“I struggled with obesity most of my life. I became a high school athlete, and I did lose some weight and got in shape. But then once I went away to college, I gained the freshman 15 and struggled with my weight from my early 20s to my late 30s.”
Art Gonsalves, a 58-year-old financial advisor from East Setauket, worked on Wall Street in his 20s and 30s as a regional salesperson. “I was constantly entertaining, wining and dining, eating rich foods and having a grand old time.”
Samantha met with the team and recalls that the Medical Director of the Center spoke to her and put his hand on her shoulder and said, ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to help you.’ This gave Samantha a lot of confidence that they were going to help her change her life.
“I’ve been on and off diets my whole life. I was bullied my whole life due to being overweight. This was the best thing I ever did for myself,” she said. “I’m 68 and I’m living my best life now. I was about 325 pounds. Now I’m between 175 and 180.”
I suffered with obesity for more than 20 years. My kids were getting older and I realized it was time for me to get my own life since I had lived my life for them for the last 20 years.
The gastric sleeve surgery changed my life in so many ways. I’m a different person. I’m more confident walking into a room. I’m more open to making new friends and new relationships. People look at you differently when you’re morbidly obese. They treat you differently.
When Russell Brown was admitted to Mather Hospital in 2015 with an infection in his foot and his sugars spiraling, he knew it was time for a change. “I had tried dieting. I’ve dieted and lost a hundred pounds and gained it right back,” said Mr. Brown. After developing diabetes at 30 years old, he decided it was time for a more permanent solution to keep the weight off and his sugars under control. Mr. Brown was then introduced to the director of Mather Hospital’s Center of Excellence in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery™.
Kelly Clark feels like she has lived two different lives. “My whole life started over for me after surgery,” Kelly said. “It was a new beginning, a new time to focus on myself, on my goals, on my marriage, on my career and really to just be happy — and that has been the best gift I’ve ever received. “I’m not Kelly who was really fat before. I’m not Kelly who had weight loss surgery. I’m just Kelly. And that is awesome.”
Something just wasn’t adding up for Anthony Santangelo. What he thought were the good things in life, especially his insatiable appetite for his wife’s excellent cooking, were making him feel horrible. “I just felt terrible,” said Anthony, a safety supervisor, who was 350 pounds with a 56-inch waist. “It was getting worse and worse, I was really obese and it affected my sleep at night.”
MaryLouise and Lee Meltzer have been inseparable for more than 30 years. They share so much, from their love of swimming to rooting for the New York Yankees to finishing each other’s sentences. But one thing they never expected to share was being obese. Or having bariatric surgery.
Monica Freyberg is the living embodiment of before-and-after. “My life before the surgery was boring, uneventful and like a prison,” she said. “After the surgery I have to say I feel blessed, excited and fortunate.” Before bariatric surgery with the director at the Mather Hospital Bariatric Center of Excellence, the 38-year-old mother of two felt she “was trapped in somebody else’s body.”