Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery Testimonials
Bariatric surgeon Dr. Davis of Stamford Hospital has helped thousands of patients rediscover healthy, more active lives - and can help you, too. Experience the real-life before-and-after weight loss success stories of patients who have had bariatric surgical procedures, lost significant weight and improved their lifestyles. Let them inspire you to take the first steps to improve your own life.
Michele Pagnotta, 48, Lost 90 Pounds with Lap-Band Surgery
Now a size 9 ("sometimes an 8") after having bariatric lap-band surgery performed by Dr. Daniel Davis, Michele Pagnotta says she could not imagine feeling prouder of herself. "After having heard my whole life about how pretty I would be if I only lost weight, for the first time in my life I feel good about how I look," she said. She has more energy too. "I feel like I am 29 - and that's interesting, because I'm 48!," said the mother of two college students.
Pagnotta calls the lap band procedure "my miracle." "The lap band gave me control over my weight problem - it's true that it's 99% psychological but I needed something to help me. I just knew I couldn't do this on my own," she said. At five feet, two inches and 238 pounds (size 22), Pagnotta said she had a friend who had lost a great deal of weight with the procedure and one day, she knew it was her turn. "I looked in the mirror and said this is enough - I don't want to be miserable for the rest of my life. From that day on, I never looked back." At the time said Pagnotta, her BMI was a sky-high 58 - it's now down to 25. Now she said, "My challenge now is getting my brain to catch up to my body - I am still used to thinking of myself and seeing myself as fat!"
Five years after lap band surgery and Pagnotta said she hasn't found them difficult or even uncomfortable. She did not find the surgery particularly painful, and the moderate discomfort she did experience was gone after just one week. She found the limited food intake of the first few months to be positive: "It helped me gain control, which I needed. After two months I had lost 20 pounds, which I'd never have achieved on my own - and that time flies!" Pagnotta reports that she has had no difficulties whatsoever with her band post-surgery, which has been adjusted just four times in five years. (The adjustment is performed through a port that is left in place - Pagnotta said she can feel it if she looks for it, but it's not noticeable and it doesn't bother her at all.)
"The care I received - and continue to receive - is wonderful," she said. "Dr. Davis was very sweet and attentive. He explained the whole procedure for me and came to see me in the recovery room and told me I was in very good hands. And as for Dory Ferraro - I can't say enough good about her! She's very supportive, she really listens and she's always there when you need her."
Pagnotta highly recommends the bariatric procedure she received at Stamford Hospital to others who are struggling with their weight. "If you are at an unhealthy weight, there is really no reason not to do this - it's a matter of getting past the fear and just going through with it," she said. "It's a simple procedure that can fix your problem. Why not do this for yourself? You'll feel better, look better and be healthier too."
With her Italian heritage, Pagnotta said that she still loves making - and eating - ravioli, but she's not tempted to overeat. "I don't have 10 raviolis, I have two. I feel satisfied, not denied - I can eat like a normal person and feel full, since I no longer have that 'lion appetite.' I don't miss the way I used to eat at all - I have control over it, it doesn't have control over me!"
Ron Annette, 156 Pounds Lost and Off All Medications - "It's a New Me!"
Ron Annette, 52, was - in the words of his doctor - a "walking time bomb." "Before my surgery I was taking two injections and three pills a day just to keep my sugar (diabetes) under control. I was on blood pressure medication, a pill for acid reflux, cholesterol medications and I had to use a CPAP machine to sleep, since I had sleep apnea (snoring and I'd stop breathing) due to my obesity. I was paying $156 a month in co-pays - ouch!"
Today, having lost 156 pounds as a result of his 2007 gastric bypass operation, Annette is now off all medications. "I feel 100% better! I don't have to check my sugar anymore - it has been great. It has been three years and aside from some aches and pains that have to do with getting older ... it's like a new me."
Annette began to consider obesity surgery after a Caribbean vacation he took with his wife and friends. "While sightseeing, I had to stop every two blocks because my back hurt and I was out of breath," he recalls. "I had some serious health problems. I was addicted to food and had a ton of bad habits. I knew it was time to do make a change. I consulted with Dory Ferraro (clinical director of Stamford Hospital's Surgical Weight Loss Program) & Dr. Daniel Davis and decided that gastric bypass would be the best choice for me." As he approached the date of his surgery, Annette said he began to get nervous. "But, when I voiced my concern to Dory, she said something that really hit home for me - she said, 'nobody has ever asked for the weight back!' And that was it for me … I realized that it's only food... It's time to take control."
Annette said he is not the only one who is pleased with the change. "My wife and daughter are delighted with the changes me - so much so, in fact, that my daughter had the same procedure, also performed by Dr. Davis, this past May - and by October, she'd already lost 85 pounds."
He reports that he is happy with the results. "I enjoy talking to other patients in the group sessions - I feel the mutual support we provide one another is a critical component of my success. There are some foods I just don't eat anymore - sometimes it bothers me, but then I just remind myself that when I did eat them, I ate enough for a lifetime. That was the old me … and it's time to move on."
Michelle Parchesky Had Gastric Bypass Surgery - Now She's Always at the Gym!
With the help of Dr. Daniel Davis, director of Stamford Hospital's Center for Weight Loss Surgery, Michelle Parchesky turned a lifelong struggle with her weight into a victory … and a new way of life.
"As far back as I can remember, I struggled with my weight," she recalls. "Now my struggle is to make my mental image match who I really am! This is the best thing I have ever done for myself."
When she went in for her Gastric Bypass surgery, Parchesky weighed 265 pounds. It wasn't a decision she made lightly - she first joined Weight Watchers at the age of 12, trying it many times over the years along with NutriSystems and a variety of other medical weight loss programs. Nothing worked. "It really affected my self-esteem. I got used to hearing that I was 'so pretty but …'"
The quality of her life was deeply affected, she said. "By the time I had gotten through the process of going through all the tests, the arthritis in my knees had gotten so bad I could no longer go up and down stairs easily. My family was against it because they didn't understand what was involved, but I had done my research - I told them that with or without their support, I was going to do this. It was that important to me."
Looking back, Parchesky says she'd make the same decision again, "in a minute!" "I have more energy, I don't just want to go to sleep all the time. I'm at the Health & Fitness Institute at Tully all the time now. I work out with a trainer, run around the track, lift weights. Now people have to work hard to keep up with me!"
The surgery was not as painful as she thought it would be, she said. "When I think back, the hardest part was the liquid diet I was on for the two weeks prior to the surgery," she said. "But I was energized to do it and succeed - because I was working toward this goal." While she did have some discomfort after her gastric bypass, it lasted only a few days. She said that her "psychological hunger" came back before she began to feel hungry again physically, but with the extensive education she had received, she knew how to take care of herself. Her weight came off very steadily over the next several years and Pareshky said that she now is able to eat very normally (though this is not true for all or even most patients who've had gastric bypass surgery).
"Eating is different for me now though," she said. "When I compare the way I eat now to my eating previously, it's very different - it's much more planned, I eat much better foods and I eat less than I did. I eat like a normal person." Not only that, she said, "I feel like a normal person too. If I am on a plane, I don't feel like the person no one wants to sit next to. If someone needs to describe me, they don't say to look for the fat one - they say I am the one with red hair and green eyes."
Parchesky acknowledges that maintaining her new weight isn't quite automatic and says it will likely always be something she has to work on. "This is a tool and not a quick fix or a sure-fire cure. Even with the gastric bypass surgery, you have to understand that you will need to be careful for the rest of your life - and people need to understand that. But I now know what it takes to stay healthy and I have to say, this is the best thing I have ever done for myself."