Cindy Curtis didn’t start life off overweight. She wasn’t a chubby baby. All through her childhood she was a perfectly normal kid in a perfectly normal body.
But something happened in high school. She started putting on weight. By the time she was 19, her weight was causing health issues — serious health issues; she had her first stroke.
“This is when I found out my weight was causing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides,” Cindy says.
Cindy fought her weight, but for whatever reason, losing pounds was extremely hard for her. “I tried too many weight-loss programs,” she says. “I tried walking and going to the gym, but the weight kept coming on.”
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Cindy, 59, was born in Nebraska. She has lived most of her life in Kidder. She went to school in Hamilton. She’s been married for 31 years to Randy L. Curtis, a Gallatin native. They have four children: three sons, Matheuw, Randy, and Spenser; and one daughter, Kimberly; and four grandchildren, Leigha, Thomas, Remington, and Hudson.
Over the years, Cindy raised her family and worked outside of the home in a few places. She was a server at Taco Bell and a store manager for Casey’s. She went back to college and got an associate degree in early childhood development. She then taught Head Start in Cameron.
But more health problems due to her weight put an end to her career.
In 2000, Cindy found out she was diabetic. Worse, she was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. She was put on pills for the diabetes and high blood pressure. She had a year of radiation treatment for the cancer. The pounds kept coming on.
“I couldn’t get my blood sugars under control and ended up taking medication and shots four times a day,” Cindy says.
Depression set in.
In 2013, she had to have surgery on her leg, due to plaque build-up from the radiation treatments. Later that year doctors put two stints and two balloons in both her legs.
“I ended up with neuropathy in my left leg, which makes it hard to walk, no less exercise,” she says.
In 2015, while she was still struggling with her weight and blood sugar issues, she had to have triple bypass surgery.
It marked a turning point.
In 2017, she and her husband Randy decided to get healthy and change their eating habits and join a gym. They didn’t eat fried foods, pasta, breads or drink any pop.
It was a great plan for Randy, but for Cindy it wasn’t so great.
“He was losing weight, but I was only taking a little off,” Cindy says.
Then she was invited to the home of a friend who had lost a lot of weight. Cindy asked her about the weight loss, and her friend told her she had bariatric surgery.
Cindy was intrigued. But concerns about another surgery after having heart surgery gave her pause.
Then, a year later, she ran into another friend who’d had the same surgery. This friend suggested she learn more about the procedure by attending a free seminar.
Cindy and Randy went to North Kansas City Hospital, to a free seminar hosted by Dr. Berghoff.
“I found out that after the surgery I would be free of diabetes and no more high blood pressure,” Cindy says. “That’s when I decided to have the surgery if I qualified.”
Cindy had to be mentally healthy and get clearance from her surgeons and her regular doctor.
“From the very beginning, I was ready,” Cindy says. “No matter what it took.”
Two weeks before surgery, Cindy was put on an all liquid diet. It was hard, but she wasn’t starving.
“I think the way I was already eating helped,” she says. “I started losing some weight.”
On Dec. 3, 2018, Cindy had the surgery.
Gastric bypass surgery works by decreasing the amount of food a person can eat at one sitting and reducing absorption of nutrients. The surgeon cuts across the top of the stomach, sealing it off from the rest of the stomach. The resulting pouch is about the size of a walnut and can hold only about an ounce of food. Normally, your stomach can hold about three pints of food.
Then, the surgeon cuts the small intestine and sews part of it directly onto the pouch. Food then goes into this small pouch of stomach and then directly into the small intestine sewn to it. Food bypasses most of the stomach and the first section of the small intestine, and instead enters directly into the middle part of the small intestine.
The day after her surgery, the medical staff checked her blood sugars and blood pressure. And for the first time since 2000 her blood sugar and blood pressure were normal.
“I was so happy to have the surgery,” she says.
Once she came home, she struggled with her intake of liquids. Her stomach was so small she couldn’t hold much. Then she had to learn to eat. She would get full so fast.
“Learning a new way of eating and drinking was hard,” she says. “But it was worth it.”
Cindy has lost 164 pounds.
She says the surgery isn’t for everyone.
“This is a new journey and a new lifestyle,” she says. “You have to have your mind made up to live the rest of your life this way. If you don’t follow the rules, you can and will gain the weight back.”
Cindy is one year and nine months out from her surgery and is maintaining her total weight loss. She does struggle daily with getting all her liquids in that she’s supposed to. She also struggles eating certain foods.
“If you’re thinking of having this surgery, go to a free seminar,” she says. “Talk to the doctors, talk to other people that have had it done. I’m so blessed to have this done. It has added more years to my life to spend with my loved ones, my husband, children and grandchildren.”