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Maria Pallottillo
 November 2003 July 2004

Maria has been on a diet since she married in 1971. She gained 45 pounds on her honeymoon (4 weeks of meals, 3 times a day, 5-6 courses each meal). They went to Italy for their honeymoon. All of their relatives kept inviting them over for special meals.

It took approximately 4-6 months of starvation and living on black coffee to lose most of those extra pounds. She lost about 30 pounds. Then in 1973 she finally lost the last 15 pounds, but it was a short-lived victory, since shortly afterwards she became pregnant. During her pregnancy, she gained 77 pounds.

By the time her son was a year old, she still had 25 pounds left to deal with. No matter what she tried, those last pregnancy pounds just stayed with her. A fried of hers told her of a doctor who used a shot of pregnant women's urine to promote weight loss, so she went to see him. Maria was very impressed, because she lost 25 lbs in less than 3 months. She was able to maintain the weight loss by watching what she ate very carefully (an apple, small portion of cheese, etc.) She has also been very active, walking and exercising most of her life.

In 1976, Maria became pregnant again and gained approximately 75-80 lbs. This time she didn't wait to see the doctor. When her son was 3 months old, she started the urine shot treatments again. But this time, they were not as affective. She was only able to lose 40 lbs of her excess weight.

This is when Maria began the dangerous journey of every diet, and diet supplement on the market. Even taking prescription diet pills that were so strong it took three days to get back to normal after taking just one and she was to take one per day. She didn't eat, didn't sleep and was up for 24 hours a day. These pills worked, and worked fast, but she knew they were dangerous and the doctors would not prescribe them for more than 3 months. As with every-thing else she tried, once Maria stopped the pills the weight crept back on.

Maria has been on any and every diet published, advertised, talked about, or recommended by someone. By trying all of these diets she was able to maintain a weight of about 30-50 lbs above her normal weight. That was almost acceptable but the accumulation of stress and menopause started to completely take over her body. She developed high blood pressure and high cholesterol. No matter how much she dieted, or how long and hard she exercised all she did was gain weight.

By this time, Maria had developed sleep apnea and every joint in her body ached constantly. She went to bed tired and achy and got up feeling even worse. She finally had gastric bypass surgery on November 5, 2003 performed by Dr. Ernest Rehnke in St Petersburg, FL. At the time of her surgery Maria weighed 280 lbs, she is now down to 184 lbs and hopes to lose another 44 lbs to get to her goal weight.

Maria says this surgery has saved her life. She is now able to move around comfortably, her body doesn't ache like it did. She no longer takes blood pressure medication or has sleep apnea and her cholesterol numbers have never looked this good (her cholesterol problem is hereditary). If asked, would you have this surgery again, Maria would say yes in a heart beat.

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