Andre

After 10 years in the Navy serving on a submarine, 32-year-old Andre says he was ready for civilian life and his job in the machinist department of the Electric Boat Company in Groton Connecticut, where he lives. He was good at his job, but the large amount of weight he had put on slowed him down in ways that impacted his relationship with co-workers.

“Work requires me to go up and down steps and climb ladders repeatedly,” Andre explains. “I was almost 300 lbs, and got out of breath easily, slowing everyone down. My co-workers would get upset when the boss had me work with them.” It’s one of those things that people who are not overweight generally don’t think about until it affects them. But it can be a problem for a young man who genuinely wants to ‘pull his weight’ at work. “I kept trying to lose. I did Slimfast, Atkins, South Beach … nothing worked.”

Andre had also developed sleep apnea, a dangerous condition marked by periods of not breathing during sleep. “Having to use a C-Pap machine at night was the last straw for me,” says this father of four daughters. “That, and the fact that I never had the energy to play with my kids.”

His twin sisters, however, inspired him as living proof there was a way to get help in his battle to reclaim good health. Two and a half years before, they had undergone gastric bypass surgery in Connecticut with Dr. Ehrlich. Both were doing very well, relearning healthy eating habits and achieving their target weight. “Still,” says Andre with a bit of a laugh, “I had a hard time getting my head around the ‘no more Big Gulp sodas’ fact of life. And I’m from the South, so thinking about all that good Southern cooking I’d miss — that was tough.”

Sixteen months and 90 lbs later, Andre knows that he made the right choice. “My experience with Dr. Ehrlich has been great,” he says, “He saved my life. I have seen how he and his wonderful staff provide hope to so many people suffering from obesity in Connecticut. We find out we can live normal lives, and that means so much.”

Among other things for Andre, it means not having to wake up dreading going to work. He is sleeping without a machine, and truly enjoys his job. As for food, he’s retrained himself away from the big barbequed ribs he loved and the whole packs of Oreos he’d consume in one sitting. “I can snack a little, but sugar leaves me with a weird feeling now, so I avoid it,” he explains. “And I have to keep up with my hydration — drinking water. But that’s easy.”

The biggest reward, he notes with feeling, is that he has much more energy to play with his kids. “My wife is very happy about that,” he says. Then he jokes: “Sometimes she doesn’t like the flirty look I might get from a lady. But she knows just because I’m looking good doesn’t mean she’s got anything to worry about!”