest of my life and accomplish my personal and professional goals.
