MAYELA'S STORY: 
"To live is to be born every moment. Live fully while you can and don't calculate the price."

My name is Mayela, I suffered from obesity for more than 30 years when at the age of 8-9 years old I started to gain weight. At 19, the problem aggravated when I had my child since I gained 77 lbs (35 kg) that I couldn’t shake off even with different diets, treatment and all kinds of efforts. Over 25 years, I tried all kinds of programs to loose weight. If I got rid of the extra pounds in the short term I will then have a rebound effect. While I measure 5’9’’ (1.76 mts), and I consider myself to be a tall person, there were many people who told me "You're not fat, what happens is that you are tall so your complexion must be robust". With that, I convinced myself, "Well, I'm not so bad", but my eating anxiety got worse. 

I came to the point where I was admitted to the hospital for blood pressure problems and the doctors indicated a life-long treatment consisting of 6 tablets a day. Anyway, I could mention countless things that someone with obesity experiences, there is no such thing as happiness, who says the opposite is lying. 

I began to hear of Dr. Daniel Campos Torres and bariatric surgery, which offered great results. I started searching about it on the Internet, where I found plenty of information about the different procedures; all this information was striking at the beginning but all I thought was if I could be a potential candidate and fulfill my dream of loosing weight. Thus, for nearly two years, my main priority was to be thin at any cost.

A year later, a close friend had a gastric sleeve surgery with Dr. Campos. She explained me all the details, which encouraged me a lot since the physical change was really noticeable. Every time I saw a newspaper article or heard about Dr. Campos I thought of doing an appointment, but my problem prevented me from doing so, since I had become totally antisocial. 

When I decided to book an appointment and call the office, I felt confidence from the first contact. I was given an appointment for the next day, I went without telling anyone and afraid of what was going to happen. Dr. Campos explained the procedures step by step, in terms that I could understand and, at the same time, I described my story of multiple diets and efforts with no result. According to my weight (271 lbs/123 kg) and my age, I was a candidate for a gastric sleeve surgery. More than convinced, I underwent the procedure after having done some pre op tests and preparation.

From that day, I stopped taking my blood pressure medications since the problem disappeared completely. For me the surgery was very noble, and I say so because in three days I was back home and in 10 days I was working and doing my normal life. After the sleeve surgery everything started to change, I was reborn and weight was coming down fast. I followed my regimen as instructed, and after a year I had lost 90 lbs (41 kg).

I'm getting addicted to exercise because I had never been able to do any activity. I know my life is complete now. I thank infinitely to God for allowing me to meet Dr. Campos, who with his talent and experience really changes the lives of patients with a serious obesity problem like mine. But above all, I thank the support of my family, especially my mother, who was with me throughout the process. "To live is to be born every moment. Live fully while you can and don't calculate the price."

Mayela Salazar Fuentes | Gastric Sleeve