For years, Lori Smith wept every time she left a physician’s office. “I’d feel ashamed, lazy, and stupid. The doctor would say, ‘It’s simple, eat less and exercise more.’ I understood it. I just couldn’t do it.”
On Aug. 1, 2003, Drs. Nizzi and Featherstone performed the first three bariatric surgeries at Munson Medical Center. Lori Smith was patient #2. At the time, she weighed 290 pounds.
One year post-surgery, Lori weighed 156 pounds. “I’ve lost a whole woman.”
Lori is a high school teacher and since surgery has completed her master’s degree in Career and Technical Education. “I love having energy for a change.”
The most dramatic outcome from bariatric surgery was “becoming visible.” “People are not kind to overweight people,” she said. “People don’t look you square in the eye. They see you coming and look away. I was invisible.”
“I had a good life before — I accepted myself as a person. But I like myself better now.”
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