Gift of Hope: The Erika Soelberg Story
Lap-Band Surgery Patient: Lost 150 Pounds
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Erika
Before |
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Erika After |
Self Image
Erika remembers her children sitting on their grandmother’s bed as Grandma
read them a story. It wasn’t bedtime, Grandma was always in bed. Health
issues complicated by obesity kept her there until it claimed her life. Erika’s
children are now grown and she is looking forward being the grandma, even as
she fights her own battle with obesity. But Erika is determined for her story
to end differently.
Erika was in sixth grade when she walked into her first
Weight Watchers meeting. In retrospect she really didn’t have a serious weight problem back then,
but she did have a poor self image problem. Most of her 5’9” height
came before junior high, so Erika was taller and heavier than her friends.
That led to some teasing and a loss of self confidence.
Erika convinced herself she getting too fat, so as a 5th grader, she tried to control her diet. But the haphazard dieting efforts as a pre-teen had little effect, causing her body image and self confidence to sink lower. “It’s a vicious circle,” Erika recalls, “… you have a bad image, you try to change it and you don’t succeed, and it just whittles away any hope of ever being successful at losing weight.”
Efforts
Erika’s lack of hope didn’t diminish her desire, so she continued
the quest to be slim throughout junior high and high school. When her unwarranted
dieting efforts failed, she avoided many activities she would have loved and
remained in her comfort zone.
Erika married at 19 and the young couple’s first child arrived nine months
later. She was thrilled to be a mother, but less than thrilled with the extra
pounds that hung around afterward. After the birth of her second child, Erika’s
weight leveled off at 217 pounds, and Erika got serious about losing the weight.
She had a new resolve and a new diet, Optifast. But
the protein shakes were so unpleasant tasting that Erika replaced then with
diet cola. Now her diet consisted of four liters of Coke per day – no
food, just Coke. Her nutrition free diet caused her to drop 40 pounds in
three months.
Erika was still on her “secret diet” when she became pregnant for
the third time. With her baby’s health in mind, Erika went back to eating
food and almost instantly gained 70 pounds. After the birth, Erika’s
new “normal” weight was 245. After each subsequent pregnancy Erika
would reach a new weight plateau, each a little higher than before. The pattern
was repeated until she leveled off at 280 pounds after her seventh, and last,
child was born.
Future Vision
Throughout the busy years of child rearing there were more diets, and return
trips to Weight Watchers. “I lost a lot of weight with Weight Watchers…if
you combine all the times I’d been there,” reflects Erika. “I’ve
probably signed up with Weight Watchers 20 times! You lose weight, you gain
it back, and you lose weight and you gain it back.” Sadly she confessed, “You
just lose all hope after a while.”
Raising seven children was extremely rewarding for
Erika, even though she suffered from chronic pain as her body struggled to
carry around over 300 pounds. “My
feet hurt, my hips hurt and I was out of breath all the time, it was very painful,” she
said. As years passed, Erika found joy and satisfaction in her family life
and just accepted her obesity as her fate. “I’m just going to be
fat all my life,” Erika thought. So she just quit thinking about it – for
a while anyway.
When her oldest child was about to be married, Erika thought of her future and the prospect of aging. With the memory of her mother-in-law still lingering, Erika wondered to herself, “What kind of grandma am I going to be?”
Hope
Erika decided to look into a surgical solution. She told her family doctor
she was considering the gastric bypass surgery. But the doctor encouraged her
to look at another procedure which was much safer, the Lap-Band weight loss
system. Erika attended a Lap-Band seminar put on by gastric surgeon Dr. Bryan
Anderson. “The seminar was huge for me,” she remembered. “It
eliminated my fears.”
With the support of her husband, Erika went through
with her Lap-Band surgery at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. The
pre-surgery process included a sleep study at Saint Alphonsus. “I didn’t think the sleep study
was necessary, but went through it anyway – and what a blessing! I learned
I had severe sleep apnea. They treated me for that and I felt a million-times
better. The whole process through Saint Al’s couldn’t have gone
better.”
Weight loss was slow for the first six weeks. She then began to lose 10-12
pounds per month.
“But I immediately felt better because I knew it was going to work,” Erika said. “After losing the first 50 pounds I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but I knew I’d get there… and I knew I wouldn’t ever gain it back.” Erika explained further, “With the Lap-Band I had an overwhelming sense of hope. I felt hope that I could lose the weight and live a healthy, slim life. It was the first time I’d ever felt that.”
New
Outlook
One hundred fifty pounds is the weight of an average adult woman, that’s
also the amount of weight Erika has lost since her Lap-Band surgery. She exceeded
her pre-surgery target weight of 168 pounds, and now at 158, Erika is approaching
her new target weight of 155. At 46, Erika now enjoys improved health, a greater
level of energy and life without foot pain or hip pain. As a grandmother, Erika
takes full advantage of being fit. “I can get down on the floor and play
with my granddaughter…it’s such a great gift.”
But a few raw emotions still linger from her heavy
years. “I notice a
huge difference in how people treat me now,” Erika said. “…but
I didn’t realize it then.” Emotion in her voice, she continued, “It
makes me sad when I see people that are really heavy, because I know other
people are ignoring them and not accepting them for who they are. That’s
why I want to help get the word out about this great tool - about Lap-Band.”
With a well-healed self image, confidence has replaced self doubt and eagerness has supplanted reluctance to leave the house. Powered by a new confidence and encouraged by her daughter, Erika recently joined a chorus for a local stage production. She summed up her experience this way, “I have such a totally different outlook on my life now and the prospect of my future…it’s really awesome.”
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View a video about former Lap-Band Surgery Patients |