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“If you want it bad enough, anything is possible!”
Lindsey is a 29-year-old account executive at KHAK, KDAT and KRNA radio stations who struggled with severe obesity for several years. She is one year out from a Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass and has lost 136 lbs.
“Dr. Samuel and his caring staff changed my life. I have lost 136 lbs after having the gastric bypass surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I was fully prepared for everything before, during and after surgery because of the program at UI Hospitals and Clinics.
“I was at my breaking point when I heard about Gastric Bypass Surgery. It was Thanksgiving 2002 and I was embarrassed and depressed. Nothing fit and my body ached. I had trouble sitting comfortably in an airplane seat and had developed gout. I had reached my all time highest weight of 269 pounds. I’ve struggled with my weight since the age of seven when I was diagnosed with a curable disease of my right hip.
“Of course, I always used that as my excuse forgetting big because I had been taken out of almost every sport was in at the time. But I also used this as my excuse long after I was cured. The excuses needed to stop. I was slowly killing myself with food. I went from weight loss program to weight loss program, always searching for a magic pill, something to cure my mind with the extreme embarrassment and depression I felt as a result.
I was upset with myself. I had my life on track other than my weight. I found the love of my life and had a supportive family, a fun rewarding job, have traveled throughout Southeast Asia with only a backpack and a dream of adventure, but the one thing, no matter how many different diets I had tried or programs I had been on, the weight always came back. It was the one thing I could not get a grasp on. I loved food so much.
“Gastric Bypass was the “tool” I needed to accomplish the one thing I couldn’t do on my own. Just as important as the surgery, it was the way I was prepared by my nurse, Debi and my surgeon, Dr. Isaac Samuel. They were with me 100 percent of the way. They encouraged me and supported me. They still are supporting me even a year after my surgery date.
“I’ve made a lifelong commitment to this surgery and to the people who have helped me get there that I will succeed and I will encourage others to succeed as well.
I would do this a million times over knowing the joy it has brought me. I have such a bright future ahead now! I don’t feel bad when I move or see pain in my eyes when I look in a mirror. I have a second chance to live my life the way I have always dreamed. Thank You Dr. Samuel, Thank you, Debi for helping me with that second chance.
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