Scott Webb: Bariatric weight loss surgery often has life-changing results for patients. And today I'm speaking with Joyce, a 77-year-young surgical weight loss patient, who's now living her best life, traveling around the world, volunteering and teaching classes.

This is the Health Works Here podcast from Emerson Hospital. I'm Scott Webb and Joyce, I was mentioning my mom had bariatric surgery in her late sixties. So I know a little bit about the life-changing benefits, but I want to have you first share with listeners what your life was like before bariatric surgery.

Joyce Hinckley: I'm barely five feet five. And at my highest weight, I weighed 315 pounds. That was a lot. And my life before bariatric surgery was a lot of struggle just to get things done. I was not a parent until I was 37. And trying to run after a toddler. When you are obese, tests everyone's limits, yours, your husband's and your child's.

And as, she got older, I got older, we got older, it got progressively more difficult. I looked at lots of options. I visited other places where they did bariatric surgery. The other thing is, I met my husband on a street corner in Paris on New Year's Eve when we were students. He is originally from Tunisia in north Africa.

He has family there. We have always traveled. Travel has been a joy, a fun part of our life, except it wasn't anymore. It was getting more and more grim. And I can tell you exactly why I decided to have bariatric surgery in two travel trips, if you're interested.

Host: I am very interested and I appreciate you kind of giving us foundation of your story. You're in your late thirties, you're chasing a toddler around, having all this extra weight that's, you know, bothersome for you and troubling and wearing you out. So tell us then why exactly did you opt for the bariatric surgery and how did things go?

Joyce: You know, if you're obese, you lose weight, you gain weight, you lose weight, you gain weight, nothing works for long. And as I said, I visited other places and it wasn't until Emerson, that I made the decision. But in our sixties, my husband and I both retired. We went to Greece and I'm half Greek. I grew up until I was six because it was after the war. We lived with my Greek grandparents. I heard their stories. We were in Athens. It was a hot day. I was climbing the Parthenon hell or high water. And it was both because I got up to the top of the Parthenon and I was so wet, I could have wrung my t-shirt out.

It was grim. It was not fun. And it was supposed to be part of, you know, one of these, you promised yourself all your life, you'd go there. And just before I made the decision to have bariatric surgery, we went to Spain and Morocco. Again, another one of these trips where you go places that you always wanted to see.

Everybody in the world knows what the Alhambra was. Well, you have to hike. And I walk with a cane and I've walked with a cane for years. And again, it was grim. It was not fun. You are in one of the most beautiful places on earth. And you can't enjoy it because the weight is keeping you down. And it was on that trip that I decided something had to happen. So I started looking for programs and I met a woman who had been to Emerson and had weight loss surgery there and started talking about it. And so I went to an information session.

And it was a qualitatively different experience than any place else I had explored. One of the things about the weight loss program at Emerson is they accept you for who you are. They don't want you to lose weight to prove that you're worthy. They don't want you to demonstrate a year's worth of commitment to a regimen before they treat you. You walk in and there is immediate sense that they understand the problem that you have a disease. And they're going to treat the disease. That what's going on is not your problem. It's not something that you have chosen, that you have made, that you have a physiological problem, and they're going to treat it, it's life-changing.

Host: Yeah, it definitely is. And you know, that's one of the things having hosted some similar podcasts is I've learned that, you know, obesity really is a disease, right? And for someone like yourself, who'd obviously been considering bariatric weight loss surgery, along the way, finding that good fit, finding Emerson, really connecting and trusting the folks there I'm sure was a big part of this.

Joyce: Absolutely. And of the things I think when you're obese that you learn in dealing with medical care is to lie. You expect physicians to always be judging you. So you don't necessarily tell them the truth of what's going on with you. And there's something about the way Emerson organizes their program that allows you as a patient, to be truthful probably for the first time in a long time. And it's incredibly empowering.

Host: I'm sure that it is. And you know, I was planning on asking you maybe a question, like, do you wonder why you waited so long, but I'm getting the sense that it wasn't so much that you were waiting per se, but you were hopeful that you'd find people, doctors, you know, the help that you found at Emerson. And once you found Emerson and you connected with them, there was a lot of clarity there, right?

