CityView Magazine

48 | January/February 2019 M F E A T U R E "A great feeling" BY CATHERINE PRITCHARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY "My pulmonologist told me that by the end of the year I would be on oxygen 24 hours a day," she said. e idea terrified her. She knew her obesity caused or exacerbated her health problems but she couldn't lose weight, despite endless dieting and exercise. Carter decided to do something radical. She decided to have bariatric surgery. at was in 2002. at year, Carter underwent a gastric-bypass procedure in which her stomach was reduced to a small pouch that was attached directly to the small intestine past the first section of that organ. e surgery changed her digestive pathway. It also changed her life. Carter lost more than 150 pounds. She also shed her diabetes, hypertension and asthma and all of the medications that went with them. She never had to go on oxygen. Sixteen years later, Carter has maintained her weight loss and is a believer in the value of the surgery. As the bariatric coordinator for Cape Fear Valley's Village Surgical in Fayetteville, she regularly tells people about her experience. Nearly 40 percent of Americans are obese, including 93.3 million adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Adults are considered obese when their Body Mass Index is 30 or higher. e normal range is 18.5 to 24.9. A growing number of Americans are morbidly obese, typically defined as being 100 or more pounds above ideal weight or having a BMI of 40 or higher. e excess weight can cause serious health problems. Obese people are at increased risk for many serious diseases and health conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, some cancers, body pain and more. Over the past three decades, a small but steadily increasing number of morbidly obese people have turned to bariatric surgery to help them lose their life-threatening excess pounds. In 2017, 228,000 people in this country underwent bariatric surgery, up from 158,000 in 2011, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). Donna Carter was scared. She was 46, weighed over 310 pounds and had several serious health problems, including diabetes and hypertension. She also had severe asthma and the three medications she was taking weren't doing enough.

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