Read her story
“My name is Rachel Mitchell. I had bariatric surgery on November 5th of 2018. I had the gastric sleeve surgery with Dr. Matthew Metz. I battled with weight my whole entire life. My mom actually had gastric bypass about 15 years prior to me having it and she gained back a lot of weight. So I was very hesitant at first. I chose to have bariatric surgery after a good friend of mine lost her sister-in-law and niece in a very tragic car accident. I have three little kids and all I could picture was, “What if I wasn’t here tomorrow?” And I just wanted to do anything I could to get the weight off as fast as I could. I chose Denver Center for Bariatric Surgery, mainly because I had a couple of friends actually that had weight loss surgery and I didn’t know anything about the doctors or anything like that. I asked them for some referrals, met with both of those doctors and just felt like I immediately connected with Dr. Metz, who was very personable and looked like someone I could probably even be friends with outside of having surgery. My husband also had bariatric surgery almost exactly a year to the date of my surgery, and he mainly chose Dr. Metz, obviously because I had gone with him. My life has changed tremendously. I feel a newfound confidence. I did a lot of mindset work in the beginning because you become overweight for a reason, at some point, and trying to understand why that is so that you can work to reverse it in the future. I did a lot of personal development.
The main reason I did the bariatric surgery, in the beginning, was because of my children and being able to participate in their lives and not just sit on the sidelines and watch them play sports or play outside. I’ve had like milestones that I’ve wanted to hit in my journey and one of them was I’ve never been a runner and being able to run was always something that I aspired to do, but I never was confident enough to try and push myself because it was too painful, probably. But I ran my first 5K in November and then I’ve run four 5Ks since then. I just celebrated my 40th birthday on Saturday and I vowed to buy myself cowgirl boots because I’ve never been able to actually own a pair of boots because my calves were too big. I bought these boots and they were the best purchase. And it’s sometimes those little things that make you appreciate this journey so much more. Your mindset is such a powerful thing in this journey. A lot of people can get the weight off and a lot of people can change their lives in a positive way. But to be able to keep that weight off or continue their journey, that takes really a lot of work, more so on your mindset.
I would tell Dr. Metz just thank you so much for all the support. His office has been incredible in holding our hand all along. Cheering you on when you’ve had successes, being there to support you when you might need additional help. But most importantly, being open-minded and treating you like you’re no different than someone maybe who is 150lbs less than you are.”