Read her story
“My name is Nora Walker, and I had bariatric surgery in August of 2020 with Dr. Chae at Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery. I decided to do bariatric surgery because there was a day I was playing on the floor with my children. I want to get off the floor and everything hurt. And at 30, I figured that was way too young to start feeling that way.
I had tried all the weight loss stuff. I’d done all the diets, everything and it just didn’t seem to really stick or work. And so I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Chae and see what my options were. I decided to have the gastric bypass surgery, the full bypass and I went with that because I was looking at success rates with the bypass versus the sleeve, and it just looked like the bypass had a much higher success rate than the sleeve did in the long term. So ten years from now, a lot of people who get the sleeve tend to gain it back or have issues with that. Whereas the full bypass it looked like for your heart, for diabetes, for all these different things in the long run, it was the way to go. I called my insurance provider and they recommended Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery. They said they had no malpractice suits. They were the best that there was. I did research on my own. I looked at Dr. Chae’s license and saw he had nothing against it and it honestly just looked like he was one of the best surgeons in the nation for this. I knew Dr. Chae was the right fit for me when I met him because he was so incredibly kind. My only interaction with weight loss surgery was the show My 600 Pound Life and that doctor can be very straightforward. Let’s say… So, I was really scared to go to a doctor and be told things that I’ve been told my whole life you’re overweight. You should be able to do this, lose weight, all of that stuff. But when I met with Doctor Chae, he was so kind, so understanding, there wasn’t judgment there. It just felt right. My life has changed in so many ways since bariatric surgery.
I obviously lost 105lbs – big change there – but it’s mostly the little everyday things that I’ve really enjoyed – playing with my kids again, going swimming. I thought I didn’t like to swim, but it turns out I just wasn’t comfortable with myself in a swimsuit. I go out more because I’m more comfortable going out, even going out to eat. There was always a little bit of self-consciousness there. And now I feel like everything’s better. Ever since I had bariatric surgery. The advice that I’d give someone who is thinking about it is obviously, do your research, find someone you’re comfortable with, and then also just do it. I know that sounds like a silly piece of advice, but I put it off for years and years, thinking of all the negative connotations that come with it and everything like that. But honestly, just do it. It’s the best decision I ever made. If I could tell my provider one thing, it would just be: Thank you. He’s changed my life.”