Debi George was on the diet roller coaster and her health was not enjoying the ride. “I tried years of diets, weight watchers, diet supplements, doctors, HCG, and many more fad diets losing and gaining and up and downs,” she explains. While her weight went up and down, her blood sugar and blood pressure kept going up. “My diabetes was out of control, as well as my blood pressure, more importantly, my self esteem and feelings of poor self worth.”
For Debi, it was both an emotional and physical toll. “I never felt good,” she adds. “Walking from my car into my house, I would be out of breath. My diabetes was affecting my eyes and my skin was breaking down. My real eye opener was having an aunt who lost a limb and soon after her life with complication of diabetes. It was a wakeup call for me.”
Debi started looking for options again. This time she considered bariatric surgery, but noticed she kept stumbling over one obstacle – a small, but persistent voice in her head. “I would argue with myself saying, ‘that is the lazy way out Debi, you should be able to have the self control to lose weight,’” she says.
A network of close friends not only encouraged Debi to take the next step, they showed her a path to a new life. “Several friends had been successful after the bariatric surgery,” she adds. “I began to have hope.”
Next, Debi says she worried about her own support network. “I knew the biggest hurdle would be convincing my husband,” she says. “When I expressed my fears of dying before I could see my grandchildren grow up, he agreed to attend a seminar with me.”
It was at that seminar, Debi found a turning point when she learned more about The Center for Bariatrics at Bailey Medical Center and met Dr. Kirk. “He was so down to earth and immediately put us both at ease,” Debi recalls. “His statement that the tool to lose weight was broken with many people and the percentage of people that lose weight and keep it off was tremendously low, put everything in perspective for me. All those years of beating myself up and having feelings of failure - hope was finally starting to bloom.”
Today, after her May 28, 2013 surgery, the physical and emotional burden of riding her weight up and down and back up has been replaced with enjoying family, better health and life again. “I have lost 73 pounds and have gone from a size 20 to a size 6,” she adds. “I can enjoy a brisk walk with my husband and play with my grandchildren without losing my breath. I don’t hide from crowds or people I haven’t seen in years. My joy is back! I am off all my medications. I feel wonderful! Thank you Dr. Kirk and the Bariatric Team for helping me get my life back!