Essential to Long-Term Success

Once patients reach their goal, they need to continue to have a healthier lifestyle or if they haven't done that, they will not be a long-term success. For patients to have a long-term success, I think it's very important for a patient to commit, to commit to a healthier lifestyle, to commit on having a healthier relationship with food. Commitment. It's just commitment, that you really understand that you need to change and continue to do all those things the rest of your life. My role as a follow-up doctor is very hand-in-hand with the nutritionist. Once the patients go back home, they receive emails throughout, every three months, every six months on the lab work that they need to do, and once the patients have their results, they can send it back to me and we can do arrangements, if they need, on any of the medication that they have to take, the supplements. Or if the patient's struggling with the recovery, I can be of support and advise them on what steps to follow. Some of the health and lifestyle benefits that the bariatric surgery gives to you are that you get rid of a lot of illnesses, like diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea. You don't have to struggle with taking so much medication. The lifestyle benefits that weight loss patients have, they could do a lot of activities they couldn't for a long, long time, and they won't struggle doing them. It makes me feel very, very happy to be part of the success and change in my patients because, myself, it's . . . I'm a bariatric patient, as well, so I know what they go through.