Heather loses 130+ pounds after bariatric surgery
he didn’t know it at the time, but horrible customer service and a rude airplane passenger changed Heather Clark’s life for the better.
“I was on a flight from Dallas and in an exit row seat,” says the Auburn woman.
The seat belt didn’t fit, so she asked the flight attendant for a belt extender.
“Really loud, she said, ‘Middle seats do not have seat belt extenders. We’re going to have to switch you.’”
That’s when passenger next to her decided to pile on.
“’That’s right, her sides are touching mine and it’s making me uncomfortable,’” Clark recalls the passenger saying.
The flight attendant chastised her, saying she would need to buy a second seat next time she booked a flight.
“I was mortified,” Clark says. “I had to move all of my bags while people watched me. It was a watershed moment.”
While she resettled in a new seat, Clark, 46, says she thought about the humiliation she’d just endured.
“I don’t deserve to be treated like this,” she thought. “While I can’t control their behavior, I can control whether or not I’m in this situation.”
Clark never thought bariatric surgery was intended for someone like her. She knew she was very overweight, but she thought it was manageable.
“I wasn’t a candidate for ‘My 600-lb Life’ or anything,” she says. “It never occurred to me I could have something like a gastric sleeve.”
But then she watched a friend shed pounds and gain confidence after weight loss surgery and started wondering about it.
Clark’s husband was reluctant to have her undergo major surgery, but after the experience on the airplane, she was sold.
“I came home and told my husband, ‘I’m done. I’m booking an appointment,’” she says.
Clark had her gastric sleeve surgery with James Sebesta, MD, at the MultiCare Center for Weight Loss and Wellness in October 2017.
“I started out at 268 pounds,” she says.
Less than two years later, “I bounce between 135 and 140. It really has been amazing,” she says.
Her clothing size dropped from a 22 to a 6.
“I haven’t been a size 6 since I was my daughter’s age, and she’s 10,” Clark says.
The change means shopping is easier than she ever imagined.
“I’m never going to have to worry about finding appropriate work attire, or shorts or a swimsuit,” she says. “I’m not going to be embarrassed asking a clerk if it comes in plus sizes. I can go into any store and find something that fits me.”
Perhaps more important, Clark says she’s able to have an active lifestyle for the first time in her life, training for the Seattle to Portland bike ride and doing fun runs.
“When you’ve been overweight all of your life, you automatically think ‘I‘m not capable of this, I’m not capable of that,’” she says. “When that physical barrier is removed that continually defeats you, a whole new world opens up.”
And her husband, who was reluctant about the surgery, is thrilled with the result.
“He likes having an active partner,” she says. “Now we have such a different relationship because we share activities in a way we couldn’t before. I couldn’t hike with him. He mountain bikes, he windsurfs. How we ever ended up getting married I don’t know,” she laughs. “Now we can go do all those things. It’s allowed us to bond and spend time together as a couple that we couldn’t before.”
For Clark, having gastric sleeve surgery meant prioritizing her physical health, so she can live longer to spend more time with her husband, her children and all the people she loves.
“And not just living longer, but doing the things that you love,” she says.
The MultiCare Center for Weight Loss & Wellness supports you before, during and after the weight loss journey.
