Gastric Bypass: Ready to Change

At age 53, Shariel had several doctors—a primary care physician treating her hypertension and osteoarthritis, a pulmonologist who’d prescribed a CPAP machine for sleep apnea, a cardiologist monitoring a rapid and irregular heartbeat, and an oncologist following up on non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in remission since 2005.

Shariel rarely went out because her weight embarrassed her. She was 5 feet 3 inches and 348 pounds and needed a scooter to get around the store. She’ll never forget the time a friend commented, “I can’t see your neck,” nor the day she went in for a cancer checkup and the technician said, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Guthrie, you don’t fit into our machine.” Her doctors encouraged her to consider weight-loss surgery, but the idea scared her. Then a long-time friend suffered a fatal heart attack brought on by years of obesity.

“She died right in her daughter’s arms,” Shariel recalled. “I told myself I would not go out like that.”

At Saint Luke’s Center for Surgical Weight Loss, John Price, M.D., recommended gastric bypass. A few months after her weight-loss surgery, she returned to her oncologist for tests. She weighed 200 pounds and could fit into the machine.

“That’s when it hit me. I’m doing it!” she said.

Today, Shariel’s blood pressure is good, her sleep apnea is gone, and her heart is healthy. She and her family will look at pictures and marvel over how much she has changed. Before surgery she could only watch her grandchildren play. Now she joins in the fun. Her 10-year-old grandson proclaimed, “I like this Mimi better!”

“I feel phenomenal. I’ve got my life back,” she says. “I think I’ll get a bike so I can ride with my grandchildren. It’s been 30 years since I rode one. I hope it’s true that you never forget!”