Weight loss surgery is not a quick fix it is a lifelong commitment to improving your health. The success of this commitment depends largely on who you choose to go on this journey with you, namely your surgeon and bariatric surgery team.
Sean Johnson was camping at Duck Creek Village in southern Utah, when he lay down to sleep on the cot he d recently purchased. That 2013 summer, six-foot-five Sean weighed 650 pounds and the cot was supposed to support 700 pounds of body weight. Instead it broke and he burst into tears. Is this life worth living right now? he asked himself. His answer was no. He told his wife, For the first time ever, I can tell you I m not happy with who I am and I don t know how to change it.
The then-30-year-old had struggled with his weight all his life, but this was the breaking point. His family doctor told him his weight wasn t only a physical issue connected to exercise and diet, but also a mental one. Sean had been sexually abused as a child and that devastating trauma and the shame, guilt and fear it had bred had significantly contributed to his weight gain. I was stuck in survival mode. I wasn t thinking about my future, just that I have to live.