When constant dieting and years of GLP-1 injections got her only so far, Christine Morris shed more than 100 pounds with weight-loss surgery at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center.
“I felt like it was my last hope,” says the 55-year-old from Burleson who had gastric bypass surgery in October 2024. “I feel great now. My diabetes and high blood pressure are under control, and I like the new me.”
Just a year ago, Christine weighed 286 pounds at 5-foot-2 and could not get off the couch because her back and knees hurt so much. She had tried every diet, commercial plan, and even the GLP-1 injectable drugs so popular now, but the extra weight clung to her no matter what she did.
Now under 175 pounds, this avid birdwatcher who loves to go camping is more active than she’s been in years, and she has no regrets about taking control of her health.
“If I ever had to have anything else done, I would go to Methodist Mansfield,” Christine says. “They were great to me, and I’ll make that drive from Burleson to Mansfield whenever I have to go to the doctor.”
A GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING
Christine had a life-changing gift in mind when her husband, Russell, asked what she wanted for her 54th birthday.
“I’ve been overweight my whole life,” she says. “So I told my husband I really wanted to look into having gastric bypass surgery.”
Christine decided she’d had enough of half-measures, frustrated by constant dieting and weight-loss injections that can help patients with heart health and diabetes but put her on a roller coaster of weight loss and gain.
“I’d lose 20 pounds here, 30 pounds there, and then gain it all back,” she says. “It never stayed off.”
About 15 years earlier, her husband was treated for a major heart attack at Methodist, and Christine credits the staff for saving his life. It only made sense to return to the same hospital to reclaim her own health.
Her weight-loss journey began with a consultation with Andrew Standerwick, MD, bariatric surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Mansfield.
“People like Christine are good candidates for bariatric surgery,” Dr. Standerwick says. “GLP-1s are amazing medications, but they don’t work for everyone. For some patients who are morbidly obese, weight-loss surgery is the only intervention that really helps them shed the pounds.”
MINIMALLY INVASIVE BYPASS
There are several types of bariatric surgery, including gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, and duodenal switch, an operation sometimes referred to as “SADI-S” that combines the two. For Christine, Dr. Standerwick suggested a robot-assisted gastric bypass known as a Roux-en-Y, a French term that means in the form of the letter Y.
The minimally invasive operation created a gastric pouch the size of a golf ball at the top of her stomach and linked the pouch directly to her small intestine, bypassing about 80% of her stomach and a few feet of her intestine.
“When food gets swallowed, it doesn’t stay in the pouch very long and quickly goes into the middle part of the small intestine,” Dr. Standerwick explains.
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Reconfiguring the digestive tract boosts the patient’s metabolism and reduces nutrient absorption, while also limiting the amount of food that the stomach can hold to about 2 ounces, or a quarter of a cup.
“I woke up after my surgery and there wasn’t very much pain at all,” Christine says. “A couple of hours after surgery, I was up and walking around.”
Two days later, Christine was discharged from Methodist Mansfield, and within six months she had last almost 80 pounds by sticking to small high-protein meals and cutting out junk food and sweets.
“I’m liking the way I am,” she says, “and I’m doing everything in my power not to gain the weight back.”
‘SO MUCH HAPPIER’
It isn’t just extra pounds that Christine has put behind her: Her sleep apnea is gone, and she no longer takes pills for diabetes or heartburn. She’s also cut down her dosage of blood pressure medication.
“I’m so much happier,” she says. “I actually look forward to getting up to get ready for work and put on clothes that I’ve never seen since I was a teenager.”
Christine says a major key to her support system is the Methodist Mansfield nutritionist who advises her when she feels like she’s backsliding into unhealthy eating habits.
“She gives me great advice and information,” she says of registered dietitian Rachel Ellman, MS, RS, LD. “Whenever I have a question, I send an email and she gives me suggestions.”
Christine has started working out at a gym, something she was too self-conscious to try in years past. It’s all added up to a dramatic change in her quality of life.
“I used to be the person on the couch all the time, not wanting to do anything,” she says. “Now I’m like, ‘What are we doing? Where are we going?’ I want to get out of the house more. I am free of feeling embarrassed.”
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