Bridget Ok. O’Brien and her good friend, Carrie, had tried “all the pieces” to drop some pounds. Or thought that they had.
“We had been on a spa weekend in Wisconsin for my birthday in early 2020, with the picnic laid out earlier than us – wine, cheese, the works,” stated O’Brien, a Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer, and a former faculty athlete whose weight had grown to 310 kilos on her 5-foot, 10-inch body.
“As I reached for a chunk of cheese, I stated ‘possibly we’ll discover that magic capsule sometime.’ Our good friend, a nurse anesthetist at Silver Cross Hospital, requested if we had ever thought-about a gastric sleeve. She stated she had assisted with a lot of these procedures, they usually work.”
O’Brien, 43, and her good friend can testify to that. Since early 2020, every has misplaced greater than 100 kilos. O’Brien is right down to 178 kilos and has dropped from a Dimension 22 to a Dimension 10.
“My again doesn’t harm anymore; my knee doesn’t harm anymore, and I’m not drained on a regular basis,” she stated.
BMI Surgical procedure Program at Silver Cross
O’Brien and her good friend attended a program offered by Dr. Brian Lahmann of BMI Surgery. BMI surgeons have carried out over 10,000 weight reduction surgical procedures at Silver Cross Hospital, which has the one program in Will County that has been named a MBSAQIP accredited middle – Complete and Blue Distinction Heart for Bariatric Surgical procedure.
Throughout this system, they heard concerning the choices, together with gastric sleeve surgical procedure – which adjustments the form and measurement of your abdomen, lowering the quantity of meals you eat at one-time.
O’Brien stated she appreciated Dr. Lahmann’s no-nonsense strategy.
“He informed us, ‘You don’t see many individuals of their 90s who’re obese. Your weight is killing you,’” she stated. “It’s hurting your bones; you will have diabetes.”
“I noticed weight reduction was to maintain me alive and to be a superb instance to my 13-year-old son, who is also considerably obese.”
O’Brien and Carrie started the method as potential gastric sleeve sufferers, which included pulmonary, cardiac and psychological testing.
Bariatric surgical sufferers should do that earlier than being thought-about for surgical procedure, Dr. Lahmann stated, “to ensure their our bodies can deal with the process and to find out if there are any underlying causes that would undermine the surgical procedure.”
A Multi-disciplinary Strategy
Dr. Lahmann stated surgical procedure alone results in sufferers gaining the burden again. Silver Cross provides a broad vary of bariatric surgical procedure care providers, together with inpatient, post-operative, outpatient follow-up care and affected person schooling.
“The surgical procedure is only one side of a multi-disciplinary strategy to altering their way of life,” Dr. Lahmann stated.
Dedication to a significant way of life change is vital, and O’Brien stated she went all-in from the start. That included beginning her low-calorie, no-carb, high-protein eating regimen when her good friend did, though it was two weeks longer than she wanted to.
The eating regimen included two high-protein shakes a day, and a dinner with not more than 4 ounces of meat, a half cup of greens and a sugar-free Gatorade.
By the day of her surgical procedure, O’Brien had misplaced 17 kilos. Following the surgical procedure, she stated you already don’t really feel like consuming a lot; even the equipped nutritional vitamins are a little bit onerous to swallow.
However slowly, below Dr. Lahmann’s steerage, O’Brien – and her household – started normalizing the high-protein, no-carb eating regimen.
“My husband, Shane, was fairly scared concerning the surgical procedure,” she stated. “However afterward, he stated how proud he was of how brave I had been.”
Her son, additionally following the keto eating regimen, has misplaced 17 kilos. “Weight-reduction plan Buddy” Carrie, “Seems to be superb.
“However it’s not about appears. It’s about my general well being. And I’m so thrilled. Carrie and I spent years in search of a magic treatment for weight reduction. This surgical procedure just isn’t magic. It’s a software, and it requires dedication and work. However the outcomes positive do really feel magical!”
For extra info on weight reduction surgical procedure at Silver Cross Hospital, go to www.silvercross.org.
Silver Cross Hospital
1900 Silver Cross Blvd
New Lenox, IL 60451