Joyce: Absolutely. I don't think I'm unique. I think that there are a lot of people who are obese, who try hundreds of things. I think between, you know, 30 and 70, I lost thousands of pounds. I regained them. But you're always looking for something. And yes, when I found Emerson, it was like, ah, you know.

Host: Yeah.

Joyce: This is the place. The time is now. It was never now before, because it was never the place.

Host: Yeah, I totally hear you never now before, until you got to Emerson and I love that word that you used empowering, you felt empowered. So you have the surgery, you know, you have to do your part, so, you know, sort of a drum roll here. What is your life like now?

Joyce: I can't tell you how good my life is. It's, you know, it's, it's amazing. So I'm going to be 78 in a couple of weeks. But since the weight loss surgery, one of the other things we did is we went to Romania, and we went to Transylvania and you know, I'm going to tell you that we climbed Bran Castle and it's a steep climb up. And as I said, I walk with a cane, you know, I'm a relatively short, older person, I climbed up, it's a medieval castle. Accessibility is not a word that's made it to Transylvania yet. You know, it's steep. It's slippery. It's rocky. I got up there. It was another hot day, but it was wonderful. I mean, it was jumped up and down wonderful because you are in a place that you've read about that movies had been made about. It's not historically accurate. It's whatever, you're still somewhere that's on your bucket list.

And it was so different than the experience at the Parthenon at the Alhambra. It was joyful. It was magical. It was all of the things that travel should be.

So that's one piece. The other thing that I've thought a lot about this being obese makes you small. And I think that sounds like it makes no sense, but when you are obese, you work very hard not to be noticed, not to take up too much space. When you walk into a theater, a plane, whatever, you work somehow to shrink into yourself.

And I think doing that changes the way that you hope, that you dream, that your expectations for yourself become smaller and more limited. And that's not true for me anymore. I don't limit the way that I think about myself or the plans that I make for myself in the ways that I might have done before the surgery. That make any sense to you?

Host: It makes total sense. And I know that you and I, we were chit chatting before we got rolling. And you mentioned you have a psychology background, and this is just really interesting. It's a really deep, you know, that someone who is obese, is trying not to be noticed and what an incredible journey you were on all those years, as you say, gaining and losing thousands of pounds and dreaming of, you know, sort of looking and feeling and being this person that you wanted to be.

And then you have this life-changing moment of meeting up with Emerson and you know, all the helpful docs and nurses and everybody there. It's just such an amazing story. I'm sure there's a piece of advice or something that you would want anyone, you know, a senior who's overweight to know if they are sort of hearing your story and saying, wow, my story is just like, Joyce's right. What would you want them to know?

Joyce: One thing is you never too old to change your life. That's an important thing. This didn't happen until I was getting to be 71. So the first thing is you're never too old to change your life and you never too old to have your dreams. That's really important because I also think as we age, we think that we can have fewer and fewer dreams and that's not true.

And one of the other things about the program at Emerson is that they think that way too, you know, you're never too old to be healthy. I can't say enough about these people. From Dr. Lautz, to Jessica and James who work the desk. It is a total package full of people who truly care about the people they treat and they treat you like a human being. just that is life-changing even before the surgery. It's life-changing. It's a safe space in an industry that doesn't often offer a lot of safe spaces.

Host: Yeah, I see what you mean. And this entire conversation today, Joyce has just brought a huge smile to my face. Your story is one of determination and empowerment and success. And as you say, you're never too old to make a decision to change your life. Doing this at 71 was such a bold step, but here you are, nearly 78 and you're still going strong and you're visiting these places and making these climbs. It's just such an inspiring story. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. And you stay well.

Joyce: Okay, thank you.

Host: Visit Emerson hospital.org/swl. For more information about weight loss surgery. And thanks for listening to Emerson's Health Works Here podcast. I'm Scott Webb and make sure to catch the next episode by subscribing to the Health Works Here podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever podcasts can be heard.