Carl and Lynn Frair, 37 and 31, have struggled with obesity for most of their lives.
When they were growing up, their parents tried everything, including Weight Watchers for Lynn Frair at age 8 and Overeaters Anonymous for Carl Frair in junior high.
Nothing produced lasting results.
The Frairs found love when they met online in 2000, but their weight problems didn’t go away.
They had two love seats, but they couldn’t share either of them, with him weighing more than 400 pounds and her topping 300.
Both suffered from sleep apnea, acid reflux and hypertension.
Carl Frair, working long shifts as a chef partner at Buca di Beppo in Lynnwood, was suffering from heel pain caused by plantar faciitis. Lynn Frair, a registered nurse, was on more than a dozen medications, including blood pressure pills and antidepressants.
In August 2008, Lynn Frair received a sobering call from her doctor.
Her latest blood test showed signs of pre-diabetes. Her cholesterol test showed her triglyceride levels, fats found in the blood, were at 500, dangerously higher than the normal 150.
That’s when the couple decided to have a weight loss surgery known as gastric banding.
They went to Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in south Everett for the minimally invasive laparoscopic outpatient procedure in September 2008.
Since then, they’ve lost a collective 236 pounds, with Carl Frair going from 421 to 295 and Lynn Frair going from 326 to 216.
“It’s amazing,” said Lynn Frair, whose goal weight is 180. “I’ve never lived life as an adult at this weight. People treat you better.”
Next month Lynn Frair, who could barely run a lap around the track in high school, plans to run in the Jingle Bell Run & Walk, a 5K race in Seattle.
Carl, whose goal weight is 200, is enjoying their increased energy, which has inspired them to join a gym.
“I feel so awesome,” he said. “Now I want to get up and do things.”
The Frairs say none of it would have been possible without gastric banding, a surgery in which a band is permanently placed around the upper stomach, creating a small top pouch and a larger lower one.
Food enters the small pouch, creating a feeling of fullness, and slowly passes through to the rest of the stomach.
Gastric bands have become the Frairs’ built-in portion control.
Their stomachs simply cannot hold much more than a half a cup of food. If they eat too much, it comes right back up.
It hasn’t been a quick fix. The Frairs’ weight has come off slowly, about 1 to 2 pounds per week.
And they’ve had to completely relearn how to approach food.
Before, they could consume thousands of calories a day. Now they eat small meals every four or five hours, typically about 3 ounces of meat and a few ounces of vegetables, usually about 1,200 calories a day.
They rarely eat rice, pasta or bread because such sticky, starchy foods can clog the space between the two stomach pouches and cause vomiting.
They also must avoid high-calorie liquids such as milkshakes and sodas, which can easily cause weight gain.
Carl Frair dearly misses soda, but he sees the sacrifice as a commitment to their investment, about $35,000 for both their surgeries, plus a year of after care, nutrition classes and online support tools.
Patients with gastric bands must also learn how to control emotional eating, said Dr. Robert Michaelson, the Frairs’ bariatric surgeon at Northwest Weight Loss Surgery.
Though some people can permanently drop all their excess weight, studies have shown that, on average, patients with gastric bands lose about 60 percent of their excess body weight in the long term.
“There are so many people who think it’s magic,” said Michaelson, who said patients must still change their eating habits. “What distinguishes this from a diet is the absence of hunger.”
The Frairs will live with the bands, which are meant to be permanent, for the rest of their lives.
Lynn Frair will likely be able to keep hers in place when she and her husband have children, which they hope to do after they reach their goal weights.
Lynn Frair is relieved to not be hungry all the time.
“It calms down that hunger so you can think logically. The band is there when you’re weak, physically or emotionally. It tells you to stop,” she said. “Now, with the band, I have to remind myself to eat.”
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Resources
What is gastric banding? Gastric banding is a minimally invasive laparoscopic outpatient surgery in which a band is placed around the upper stomach, creating a small top pouch and a larger lower one.
Doctors can adjust the tightness of the band, and therefore the flow of food, by injecting or withdrawing saline from a port implanted underneath the skin of the abdomen. Flexible tubing connects the port to the band.
Realize (www.realize.com) and Lap-Band (www.lapband.com) are two of the most commonly implanted adjustable gastric bands available in the United States. See an animated video of how the Realize surgery works at tinyurl.com/ye3ycqr. Northwest Weight Loss Surgery, 125 130th St. SE, Everett; 866-350-2263; www.nwwls.com, offers both types of bands.
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