Lifelong Maryville resident Ron Martin remembers well the day he decided it was time to make a change and lose the weight that was crippling his health.
“My father died of congestive heart failure,” says Martin. “It was a very rough death and very traumatic for my mother, sister and me. The morning of my father’s death I promised my mother that if there was anything I could do to keep from dying that way I was going to do it. I made up my mind that morning I was going to lose weight.”
After conducting a great deal of Internet research and talking to a lot of people, Martin decided that gastric bypass surgery was the best option for his situation. Clearly, Martin made the right decision. He lost 160 pounds in only a year and a half.
When asked to compare his life before surgery with life after surgery, Martin said, “No comparison. Before surgery, I was morbidly obese, had Type 2 diabetes, had very little energy, and I mostly sat around and ate all the time. I didn’t have a very good outlook on life.” After surgery, Martin says that he is proud of himself and the way he looks, and he has his energy back. “I have an 18-year-old grandson who has a hard time keeping up with me,” says Martin.
In addition to having good things to say about his life after surgery, Martin had lots of praise for the Foothills physicians and staff. “I love them all. They’re not physicians anymore; they’re not nurses anymore. They’re friends.”
Martin closed by saying about weight loss surgery: “It’s not a magic bullet, but it is exactly what I needed to achieve what I had been trying to do for years. It set the boundary for me to go forward and achieve what I have achieved. I went into this knowing it would take work, and it does take work.”
To learn if bariatric surgery is right for you, attend one of our free surgical weight loss seminars. Register today.