St. Alexius Performs Milestone Weight Loss Surgical Procedure
by Juli McDonald, KFYR TV
Posted on 4/22/2010
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Six years ago, St. Alexius Medical Center and Mid Dakota Clinic teamed up to design the PrimeCare Surgical Weight Loss Program. Since it was founded, the program’s two surgeons have now performed 1,000 weight loss surgeries.
When discussing the option of weight loss surgery, doctors first look at the patient’s body mass index, or BMI. It’s a number calculated by their height and weight. Candidates for surgery have a BMI greater than 40, or greater than 35 if they have another medical condition associated with their weight.
Hope White Bear loves to walk. But it didn’t always come easily. Before gastric bypass surgery last month, White Bear struggled to walk up stairs, and circled store parking lots to find the closest space.
“Because I have osteoarthritis in both knees, it really limited my mobility of walking, being able to walk long distances, short distances, without it hurting,” said White Bear. “Right there is where it stopped me from living.”
At her heaviest, she weighed 295 pounds. Sick of diet failure, she looked into surgery. On March 3, a Wednesday, White Bear underwent gastric bypass surgery. She left the hospital Friday, and by Monday she had begun her new favorite activity — walking.
Hope says one important lesson she’s learned is that surgery is not the answer to weight loss. Through nutrition classes, she’s learned how to make healthier choices in eating and in everyday life.
“You can lose a lot of weight but if you’re not doing things, giving your body what it needs to make your heart, your brain, your bones, your immune system healthy, weight loss is only part of it. Doing these other things, diet and exercise, is going to make everything work as well as it can,” said surgeon Dr. Brandon Helbling.
Helbling says he can see how his patients’ progress allows them to take part in life, and enjoy activities they haven’t done in years.
“One of the biggest things I see with a lot of my patients is they feel like they can do more now. They’re not so short of breath and tired all the time. As that weight goes away, so does the feeling of, I can`t do anything,” said Helbling.
“I love walking, swimming with my kids, taking them for bike rides, hiking,” said White Bear. “We just came back from the Black Hills and we just enjoyed it immensely to hike up trails.”
White Bear is up to 4 miles a day, and last week, she was given the green light to begin strength training. If you are interested in learning more about surgical weight loss options, talk to your doctor.