William (Bill) wmil
I'm a 61 year old male and have weighed as much as 385 pounds. As I approach my gastric bypass surgery date, I’m now down to 326 pounds. I’ve been overweight all my life, starting in early childhood. As a child, I ate all the wrong things, as my foster parents had little money and most of our meals consisted of potatoes, pasta, or rice - with very little fresh vegetables, lean meat or fresh fish.
After high school, I worked full time to pay my way through school at jobs that provided me lots of exercise. At that time in my life I was a healthy 5’9” and 195 pounds. I dated slender girls and soon married the love of my live, my current wife for over 40 years, Launi. She was 80 pounds soaking wet, and still is nearly a perfect weight for her age and height.
As I moved from labor intensive jobs to behind-the-desk jobs, my eating and exercise habits changed drastically and the weight began to pile on. By the time I was 26, I’d weighed as much as 300 pounds. By my 40’s, I’d grown my business to over 300 employees. Unfortunately, due to my weight and hypertension from work related stress, I had diabetes and was 385 pounds! In 2000 I decided to sell my company to reduce my stress and focus on my health. Since then, my blood pressure is under control, my A1C is 6.1 and my total cholesterol is 102. However, I’ve not been able to get my weight below 300 pounds.
I’ve tried every diet pill and program on the market. While they take off some weight, as soon as I try to maintain it, I gain it (plus more) back in less time then it took to lose it in the first place! My metabolism has become so slow I have to eat less than 1000 calories per day to lose any weight at all. Unfortunately, this causes me to become anemic due to lack of sufficient nutrients. The first time this happened my doctor sent me to an oncologist because they were concerned I had cancer due to my extremely low red blood count. Now, I take iron and other bariatric vitamins and minerals to keep everything in balance.
I’ve spent the last few years traveling to Bariatric lectures at various hospitals around My next step was to get approval from my insurance company, United Health Care. They approved the surgery with some conditions, including additional weight loss. After I spent 8 months meeting all the insurance requirements, Dr. Marema and US Bariatric opened a new center in I realize the magnitude of my condition and my surgery choice. Therefore, I’ve spent a great deal of time researching weight loss alternatives and understand the pros and cons of several different surgery options. I’ve found the best doctors to certify I’m physically capable of withstanding the surgery (especially important since I’ve had 5 heart stents since I retired 7 years ago), the best surgeons to perform the surgery, and I’m personally doing all I can to insure it’s success. In preparation, 4 weeks ago I restocked my home with the proper ingredients and started following the ‘after surgery’ diet and exercise programs created for me by U.S. Bariatric. Luckily, this along with maintaining 1000 calories per day, has allowed me to lose another 12 pounds!
This surgery will decrease my long-term treatment, medication and overall heath care costs. However, while United Health Care will benefit greatly from this surgery, they still refuse to participate in any way. In spite of everything, I’m determined to move forward to better health and a longer life.
Thanks for your support!
--Bill
