Jani LaMonica, patient at MVHS Bariatric Group

Bariatric surgery literally saved my life.

But let’s start at the beginning, which was 10 years ago.

I was always thin in my childhood and early adult years. But after I had my children, not only could I not drop the pregnancy weight, but I was also gaining more weight.  

I am five feet four inches tall and I weighed 246 pounds. It was getting harder to do basic day-to-day activities. I was getting fed up that even simple tasks were so difficult. I tried to walk a mile and had to call for a ride after making it only halfway. It was hard to go out when it was hot out. I had developed diabetes and high cholesterol and had to take medications every day.

What really made me look into Bariatric surgery was losing my mother, who was obese, and weighed more than 300 pounds. She was only 51 when she passed away.

Back then I would dream about being thin again. I decided to stop dreaming and make it a reality. It wasn’t just about my weight. It was about my overall health.

I made an appointment with Dr. Graber’s office and decided on gastric bypass surgery.

When I was recovering from surgery, I was in a lot of pain and was second guessing myself, but then eventually the pain subsided and I started to go to the gym in addition to following the post-op diet. At first, I could only walk for 10 minutes, but eventually I worked up to a mile, something I couldn’t do just several months before.

One year after surgery I achieved my goal weight of 140 pounds. That made the entire journey worthwhile.

Eventually I added weight and strength training to my gym routine, and it was then I found a mass near my ribcage. My doctor said it was most likely scar tissue, but ordered a scan as a precaution.

It was just scar tissue, however, the scan revealed something else. I had a cancerous mass on my kidney.

I was lucky. We discovered it early at Stage 1A and I am now in full remission, but I never would have known it was there if I had not chosen to have gastric bypass.

Weight loss surgery saved my life.

I am happy to report than 10 years after surgery I have kept the weight off and I weigh 141.8 pounds – I used to be a size 20 and I am now a size five.

I no longer have diabetes or high cholesterol.

My advice to anyone considering having gastric bypass would be to have the right mindset. You have to follow the program and you have to change the way you eat. If you have the right attitude, if you eat how you’re supposed to, then you can have success too.