success stories
Sonny
Weight loss: 141 lbs and counting
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I have always been a gravitationally challenged individual…large, overweight and some might even say too tall. At 6’ 5”, 503 lbs, I do not fit in this society and I do mean do not fit! I couldn’t ride in small cars. I couldn’t sit in booths in restaurants or chairs with armrests. Clothes were also a problem, the only thing I could purchase off the rack or out of a store is a pair of socks, but I learned to lived with this and made the best of this situation and managed to drag myself through life.
As I got into my 50’s I started having medical problems. I had always been healthy and strong and did whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to. But, I started feeling bad and was diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on medication. My doctors encouraged me to lose weight but I loved to eat and did not go along with this foolishness. As a result, my health continued to deteriorate.
I managed to keep working, going and doing what I had done before, but I didn’t feel up to it. My activity level started to slow down. Then, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I would hold my breath at night, which would cause me to not get a sufficient amount of oxygen in my blood, adding to my health problems and camouflaging other health issues that I was not aware of.
I started retaining fluid and took another pill. My cholesterol was elevated and I started taking yet another medication. My health continued to go downhill while my weight continued to go uphill. The doctors were having trouble diagnosing my problem—why my health was steadily going downhill even though my blood levels were somewhat in the normal level. I was then diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, given more prescriptions and my health continued to drop while my weight continued to climb. I became depressed and was put on another prescription. For several years my weight kept climbing and my health continued to deteriorate.
I was then sent to a gastroenterologist. She conducted an endoscopy that showed bulging veins in my esophagus. This is called esophageal varices, which is a direct implication of liver disease. Because I was incapable of fitting into an MRI machine, the doctors performed a liver biopsy. I was diagnosed with NASH liver disease, which is Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis, and given several more prescriptions.
Not too long after that I awoke in the middle of the night, sick to my stomach, and started throwing up blood. I was rushed to the hospital and told that the varices in my esophagus had ruptured. They had to perform an emergency endoscopy and band the bleeding veins with five bands. The second time this happened, I almost bled out by the time I got to the ER.
Things didn’t improve and my health continued to decline. My doctors did all they could do and sent me to a liver specialist in Atlanta to prepare me for a liver transplant. My doctors told me I was at stage 3 of 4 liver failure, which is cirrhosis. My platelets were low and if they attempted to do surgery I would not survive. My doctor said the only chance I had for survival was immediate weight-loss. Even with this, he gave me little hope of survival. He wanted to know if I would be willing to try something that had never been done before for NASH liver patients.
I was sent to Atlanta Health Institute in Atlanta, Georgia where I started on the OPTIFAST Program. The first week on the program, I lost 31 pounds. The second week I was taken off my blood pressure medication and the third week I was off my diabetes medication. Five months later I had lost over 100 pounds and had gone off all 12 medications I was taking daily.
I am now in my ninth month on the OPTIFAST Program and have lost 141 pounds. My liver and blood levels are now within normal ranges. As of now, it seems I will not need a liver transplant.
I hope and pray that anyone who suffers the problems that I have had will realize that there is hope for them if they will make an effort to contact OPTIFAST and start on the program.
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