Patient Stories: Weight Loss Surgery

Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center

Sherri, Weight Loss Surgery
Staying Grateful

The new Sherri weighs 130 and runs six or seven miles four times a week. The old Sherri weighed 245, had obstructive sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome and breathed so heavily at night that her daughter would wake her because she was gasping for air.

Facing a lifetime of wearing a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask in order to breathe at night, Sherri chose weight-loss surgery instead.

“I’ve had the advantage of living a recovery-based life,” she said. “My head had been in the right place since October of 2000, but my body wasn’t. When I reached 245 pounds, I kept thinking that I wished my brain and body could meet and live together in harmony. I’d tried Weight Watchers and various other diets. Finally, I started researching weight-loss surgery and took a leap of faith.”

Bariatric surgeon Terry Scarborough, M.D., performed Sherri’s roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in April of 2005. Four days after the surgery she was in the supermarket, ready to start her new life.
   

“I would recommend weight-loss surgery to anyone,” she said. “When you don’t feel good and you don’t look good, you’re not in a good mood. I think one of my biggest gifts from the surgery is being able to sit at my son’s baseball game in a portable chair with my legs crossed. And I can even get out there now and play baseball with him.

“Weight-loss surgery is like everything else in life,” she added. “You get out of it what you put into it. It’s been a major lifestyle change, but I took my recovery program and applied it to my weight-loss journey. I have to plan my meals carefully and watch everything that goes into my mouth every minute of the day, but I take it one day at a time and stay grateful.”