Georgetown Bariatrics and Advanced Surgical Services 2

Troy Thompson and Dr. Eric Smith talk to Patient Christopher Tracy, about his success story from Georgetown Bariatrics and Advanced Surgical Services.

C1 3 dr. eric smith and one of his success stories from georgetown bariatrics & advanced surgical services is chris.

Welcome to the show, buddy.

Chris- patient success story: thanks for having me.

Troy- host: nice to see you, and what an incredible success story.

I just want to remind everyone you started 13 months ago at 337 pounds.

Chris- patient success story: well, 360 yes, that's correct.

But 360 when i first started this whole thing.

So, yeah.

Troy- host: oh my gosh.

Well, i'm sorry i just blew chris- patient success story: no, that's okay.

That's okay.

Troy- host: this morning you hopped on the scales.

Chris- patient success story: 208.

Troy- host: 208.

13 months in the work.

When you hear these sort of, you know, these sort of mbers, that's pretty impressive, dr. eric.

Dr. eric smh, it's verympressive.

It makes me feel good.

Troy- host: it does?

Dr. eric smith: yeah.

Troy- host: well, we know you're number one.

Dr. eric smith: it makes me happy for them.

You know, it's very rewarding.

He's worked really hard.

Troy- host: and something that chris said to me off camera was that this wasn't truly about him getting off medications because he had high blood pressure, diabetes, or all the things that we normally talk about, dr. eric.

This was about him waking up one morning and going, "i want to be with my kids."

Dr. eric smith: right.

Troy- host: this is about living.

Dr. eric smith: sure.

Troy- host: is this the conversation that you have with the guys that come into the clinic?

Dr. eric smith: yeah, i mean, you know that it's not uncommon for people to just realize, "if i don't change something i'm not going to live as long as i'm supposed to."

If you look at mortality rates for people when their bmi gets above 35, which is when they qualify for surgery, they go up exponentially.

So at the end of the day, if an intervention doesn't happen to change that, most people aren't going to live to be the age that they were supposed to.

Troy- host: well, while we're talking, we're looking at all your before and after shots.

And i have to say, chris, when you woke ... what was the day that you woke up and went, "enough is enough?"

What was that turning point for you?

Chris- patient success story: i don't know that ... i've been big my entire life.

Troy- host: right.

Chris- patient success story: and so i don't know that it was a day.

I knew that there was a day ... there'd been many of times, like i'm tired of this.

I'd go on a diet and i gained it all back, and it was just back and forth.

But when it started where i didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, couldn't physically, it was hard for me.

Those, and i've got an eight year old at home.

So it became really important when he started playing sports and he wanted me to coach him.

And where i couldn't function and do the things that i wanted to do daily.

I couldn't go in the front yard and play with him as much as i wanted to, or much as he wanted me to.

So that's probably when it became the most real to me.

Troy- host: something that dr. eric and i often talk about is i say, "do they stick to their meals and the food, and the conversation of the training that happens after your surgery?"

How have you found that with the team of dr. eric's?

Chris- patient success story: well i ... that's the great thing.

It's very comprehensive.

If i'm struggling with something, i can make a phone call and they help me through it.

As far as i ... we were talking off to the side, there hasn't ... i had three days where i struggled in recovery.

It was probably ... it was after the surgery three days after.

I'm laying there; you wouldn't believe how many pizza commercials are on tv.

Troy- host: isn't it always the way?

Chris- patient success story: and you notice stuff like that.

I'm telling you, it's different.

And i literally remember laying there and say, "what i just do to myself?"

Troy- host: right.

Dr. eric smith: and i told you you would, didn't- chris- patient success story: yeah that's right.

No, you did.

Troy- host: really?

Chris- patient success story: and you'll have those times, 100%.

But after those three days, i'll be ... well, maybe four, five.

And once i started back to work, i got into a schedule, there's been no looking back.

Troy- host: what surgery did you have?

Chris- patient success story: the gastric bypass.

Troy- host: explain to everyone- chris- patient success story: the gastric sleeve.

Dr. eric smith: no, he had the gastric sleeve.

Chris- patient success story: gastric sleeve.

Troy- host: just explain to everyone very quickly, because we're putting up the b-roll of that gastric sleeve.

Dr. eric smith: sure.

Yeah, so it's basically a restrictive procedure where we remove a large part of the stomach and we don't change absorption, and the stomach now it looks like the shape of a banana and the capacity's reduced about to and eighth or a 10th of normal.

Troy- host: how long did the surgery take to be done?

Dr. eric smith: his was probably on average, about 45 minutes.

Chris- patient success story: and i was probably within less than an hour after surgery, i was up walking in the hospital.

Dr. eric smith: yeah.

Troy- host: when did you go home?

Chris- patient success story: the next day.

Troy- host: the next day?

Chris- patient success story: mm-hmm .

Troy- host: so, you know, this is the sort of thing that you can say you could have done on a chris- patient success story: the next day.

Troy- host: the next day?

Chris- patient success story: mm-hmm .

Troy- host: so, you know, this is the sort of thing that you can say you could have done on a monday, take the week off, and then build yourself up to go back to work the following monday.

Chris- patient success story: