Denise Wood and sister Delores Bode always dieted together. The Everett women had tried to lose weight through the years, but the pounds always piled back on.
Bode called her sister one day to talk to her about a new weight-loss surgery. Before long, the two women found themselves in a doctor’s office sitting on low couches they couldn’t get up from.
That would be one of the last times their weight would hinder them from doing simple things such as tying their shoes or getting out of a chair.
Dan Bates / The Herald
The sisters both decided to have laparoscopic band surgery, a 45-minute procedure, usually outpatient, where doctors wrap a band around the upper stomach to make a small pouch about the size of a golf ball. Food then moves slowly through the smaller stomach and into the larger one so the patient feels full quickly and for longer.
Lap band surgery is reversible and adjustable, and it is less invasive than gastric bypass surgery, in which the smaller stomach is connected directly to the small intestine, bypassing the larger part of the stomach.
Wood, 43, had spent much of her life overweight, feeling depressed, desperate and overwhelmed.
At size 24, Wood had taken a dream trip to Europe. She thought she looked pretty good until she saw the photographs of herself at the Louvre in Paris and realized she was as big as some of the statues. She weighed 250 pounds then.
The surgery took place in February 2003. Wood said she felt scared when she checked in at the hospital, but she was determined to go ahead. “I also felt like this was my chance,” Wood said.
Within two days of having the procedure, Wood was walking. Within a week she was strolling downtown Snohomish shopping for antiques.
“In the beginning, you just want to be healthy,” Wood said. “Take a walk with your family.”
The energy Wood had been lacking for years came back. She was more confident and assertive. She began participating in life again.
“Just because you have weight-loss surgery doesn’t mean you will be successful in losing weight,” Wood said. “It’s a tool.”
A self-described emotional eater, Wood now tries to substitute exercise for food. She went from 250 pounds to 135 in one year.
| Weight-loss surgery
For more information on the Northwest Weight Loss Surgery clinic, call 425-899-4610 or go to www.thelapband.com. |
Wood’s sister Delores Bode was a newlywed when she underwent lap band surgery three months after Wood’s surgery.
Bode had been married for a year, and at 283 pounds she wore a size 26 or 28. When her wedding pictures were taken, Bode’s husband could not get his arms around his bride.
She had fibromyalgia and high blood pressure, and she had to wear a device to treat sleep apnea.
“I was definitely falling apart,” said Bode, who is 50.
During her weight loss, her husband would measure her progress by stretching his arms around her.
When she lost a significant amount of weight, Bode bought a motorbike and leather pants.
Bode said she regained about 15 pounds this winter by making bad choices. If she eats too much, she gets the hiccups and knows it’s time to stop.
“You have to listen to your body,” she said.
Two years after the surgery, Bode weighs 183 pounds.
The sisters’ surgeries motivated a younger sibling, Debbie Verley of Centralia, who at 305 pounds was considering her options.
“I was desperate,” Verley, 45, said.
Her husband suggested they take the $17,000 for lap band surgery out of their savings. What good was it, he said, to keep the money for “down the road” if Verley wasn’t going to be there to enjoy it with him and their two adopted children?
Verley underwent the procedure in August. Her type 2 diabetes is gone, she walks every day, she can clip her own toenails and she now weighs less than she did 20 years ago.
She has lost 73 pounds since her surgery.
Dr. Kevin Montgomery of Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Kirkland performed the gastric banding surgery on the three sisters.
Both he and his partner, Dr. Brad Watkins, surgeons at the Everett Clinic, opened their Kirkland clinic in September 2002.
Montgomery said the band surgery has been used in Europe and Australia for about 12 years. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for use in the United States four years ago.
“This is a procedure for people who are seriously overweight,” Montgomery said.
The National Institutes of Health suggests people whose body mass index is more than 40 or who are 100 pounds or more overweight, or those with BMIs between 35 and 40 who have weight-related problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure, consider weight-loss surgery.
The band procedure is simpler and more straightforward than gastric bypass surgery, Montgomery said, and it is less risky. “Probably 10 times lower risk than bypass,” he said.
The surgery takes 45 minutes to an hour, and 80 percent of patients go home the same day. Gastric bypass takes two to four hours to perform and patients often face a hospital stay of two or more days.
After lap band surgery, patients can start eating about one-fourth to one-half a cup of food at a time, a few times a day.
Once the band is in place, the bottom part of the stomach is folded up, and three or four sutures anchor the pouch in place. The band has a tube connected to a reservoir that is placed under the skin of the abdomen. Doctors can tighten or loosen a circular balloon around the lap band by injecting saline into the port.
Studies show weight-loss amounts are similar for both bypass and band surgeries, Montgomery said.
He stressed that surgery is a tool rather than a cure for obesity.
People with serious underlying medical conditions are not good candidates for lap band procedures. Candidates also are asked to see a psychologist while being evaluated for the surgery.
Depression is common in people who are overweight, Montgomery said. “We want to screen for that.
“Everybody has a psychological side to eating … to some degree,” Montgomery said. “It’s impossible to predict who is going to struggle with that afterward. The psychological and emotional part doesn’t go away just because you have a band in.”
Montgomery encourages patients to attend support group meetings and make wise food choices and a commitment to exercise.
A fourth sister, Donna Bryant, is not telling anyone what she weighs until she starts losing weight. She’s scheduled for surgery at the end of June.
“I weigh more than I’ve ever weighed,” Bryant, 54, said.
But her sisters’ success is encouraging. “Denise said her husband says she’s a cheap date,” Bryant said. “I wanna be a cheap date, too.”
They all say they would have the surgery again without a doubt. They believe they are adding years with better health and by making better choices.
“We had four significant deaths in our family in one year,” Verley said. “It drew us together.”
Woods maintains that losing weight means losing grumpy cells. “We’re just happier,” she said. “I love these girls over there a lot.”
“I think we plan on sticking around for a while,” Bryant added.
Reporter Christina Harper: 425-339-3491 or harper@heraldnet.com.
Weight-loss surgery
For more information on the Northwest Weight Loss Surgery clinic, call 425-899-4610 or go to www.thelapband.com.
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