Weight Management - Patient Testimonials
Read testimonials from some of our patients!
Yamaira
“Everybody says I look amazing!”
For Yamaira, the dawn of 2016 wasn’t just the start of a new year. It was the start of a new life.
Last year, Yamaira had weight loss surgery at Holyoke Medical Center, and after losing more than 115 pounds, she says her successful weight loss journey has changed her outlook on life. “I’m very proud of myself,” smiles Yamaira, who struggled with weight issues and poor self-esteem for eight years after high school graduation, eventually reaching 267 pounds.
The once-happy young woman became depressed. She endured high blood pressure and cholesterol, insomnia and pre-diabetic symptoms. “I always had a voice in the back of my head saying, ‘Look how big you are. You should do something for yourself.’”
After dieting on her own and hypnosis failed, she turned to Dr. Ioannis Raftopoulos, Medical Director of the HMC Weight Management Program for help. She completed extensive preparation with Dr. Raftopoulos and other HMC medical professionals before becoming the hospital’s first bariatric surgery patient.
Today, Yamaira enjoys an active lifestyle, including swimming, walking and going to the gym. The confident young woman credits her HMC medical team with supporting her on this incredible journey. “From the surgical team to the nurses on the floor, everybody was amazing,” she says, adding that she is also grateful for her family (especially her mother, sister and husband), who provided encouragement every step of the way. “My husband said he loved me just the way I was, but he understood how important this change was to me.”
Yamaira hopes her story inspires others battling obesity, and attends a monthly weight management support group at HMC to keep the weight off. “Everybody says I look amazing!”
Vimari & Jorge
“We are very excited with this second chance at life.”
After numerous attempts at weight loss and after many unsuccessful diet plans we decided that after 12 years of struggling with our weight we needed to make a drastic change to save our lives. Jorge had many health related problems due to his weight: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, severe arthritis, and couldn’t walk without the assistance of a cane. Vimari had many health related problems also: Kidney disease, high blood pressure, pseudotumor cerebri (requiring a VP shunt insertion in 2014 at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital). At that time Vimari’s heaviest weight was 303 lbs.
We decided that we needed to get healthy and needed to do it ASAP.
We went to an informational session for HMC Weight management center in February of 2016. Our first appointment with Dr. Raftopoulos for both of us was on 3/11/16. This is the date that our lives changed forever.
Jorge weighed in at 385 lbs after losing 100 lbs on his own in the past six years. Vimari weighed in at 287lbs. This was a very depressing day for us also as we had both stopped weighing ourselves. We decided that we were going to give it our all and follow Dr. Raftopoulos’ diet and work out plan. What a difference HMC Weight Management Center made in our lives. We joined a gym and started moving. The weight started coming off. We were both so happy with our progress. We decided to never go back to the weight we were and decided together as a couple to have gastric bypass.
Vimari’s surgery was 9/8/16 and Jorge’s was 9/22/16. To date, Vimari has lost 113 lbs and has gone from a size 24 to a size 10 and from a 3x in shirts to a size medium. Jorge has lost a total of 181 lbs, going from a size 6x in shirts to a large and from a 58-60 waist in pants to a size 38 waist.
Do we have any regrets? YES - not meeting Dr. Raftopoulos sooner, and getting our lives on track with the weight loss. Jorge no longer has diabetes, no longer has sleep apnea does not use a cane and is almost off of all medication. Vimari is no longer suffering from headaches due to the psuedotumor cerebri, high blood pressure is gone and kidney disease is under control and off all medication.
The weight management program has given us our lives back and has shown us that anything is possible if you work hard for it. We’ve been successful thanks to the great staff at Dr. Raftopoulos’ office. We are now awaiting the arrival of grandchildren as we will be able to keep up with them now. We are taking our first vacation in 12 years with no fear of not being able to fit in an airplane seat. We are very excited with this second chance at life.
Thank you again to HMC Weight Management Center for giving us a second chance at life. We hope that our story motivates and inspires anyone struggling with their weight and we can assure anyone struggling with their weight that this program works and is life changing.
Donald
“I’m back in the gym. I feel good.” At 360 pounds, Donald Thomas was overweight, trying to diet and working like crazy. “I just wasn’t losing much,” says Thomas, who is 6’2” and the father of two sons. He recalls that he was prediabetic, out of shape, exhausted and frustrated—but he knew better than most people what might be done about it. A surgical technician, he’d worked with Dr. Raftopoulos in the operating room and seen the wise, compassionate care the doctor gives his patients. Four years ago, he decided to become one of them. Thomas says he lost 120–130 pounds and now loves the amount of energy he has. Now, instead of size 5X, he can wear extra-extra large, or even just extra-large. “I eat less,” he reports. “I’m back in the gym. I feel good.” Instead of being short of breath climbing stairs and having no stamina, Thomas plays basketball and works out with his oldest son. “I have the energy to work two jobs,” he says. Even though he’s a surgical professional, Thomas admits he had some initial fears about having the procedure himself. He says it was Dr. Raftopoulos’ bedside manner and encouragement that gave him the comfort to go ahead. “He cares, and he’s there for you,” says Thomas. “I don’t know many doctors who call you daily to make sure you’re OK.”Elimayda
“I am no longer a diabetic, and I don’t have high blood pressure.”
