Mart's Story

“I have always enjoyed eating, even as a child,” says Mart. “My weight problems started very young and continued to be a problem through my teens. I have used weight loss as an excuse because none of the programs I tried worked for me.”

Mart suffered from high blood pressure and sleep apnea most of his adult life, and he had finally reached a point where his weight was causing him to become a sedentary person. “My joints and back hurt so bad that I felt I could not move to exercise even if I wanted to,” he says.  “I was fast becoming immobile.”

At his heaviest, the chronic pain in his back and knees was unbearable. Pain medications alone had become insufficient, and they came with a laundry list of side effects. Finally, to relieve the pain, Mart began a regimen of corticosteroid back injections every three or four months.

After two years of researching bariatric surgeries, Mart finally decided to go for it.

“And go for it I did!” he says. He had the sleeve gastrectomy procedure in November 2010 and in his words, “has not slowed down since. I started losing weight immediately and I have never felt better. I can walk and exercise like I have not done in years.” He no longer needs blood pressure medicine and no longer uses the CPAP as his sleep apnea has resolved. “Ninety-eight percent of my back and leg pain is gone,” says Mart, who now can walk a mile in 19 minutes.

“The greatest reward for me is the fact I can now keep up with my family and hold my wife’s hand when we walk together instead for trying to keep up with her,” he says. “Thanks Dr. Chaudhari for giving my life back to me. I never life believed that I would feel this good again. I am so blessed.”