"My life was fairly sedentary before the surgery.
I'd go to work, come home, sit on the couch,
watch a lot of TV, and play on the computer.
I didn't do anything physical and go outside much.
Now I'm happy. I'm content. I have a lot of
energy and I do feel a sense of accomplishment."

- Laura Nesta

I work at a community hospital that doesn't do
bariatric surgery, so I understand a lot about quality,
benchmarks, reviews, commentaries and what

Center of Excellence means. When I went for
the interview my husband's big question was
whether or not anybody died during the
surgery, and Dr. Floch hadn't had any
mortalities. I also, coincidentally, was born in
St Vincent's hospital so I thought it was good
charma.

My life was fairly sedentary
before the surgery. I'd go to
work. I'd come home. I was
always busy and I didn't do
much of any activity. I sat on
the couch, watched a lot of

TV, and played on the computer. I didn't do anything physical and go outside
much.

I had high blood pressure. Now, after the surgery, I don't have to take blood
pressure medication. I lost 124 pounds in a little less than nine months. I'm
much more active now, and I Iook forward to doing activities. Whenever we
have a family activity we try to do some sort of exercise. Last night was my
sister's birthday, so instead of just having dinner and sitting, we had dinner and
then we went for a walk. I'm involved with the Boy Scouts and we have a trip to
Washington D.C. that I'm looking forward to. Before my surgery, I wouldn't
have been able to keep up with all that walking. Now I'm taking a kick boxing
class, which I never would have done, before the surgery.

Everybody at the practice has been very kind and wonderful. They're very
responsive, always returning my calls, and following up on my lab work.
They're very thorough in terms of the preparation and understanding the diet and
nutrition. I read a lot on the internet about other people and it doesn't seem
that they are as prepared as this practice has been. I just find that they are
very kind.

I'm very pleased that I had the surgery. I thought about it for years. Sometimes
I think I should have done it 10 years ago. I don't know if I was ready 10 years
ago. I think you have to be prepared for a significant lifestyle change. The
beginning was very difficult. I didn't feel as well as I would have liked to. It was
a little bit of a shock to your system after eating everything you want to, and
then making a significant change. For the most part, now when I go out to
dinner, I eat what I want. Certainly my portions are much different and the pace
at which I eat is much different, but there are really very few restrictions. But,
you have to be prepared because it doesn't just happen.

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