Katie, a coordinator with UT Medical Center’s Comprehensive Stroke Center, has served in health care for her entire career. But when she was hospitalized in March 2021 due to a sudden spike in her blood pressure, she realized that her significant, years-long weight gain had become detrimental to her health.
“COVID was not an easy time to be in health care,” Katie said. “We just buckled down and did what we needed to do to survive and take care of patients and each other. But my personal health fell to the wayside. It just wasn’t my priority or my focus.”
A month after the blood pressure scare, Katie moved from her job in emergency medical services (EMS) to her current role at UT Medical Center and was settling into a more predictable routine. Early in 2022, Katie made her first call to University Bariatric Center to better understand the weight loss program and its process. “Leading up to that, I had thought about weight loss surgery, but I never talked about it, never mentioned it to anyone. I thought of it as the easy way out.”
Katie did some research online and talked with a friend who was currently in the program. She participated in a virtual seminar conducted by Dr. Kyle Kleppe, a surgeon with the Bariatric Center, and received helpful information about the program and various surgery options. Once she joined, Katie said, “I have never had an experience in a doctor’s office where I walked in and felt so immediately comfortable. They’re like a family.” She spent the next few months educating herself, building a new routine, taking classes and participating in meetings at the center.
“It’s an inside job,” Katie said. “It’s retraining your brain, creating new habits and being serious about it.” As part of the program, Katie kept a food diary and was taken aback by the amount of calories she was mindlessly consuming in any given day. The support groups at the center were helpful in Katie’s journey as well. “The groups are open to people who are thinking about surgery, people on the path toward surgery, and people who are months and years after their surgeries,” she said. “It’s really great to see people like me – they know exactly how I’m feeling.”
In August 2022, Katie opted for the gastric sleeve surgery, leaving her with a stomach she described as “a pouch about the shape of a banana.” At that time, she had lost 60 pounds over the course of the program and after the surgery. Now, more than a year later, Katie has lost nearly 130 pounds in total. “It’s significant, and it feels good for people to notice the hard work I’ve put into my health,” she said, “But the outside is nothing to compared to how I feel inside – how good it feels to be healthier.”
As for thinking the process is the easy way out, Katie now knows there’s nothing easy about it. “It’s a tool that supports you in making good choices,” she said. “When you’re used to taking care of others, it’s a challenge sometimes to do something for yourself. But it’s absolutely worth it. I did not realize how bad I felt until I felt this good. Now I can provide more support in the job that I love.”