Before & After RNY with Samira, down 120 pounds!
August 4, 2020Before & After RNY with Samira - Why I Decided to Have WLS!
Before & After RNY with Samira
Growing up in a wealthy family, I was a very spoiled girl as I was the only girl after two boys for a long time (14 years) until my little sister came. With my culturally loving food, I inherited the obesity which caused me so many health issues.
As a big school girl, I would like to enjoy the experience of doing more activities. Instead, I start suffering from high blood pressure and being overweight. Every time I tried to get involved in any activities like dancing, running, and basketball, I got turned down because of my weight.
I got picked on and bullied by some of my skinny classmates. Growing up with a really low self-esteem, I didn’t really choose my husband. My family chose that for me. I agreed because I thought that no one else would take a fat ugly girl other than someone older than me by 12 years and basically looking for my dad's wealth.
Sure enough, my husband left me after two years of marriage after my dad passed away leaving me with a year-old baby.
That killed my self-esteem even more and food then became my only friend.
With my son and myself, I traveled to many countries seeking a better life for us. 15 years ago we were blessed by coming here to the USA and he went to school.
I got into some colleges but with my weight, I was always embarrassed to be social.
I gained a lot of weight through the years which caused me so many health problems. I lost my older brother a couple of years ago and he was only 38. He died from a stroke and he was obese too. This was a wake-up call for me, I had two TIAs and the last one was harder and put me in a wheelchair for a whole year.
It only got worse when I had a bilateral Carotid tumor and my weight reached 295lbs. That was when my son graduated from ASU and I was in a wheelchair. It was very hard for me even to stand straight next to him for a picture.
When I went home, I cried so hard. It was then that I decided I want to be here for his wedding. And, if I wanted to be here to see his kids I had to lose weight. I was determined that for his Medical school graduation picture, I won’t be the same fat person in a wheelchair.
Of course, I tried almost everything for a year but my weight kept bouncing between 295 and 270lbs. Then, I got depressed again and gained weight until I was 285. My cardiologist told me that he would give me a year if I continued like I was. My cardiologist went on to tell me to start looking for a WLS surgeon. I got turned down by two of them due to my health conditions. Finally, thank God, Dr. Blackstone who is known by taking the hard challenging cases, accepted to operate on me.
Before & After RNY with Samira
Name: Samira
Total Weight Loss: 120lbs.
Surgery Type: RNY
Surgery Date: 04/03/2017
Surgeon: Dr. Robin Blackstone
My Surgery and Post Op Life
On April 3, 2017, I had my RNY surgery. I didn’t share my journey with anyone, not even with my own son who was living with me at this time. Of course, it was out of the fear of failing as all of the diets that I had tried.
I woke up the day of surgery and drove my car to the hospital by myself. They asked me “who is here with you?” My answer: “No one.” The nurse asked me, “Who can we contact if something goes wrong?” I told the nurse, “My Son but please don’t unless something goes really wrong.”
Then to my surprise, the surgical nurse who was following me since I started the process came to talk to me. The nurse convinced me that I needed to tell someone that I was having surgery today. So, I had to call my son crying explaining that I’m doing this for him so he doesn’t have to wheel me around or having to hold me to take a picture with him in his coming graduation from medical school.
My surgery went well with minimal complications. I stayed in the hospital for five days. On my discharge day, my surgical nurse came back to check on me. After a nice chat, she introduced me to the ObesityHelp community. She said, “I think it might be helpful for you to be among people on the same journey as you, I don’t want you to go through this by yourself. We are stronger together and I recommend you to try to go attend their conference which is usually held in October and I think this year, it’ll be in CA”.
I went home focused on healing and discovered a support group and met a very good friend. We started talking and she encouraged me to go check out the ObesityHelp conference. My response was "I’m not ready to go public yet, plus I’m still fat. What are people there going to think of me?"
But she kept pushing me and thank God she did. The first time I attended was the OH2017 Conference and it was the best. I felt so energized, inspired by so many successful stories, and so many positive people. At the Conference, I felt that I was at home, I felt I was among my people.
I came back from the trip and had opened up more. It has been three years and I'm forward to the next conference. Every time I attend, I get the feeling like I did the first time.
Before & After RNY with Samira: Actually, OH2019 impacted me the most. It reminded me that each and every one of us are beautiful, and are definitely worth the fight even if I have to battle with some weight regain after three years post-op. The ObesityHelp community is always there to pick me up when I fall.
Special Milestones & Non-Scale Victories
I can’t tell you how much happiness I had when I was standing next to my son without any support for his Medical school graduation picture.
My goal after surgery was to give up my wheelchair and start to use a walker instead. But as the pounds were dropping, I feel lighter and healthier.
I was walking better and even jogging. My biggest milestone is when I did a 5K for the very first time in my life. I remember trying to do that in high school but couldn’t because I was too heavy. Then I started to do hiking.
One of my amazing milestones is when ObesityHelp accepted me as part of their Fashion Show in 2018! I’ll be honest I didn’t believe it when they accepted my request. I was thinking, “I'm not beautiful enough, I’m not successful enough, I’m not worthy to be among these amazingly beautiful people….etc” again with low self-esteem. As usual, ObesityHelp always picks me up when I’m down and I'm always reminded that I’m worthy and I’m beautiful. And most of all to NEVER GIVE UP!
Share Your Before & After Success!
Celebrate your own Before & After WLS Success, milestones, non-scale victories, and inspire others! The OH team wants to hear from you to share your weight loss surgery journey. Visit our Before & After Submission page for details.
