‘Look What I’ve Done to Myself!’

October 18, 2010, by Mark A. Colquitt, MD, FACS, FASMBS

foothills_barton250West Knoxville resident Barton Baskette used to look in the mirror begrudgingly and say, “Look what I’ve done to myself.” Following his gastric band surgery and ensuing 90-pound weight loss, he now looks in the mirror excitedly and says, “Look what I’ve done to myself!”

Baskette, 40, says that his epiphany moment came when he was at the pharmacy. “I had literally a hand full of medications that I had to take multiple times a day,” he says. “I didn’t see myself at that point in my life, that young, needing to take that much medication.”

As is often the case in a person who is morbidly obese, Baskette had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Today, those comorbidities (obesity-related health conditions) are resolved, and Baskette is medication-free.

“I’m healthier now than when I was 20,” says Baskette. “I exercise four or five times a week. I now run three miles when I used to get out of breath just climbing stairs. I’ve traversed the jungles of Mexico. I look very healthy and lead a very active lifestyle.”

At Foothills, we’re invested in our patients’ success, and we put a lot of effort into helping them succeed. We were naturally glad to hear that Baskette credits much of his success to our post-surgical care. “The surgery is not the end,” he says. “Its’ the follow up, group sessions, things like that. They’re really fastidious about staying with their patients and seeing them succeed.”

To find out more about surgical weight loss options and the post-surgical support services available to our patients, register today for a free seminar.

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Posted in Bariatrics, Diabetes, Diet, Exercise, Obesity, Success, Weight Loss Surgery | Comments (0) Click here to get the RSS feed for these comments.

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