Graduation
The final session for each My Self Design participant includes a special commemoration of that person’s unique recovery journey. Patients plan and orchestrate a very personal way to mark the completion of their individual treatment and celebrate the recovery they have achieved. The decision to share that celebration here with you is sometimes a part of this process.
The My Self Design program is extremely proud to share in these amazing journeys and we congratulate all of our graduates.
Best Wishes To Jennifer
Jennifer’s graduation marked the end of a rocky and difficult journey back to health. Her decision to have surgery was plagued with challenges and nagging dread that she might be making a decision she would regret. Morbid obesity had imprisoned Jenn for a long time. But for her job and a few essentials she rarely ventured into public places. Like the Blackbird in Jenn’s music session song, she was afraid to fly and yet keenly aware that “all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive”.
Jenn lost most of the weight she hoped to shed during her first post-op year but she worked in the My Self Design program monthly for two full years to develop a solid long-term plan for the future. She knew it would be important to practice new strategies to help her avoid relapse. She also took to heart the program’s requirement for keeping a photo journal so she wrote about her important experiences and tracked her changes regularly there. Now she has a remarkable permanent record of her accomplishments and a wealth of personal insight to draw upon whenever the going gets tough.
Right before her surgery Jenn wrote in her journal: “We took a drive to the shore to take my mind off things. Sean had never seen the ocean at the age of 5 and Jerry walked him to the water to get a close look. I stayed with my feet in the sand and experienced a very surreal moment. I felt the sand between my toes, and the warmth of the sun. I smelled the salt air. I heard the waves crashing, and the laughter of my son. I began to cry and knew right then that we would return to the ocean the following summer a very different family. That is exactly what we did!”
Jenn’s flight into health has been a joy to watch. May she soar like the ‘Blackbird’ that inspired her and may she enjoy miles of continued success.
Meet Tracy! Tracy was filled with excitement for travel and seeing the world. She always longed to visit other countries but her obesity made traveling very difficult. Now she has developed a healthy routine with food and is comfortable at home as well as far away. Tracy finds herself traveling at every opportunity and feels she is often “peeking into the thin world as if looking out on the other side of the rainbow. Here is a photo Tracy took in Brazil while “peaking” into Argentina from Iguazu Falls. Good Luck Tracy. May all your rainbows be as beautiful as this one.
This is Joanne.
Joanne celebrated her graduation with her entire family present. Both of her sons, her daughter, and her husband shared their thoughts and feelings about Joanne’s remarkable journey back to health and independence. Each member reminisced about seeing her climb back from morbid obesity into life as the dynamic woman they knew and loved so well. It brought tears to every eye in the room.Joanne’s husband told us how powerful it was for him to have his children truly see their mother’s beauty and vitality unfold. They had never known her before morbid obesity stole her mobility and sapped her health. It was an epic, though very private journey they watched before them day after day and month after month.
At the end of Joanne’s first year post-op she allowed me to videotape her music session. That’s a special time when the My Self Design program attempts to capture the euphoria of each person’s personal and physical transformation after WLS in a musical representation of their internal joy.
