CityView Magazine

Your Health and Through thick Above | Dr. Leo Davidson performs surgery at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. B y the time Rebecca Morris was 32, she had been diagnosed with hypertension and high cholesterol. She popped anti-inflammatory pills like they were candy to keep the pain in her legs and knees at bay. Doctors said she was borderline diabetic. And then her 8-year-old son came home from school crying. “Someone told him his mother was fat,” Rebecca said. “He never thought of me as fat or thin, just as his mother. That hurt me.” She began to think about weight-loss surgery. About 205,000 Americans underwent bariatric surgery last year, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and the number is expected to rise by five percent this year. In Fayetteville, Cape Fear Valley Medical Center logged 141 weight-loss surgeries by the end of July, on track for an expected total of 169 by the end of the hospital’s fiscal year this fall. There are two main types of bariatric surgery: banding, in which an inflatable silicone band is placed around the stomach to reduce its capacity, and gastric bypass, in which the stomach is sewn shut, and the intestines are connected directly to a newly-created pouch. As the number of surgeries increases, so do some of the problems. The operation often produces physiological and psychological complications. But reports also show the benefits – dramatic drops in the incidence of diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea. A recent study even seemed to show that weight-loss surgery may cut the risk of cancer. As a licensed practical nurse at a busy bariatric practice in Fayetteville, Rebecca Morris knew all about the risks and benefits of surgery. And she knew how other people saw her. Around the same time her son Tony came home in tears she rode the Scrambler, a carnival ride, at the Fort Bragg Fair. As her cart rose and dipped, it scraped bottom, metal against metal. Workers stopped the ride and politely asked her to get out. Rebecca was mortified. As a child, she had been slightly overweight; her mother’s nickname for her was “Pudgy.” She slimmed down to 135 or 140 by the time she graduated from Douglas Byrd High School. But she began gaining weight again in her 20s, and when she gave birth to her son she weighed 225 pounds. “I would eat when I was unhappy,” or celebrating, she said. “Food was my comfort.” By her early 30s, Rebecca had been diagnosed with hypertension, high cholesterol and was borderline diabetic. She had severe knee and leg pain from carrying the excess weight and was prescribed Naprosyn, an anti- inflammatory medication. She tried dieting and exercise. “I exercised like crazy. I dieted. You name a diet, I tried it,” she said. Her weight dropped to 185 with the help of the diet drug Fen-Phen, but the drug gave her horrible headaches. As soon as she stopped taking it, the weight came back. And it brought company. It was while working at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center that she first thought about bariatric surgery. She enrolled in a lifestyles management CityViewNC.com | 57 As more Americans battle obesity, bariatric surgeries are on the rise – one woman’s story By Dr. Lenny Salzberg thin

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