Four years after a gastric bypass procedure, Elimayda Vazquez, 42, a home loan production specialist who lives in Manchester, Conn., is grateful.
“I thank God first, and then Dr. Raftopoulos, for the new me,” she says.
Before her operation, Vazquez was a diabetic with high blood pressure. She also had bad eating habits. She was a bit of a junk-food junkie, favoring “pizza, fast food, soda and lots of candy,” she says.
That all seems like long ago. She marvels at the person she’s become. “I am no longer a diabetic, and I don’t have high blood pressure,” she says. Even in the old days, Vazquez went to the gym. But back then it was a struggle to get through two workouts a week. She now goes five days a week, doing cardio, weights—and running sometimes twice a day. Not only is Vazquez sleeping better, she’s eating better also. Her plate is full of vegetables and small portions of meat. Her sweet tooth is satisfied with fruit.
Vazquez says she is amazed by her dramatic weight loss. While she used to weigh 247, she’s now down to 130. Another pleasant surprise was the quick recovery time from surgery.
When she thinks about the many choices she’s made in her lifetime, says Vazquez, “having this surgery done was one of my best.”
Simonne
“Everything is much more exciting. I feel I can do whatever I want to do.”
It wasn’t easy for this Manchester, Conn., resident, now 62, to decide to have surgery because it felt like failure. “I didn’t want to admit that I needed to have someone surgically rearrange my insides in order for me to lose weight,” she says. “It seemed so drastic. It took me a couple of years to make the decision.”
Brunton was tipping the scales at 320 pounds, and she couldn’t seem to stop that number from going up. “I was sad and angry at myself,” she says. “I thought I was fairly intelligent and knew the right things to eat, but I couldn’t control my eating.”
It was all the more painful because Brunton had watched her mother, who was obese her entire life, die from complications of diabetes. The final straw came when Brunton was told that one of her knees should be replaced. “I decided that before I started replacing parts, I needed to fix my body,” she says. “My health—both physical and mental—was my motivation.”
Like hundreds of thousands of people each year, in 2013 Brunton had gastric bypass surgery. The Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), is considered “the gold standard” of weight- loss surgery and is the most commonly performed bariatric procedure worldwide.
Its outcomes can be life-changing. The ASMBS says gastric bypass produces significant long-term weight loss—60 to 80 percent of excess weight. It restricts the amount of food that can be consumed, typically boosts energy and produces favorable changes in gut hormones that reduce appetite and don’t leave you with that feeling of still being hungry.
She says having the surgery was one of the best things she’s ever done for herself. “I had a lifetime of weight problems that eventually led to morbid obesity,” she says. “I suffered from depression, high blood pressure, arthritis in my knees, diabetes, high cholesterol and sleep apnea. I frequently needed to walk with a cane. The only way I could get a good night’s sleep was with my CPAP [continuous positive airway pressure] machine.”
Today, Brunton, who is 5’8” tall, weighs about 165 pounds. “I have much more energy,” she says. “I have a personal trainer and have started doing yoga. I wear the smallest clothing size I’ve ever worn as an adult. My husband and I have a much better, more loving relationship. Everything is much more exciting. I feel I can do whatever I want to do.”
She marvels at her flat tummy. She no longer takes medications or suffers from sleep apnea. Her cane is sitting in a corner collecting dust. “My cardiologist said he has no reason to see me anymore,” she says.
Brunton, who works for an insurance company, credits her success to Dr. Raftopoulos. “It’s because of him that I’ve done so well. He is caring, knowledgeable—the most supportive doctor I’ve ever had. He was in contact with me by phone daily for the first week or two after my surgery and is always available by email. Even at almost three years post-op, he still responds immediately to any emails concerning my health.”
Victor
“I want to live long enough to play with my grandchildren and see them grow.”
“Sick and tired of being sick and tired”? That’s an old saying, but it fit truck driver and Hartford resident Victor Burgos to a T. Riddled with high blood pressure, sleep apnea and heart problems, Burgos, too, turned to gastric bypass surgery.
“I wanted to be healthy,” says Burgos, now 41.
Since the surgery, Burgos has said goodbye to high blood pressure and sleep apnea and is generally in good health. “I have the energy to be active,” he says.
For motivation to embrace better health by choosing a gastric bypass procedure, Burgos didn’t have to look far. “I want to live long enough to play with my grandchildren and see them grow,” he says.