Twins undergo weight-loss surgery one year apart

As twin sisters, Angela Dolfin and Amanda King have spent their lives as mirrors of each other, sharing the ups and downs of their lives — and their bathroom scales.

Dolfin and King each chose to have bariatric surgery, one year apart, to address the weight gain that had left them tired, in pain and unable to do the things they wanted to do.

Now, the sisters have lost about 200 pounds between them and left sleep apnea machines, high blood pressure and sore knees behind.

“It’s the best thing that I’ve ever done,” Dolfin says of the surgery.

She admits she was nervous going in because it is, after all, a major surgery. But her concerns melted away with the weight.

“In the long run, you get your life back,” she says. “You feel so much better. It’s the best choice I ever made.”

Weight wasn’t always a concern for the sisters, now 48. As teenagers, they were very active in athletics.

“We were really skinny all the way through high school,” Dolfin says.

They graduated and lived in different states, and yet they continued to live parallel lives at similar weights.

“My sister doesn’t have biological kids,” Dolfin says. “She was in Arizona and I was in North Carolina, and any time I got pregnant she gained all the weight that I gained. … I guess it’s just a twin vibe thing.”

King doesn’t blame her sister’s pregnancies for her weight gain.

“It was just age and cutting down on exercising,” she says.

Like many high school athletes, she says she just didn’t make the adjustments to her diet that came with leaving sports behind.

“You lose track,” she says. “Then you realize you can’t sit down and tie your shoes anymore.”

Aside from those inconveniences, the weight left them both exhausted and in pain.

“My knees always hurt,” Dolfin says. “My hips always hurt.”

Whatever the cause — pregnancy, age or twin powers — both Dolfin and King found themselves back in Washington and in need of a change to help them regain their health and simply feel better.

King was the first to undergo bariatric surgery.

“I try everything first,” she says. “I guess I’m the guinea pig. I am three minutes older.”

King chose Monica Young, MD, at the MultiCare Capital Bariatric & Obesity Surgical Services clinic in Olympia to perform a gastric sleeve procedure. She’d been considering the surgery and working with weight-loss specialists for about three years before the procedure in October 2021.

Dolfin, on the other hand, says she “never really thought about it” until she saw her sister’s results.“I saw how well she was doing on it and losing all the weight, and I thought, ‘If she can do it, I can do it better!’” she says.

“We both were heavyset when I got my surgery,” King says. “Then when I started losing weight, we weren’t getting the ‘You look like twins’ reactions. We were getting ‘You look like sisters.’ I think that’s what motivated her.”

Dolfin underwent her own procedure, a gastric bypass, with the same surgeon in October 2022 — almost exactly a year after her sister.

At first, Dolfin acknowledges there was a bit of friendly sibling rivalry over their weight loss. But as they each reached the 100-pound-loss mark, there wasn’t much to compete over.

Don’t let the sisterly competition fool you, though — the pair are still closer than many siblings.

“When we were teenagers, we were at each other’s throats,” Dolfin admits. “Now we can’t go a day without talking.”

In fact, their families share a home in Lacey, including Dolfin’s husband, one of her four children and King’s fiance.

And both are enjoying the health and energy that has come with weight loss.

The migraines that had begun to plague her before surgery are gone, King says, and she no longer has to take medication to keep her blood pressure under control.

“I was exhausted all the time,” she says. “Just walking was hard. I didn’t like the way I felt. I hated the way I looked in pictures.”

Dolfin, meanwhile, had been treating sleep apnea, high blood pressure and prediabetes before surgery.

“I went from having to take medication every day to not having to take any medications,” she says. “It’s the best thing that I’ve ever done, the best choice I’ve ever made.”

King agrees, adding that her weight had begun to feel like a hindrance to her independence.

“I can sit down and tie my shoes without any help. I can get off the ground. I can go for a walk,” she says. “It feels great to be an independent person and to be able to take care of myself.”