A series of body contouring surgeries enabled a local woman to look and feel healthier—and regain her self-confidence.
Two and a half years ago, Jessica King weighed more than 300 pounds and desperately wanted to lose weight. Like many people, she “yo-yo dieted”—losing 30 or 40 pounds, only to gain it back—which took a psychological and physical toll. The final straw for King came after an embarrassing incident at Six Flags. She and her children stood in line for nearly two hours to go on the Batman ride, only to be turned away when the safety belt wouldn’t fit around her waist. “At that point I knew my weight was not only affecting me, but my kids,” she recalls. “And that was unacceptable to me.”
King had been researching weight-loss surgeries for years—even qualifying for the procedure twice, only to back out. After the Six Flags incident and with much deliberation, King consulted with Dr. J. Stephen Marshall of Peoria Surgical Group about weight-loss surgeries. He recommended she go with a gastric bypass, which reduces the size of the stomach and redirects food from the small intestine to absorb fewer calories. Dr. Marshall performed her surgery on December 6, 2017.
In the following months, King changed her eating habits, switching to a Keto diet, and started exercising at three months post-op. “The misconception with weight loss surgery is that it’s a magic cure, when in reality it’s a tool that helps you learn how to eat correctly for the rest of your life,” she explains. In 15 months, she dropped 190 pounds, but her makeover journey was far from over. The massive weight loss came with another set of problems—excess, sagging skin. Read the rest of the article here.