Success comes from working hard, keeping a positive attitude, and having Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula on your side.
If you’re thinking about weight-loss surgery but aren’t sure if it’s right for you, these former Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula patients took the next step and are finding success. Find the motivation and inspiration to start your journey in their stories below.
Monica Muñoz-Hale
Monica Muñoz-Hale boarded the plane and buckled up, grateful that she didn’t need a seatbelt extender and pleased that she wasn’t taking up more than her seat. Yet the passenger in the seat beside her was not pleased. After sizing up Muñoz-Hale, he implored a flight attendant to move her. The flight attendant encouraged him to take his seat. Although he finally did, Muñoz-Hale stood and prepared to move. When he reconfirmed that he now was willing to sit next to her, she replied, “Perhaps, but I am not willing to sit next to you.”
Muñoz-Hale had recently undergone weight-loss surgery, a procedure called bariatric vertical sleeve gastrectomy. The stomach is reduced to about 20 percent of its original size; people feel full more quickly, so they don’t eat as much and lose weight. She had already lost some weight by the time she boarded that plane, but her seatmate couldn’t see that. More important, he couldn’t see that the core of who she was, at any weight, was worth getting to know.
In 2016, she met with Dr. Mark Vierra, a gastrointestinal surgeon who founded the bariatric surgery program at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. He explained the available procedures, their potential benefits and risks. She was apprehensive. “I said, ‘If I were your daughter, what would you tell me to do?’ I could tell he cared about me,” she says. “The most important message he gave me was that my success would be based on my willingness to change. I could want to change, but unless I was willing to do so, it wasn’t going to happen.”
Muñoz-Hale approached her surgery and weight-loss journey the same way she had addressed her agoraphobia. “I realized, with any journey, you have to learn to be OK with being uncomfortable, pushing yourself more than you did before.”
Muñoz-Hale has lost more than 100 pounds — more than a third of her weight. “Having weight-loss surgery is a very personal decision,” she says. “I am very open about mine, and I am happy to share my story with others if it will help them in some way. But people need to make their own decisions. When you do this for the right reasons, it works better.”
John Fritz
“I had the surgery mainly because of family history. My father passed away from a heart attack, and everyone on his side of the family suffers from high blood pressure or cancer, as does my mother’s side. I started gaining weight at age 7 or 8. As I got older, I’d lose 100 pounds and then gain 120. I tried every diet, but was unsuccessful and felt really deflated. I was on the fence for about five years about doing a procedure, but was gathering information.
“Weight-loss surgery completely changed my life. I’ve lost close to 140 pounds and kept it off. I have more energy than I’ve had my entire adult life. At the beginning of my journey, I’d try to walk, but was out of breath in a couple of blocks. My most recent walk covered 23 miles. Some changes are so subtle they’re not even on your radar: sleeping better, having more mobility and the confidence that grows from that. I was on eight prescriptions; I’m now on only one for thyroid. I’m astonished.
“Surgery was more emotionally than physically taxing for me. I’m an emotional eater; if I’m happy or stressed, eating is my security blanket. My stomach now has a permanent restriction, so there’s only so much I can eat. The first year, it was very important to get all my protein and to hydrate, so I was retraining myself how to eat.
“Now I keep a health journal; I can express how I’m doing and how I feel about it. I also have a program, MyFitnessPal®, to log my nutrition. When I do feel a moment of discouragement, I walk to the grocery store, I fill two bags with groceries that weigh close to the 140 pounds I’ve lost. Then, I walk the mile home, thinking about how I used to carry that weight every day, and celebrating how far I’ve come instead of being critical.
If you’re considering weight-loss surgery, you need to be informed and take time making your decision. You need to hear the real positive and negative.”
