Getting Started on Your Weight-loss Surgery Journey - Iris' Story
| Date Posted: 5/6/2016
Getting Started on Your Weight-loss Surgery Journey: Iris’ Story
Iris Davis, a 55-year-old Moore County resident, has struggled with weight her entire life – until now.
After trying almost every diet known to man, including diet pills, she came to the conclusion that bariatric surgery was going to be the best option for her.
“After meeting with the FirstHealth Bariatric Team, I knew it was the right decision,” she says. “Dr. Grantham and Dr. Washington – and the entire team- were all so encouraging, kind and supportive, and I just knew this was the time and place to have the surgery.”
In December of 2014 Davis made the decision to undergo weight-loss surgery by way of the vertical sleeve gastrectomy at Moore Regional Hospital.
“It was like my life started all over again when I had the surgery.”
A Tool to Help Make a Change
Davis, a 55-year-old Moore County resident, has gone through ups and downs with weight-loss her entire life.
“I had genetic dispositions to weight and health issues – diabetes, obesity, heart disease.”
After nearly a lifetime of weight loss and then regain, she researched weight-loss surgery and pursued the opportunity.
“I remember one of my first meetings with the team,” she says. “They told me that weight-loss surgery was only a tool, and it would be my choices that would help me lose the weight. The surgery wasn’t a quick and easy option, but a major lifestyle change in all aspects – emotionally, mentally and physically.”
And for Davis, it has been the best tool she has ever used – in several ways.
Support Matters
Weight loss and weight maintenance were the initial goals for Davis, but since losing more than 98 pounds she has found a new outlook on life.
“This journey has been enlightening,” she says. “Weight hindered me in obvious ways before, but it took the surgery for me to realize how it hindered me in more mental and emotional ways, too.”
“I was very self-conscious. I isolated myself, and was ashamed and embarrassed of my outer appearance – which now just seems so ridiculous! That all changed when I had surgery.”
Shared experiences have encouraged Davis every step of the journey.
Bariatric Support Group has been what she says “the most helpful.”
“We get together and discuss our struggles and triumphs. Through other stories shared, I have learned that we are all in this together and to support one another. It has been a cleansing experience.”
Through hearing others stories she has found that bonds are formed through shared experiences – not perfection – something she didn’t realize in her old body.
“I am so thankful for this new lease on life,” she says. “I am thankful for the surgery, the doctors, the bariatric team, the facility and the technology behind it all so I could benefit from this tool. But most importantly, I am thankful for this new body. I am so proud of it. You only get one body in your lifetime – take care of it.”
Iris the night before surgery.
