Meet Barb

There isn’t a time that Barb, aged 74, didn't feel overweight. “I had been overweight since I was probably three or four years old. My mom would give me Tootsie roll bars every day, and I’d eat them even if I didn’t want them. That just started bad habits,” Barb recalls. “As I grew up, I got heavier and heavier. I tried every diet program at least once, often two or three times.” 

But the weight always returned. With each program, she lost a few pounds—never anything substantial—but eventually regained it. This cycle that so many are familiar with seemed never-ending. “It was always the same story with the same ending,” Barb explains.

It was the increase in her blood pressure medications that finally made her decide that something significant needed to happen, that she finally needed to lose weight for good. “I had been put on my third blood pressure medication, and it gave me this ‘a-ha’ moment. How many more blood pressure medicines will I have to take? How many more things do they have to give me to get that in check? I can’t do that anymore. That was my point of no return.” For patients like Barb, being overweight leads to many negative health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, joint and back pain, sleep apnea, arthritis, and acid reflux.

Barb’s work brought her to Rose Medical Center where she heard about Michael Snyder, MD, and the Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery. His reputation around the hospital was impressive; he was known for excellent outcomes and extremely satisfied patients. She learned about his comprehensive program, which offers support before, during, and after bariatric surgery. It also recognizes that over 95% of diet and exercise plans fail if a person struggles with severe weight issues—exactly the thing that Barb had found through her own experience. While the program sounded promising, her insurance didn’t cover the procedure...so she put it off for three years. Yet she faithfully called her insurance over the years, repeatedly checking whether it would be covered. Meanwhile, her BMI crept up to 40 (a healthy BMI is between 18 and 25).

In 2023, at 73 years old, Barb received the good news that she finally had the insurance coverage she needed. Shortly after, she underwent a gastric sleeve procedure. This removes about 70% of the stomach, leaving it approximately the size and shape of a banana. The portion of the stomach removed is also where appetite-stimulating hormones are created; this means that, in addition to the smaller size of the stomach, her appetite has drastically decreased, resulting in weight loss.

Barb responded well to the surgery and soon began steadily losing weight—and keeping it off. “As they tell you, this is not a magic pill, but it is a huge help. It changes your whole perspective,” she explains. Today she is down 70 pounds and her BMI is about 10 points lower. While she is not at her goal weight, she is well on her way. Most notably, she no longer needs to take blood pressure medications; she is also sleeping better and moving with more ‘pep in her step.’

Currently, Barb is planning a trip to Europe. She knows that this trip will be different: she will be able to get around more easily, shop for clothes in smaller sizes, and have more endurance to enjoy the getaway.

As a woman in her 70s, Barb wondered if she was too old to have the surgery, but Dr. Snyder explained that she wasn’t. She wants to encourage others her age to not give up on their weight loss journey. “I had been this way forever, and I don’t want to be this way anymore. Don’t write off the rest of your life. Enjoy this time! Looking back, I wish I had dug into my savings and done it years ago instead of waiting. I knew it was going to be life-changing—but I didn’t know how much it was going to change!”