Motisha

Motisha had a long journey from her early adulthood, when she was a very trim size 4, to several years and 80 lbs later. In 2007, at age 35, she realized that not only had her dress size greatly expanded — her health was in serious trouble, too.

It’s a story many women have in common: having children brings with it the extra weight that accumulates during pregnancy. For Motisha, who lives in Stratford, Connecticut, her husband, four children and job as a dental assistant made up her very rewarding life. “But the weight just stayed with me,” she says, “until I finally knew it was time to start doing something about it.”

She’d read a newspaper story about a woman in Texas who had received the Lap Band and successfully lost the weight she’d never been able to shed. When her boss gave her some literature on the hospital bariatric program Lap Band in March of ’07,” Motisha remembers. “Now, three years later, I’ve lost 70 lbs. I’m still working on losing 10 more. I exercise and use my treadmill and I love it when patients who haven’t seen me in a while say, ‘Wow, you’ve lost weight!’ But, like Dr. Ehrlich says, the surgery is really only a tool that makes losing possible. You have to do what you’re supposed to for it to work. It’s not a quick fix.”

She had her own challenges. Going from liquids back to eating solid food, for instance. “I did it in bits and pieces,” she says. “And sometimes I’d try something that left me feeling a little sick. But you learn from that. So when my sister told me she wanted to do the surgery, I told her, ‘I’ll help you as much as I can. But in the end, you have to follow the program. It’s up to you.’”

On a lighter note, Motisha clearly gets a kick out of her husband’s reaction to her focus on exercise. If he grouses about the time it takes her, she says, “Okay — so how about we go exercise together?”

She laughs. “That generally stops any complaining,” she says.