"Let me tell you about my journey and how my life has changed with the KCH Bariatric Medicine team’s help."
"At the end of May 2019, I saw an ad on Facebook for the KCH Medical Weight Loss program. It was advertising an information session. I had been pondering the idea of surgery all year and knew I needed to do something, make changes in my life. I had made appointments for a clinic in Columbus and always canceled or rescheduled for one reason or another. As soon as I saw the KCH ad, I immediately called and booked a consultation appointment and RSVP’d for the information session.
June 4th, 2019, I went to the information session and listened to the presentation. I walked out of there scared and nervous, but also excited and motivated. Finally, I was going to do something for myself. The next day I went to my consultation and never looked back. I hit the road running with tests, appointments, and procedures, all to get ready for Dr. McLaughlin to give me a surgery date. I had a few setbacks due to my anemia and insurance, but finally, the day came, and I got my date, February 4th, 2020.
Once again, I was excited and scared, but the surgery day came and could not have gone any better. I spent two nights in the hospital and was sore but otherwise had no pain.
From the start of this journey to the surgery date, I seemed to be so consumed with appointments and preparing for surgery I barely realized I was losing weight. I know that seems strange, but suddenly, you are making the life choices to eat less, be more active, and just busy in general with life; the next thing you know, your down a pant size or two.
Going into this, I thought, oh man, I’m going to have to give up all the foods I love. While this is somewhat true, what I’ve found since surgery is that foods you used to love really aren’t as appealing as they were before surgery. I’ve heard this a lot from others on this journey, that we used to “live to eat, now we eat to live”. So true!
I have lost 120lbs and 10 pants sizes!!! I feel amazing. I used to hate to shop, and now, well, it’s fun!! I don’t sleep as much as I used to; I’m almost always up and doing something. I’m loving life!
The KCH Bariatric Medicine team has been amazing since day one, and I’m sure that made the process that much easier for me. Always supportive, always excited for the results, and bummed when we hit bumps in the road. I always felt they were right there with me. I couldn’t have imagined having surgery or working with any other team!
I will forever be grateful to Dr. McLaughlin, Amy, Natalie, and The Fitness Center Staff for helping to give me the tools to make my life better and a better me. Something that, before they came along, I just dreamed about."