Dr Nilesh A. Patel of Texas Bariatric Specialists (TBS) says patient Jonnie Wilson no longer depends on medications to ease complications resulting from obesity, including obstructive sleep apnea.
Jonnie Wilson was always overweight as a child, hitting 120 pounds by age 10. Obesity ran in her family. After graduating from high school, Wilson’s struggle became more complicated than weight gain alone. She was a single mother raising three children, working three jobs, and completing her undergrad at Texas State University. Unfortunately, due to her tight schedule, nutrition was put aside in exchange for cheap and convenient options.
While she was in Missouri completing her graduate degree, she developed diabetes and sleep apnea. Jonnie would wake up every 30 minutes in the middle of the night gasping and struggling for breath, resulting in her need for use of a CPAP machine. She was also constantly in and out of the hospital and her doctor kept increasing her amount of insulin each time she saw him.
Wilson knew she needed to get help and her primary doctor was supportive about her decision to undergo bariatric surgery, but Wilson helped her daughter through the bariatric process before herself. Together, they researched their options online and stumbled across the website of Texas Bariatric Specialists, where they signed up for and attended an initial seminar with Patel’s physician assistant, James Houston. “James was very enthusiastic and explained the process thoroughly,” Wilson says in a release, “which prompted us to continue with Dr Patel as our surgeon.”
After seeing her own daughter’s life dramatically change postsurgery, Wilson was further encouraged to proceed with her own bariatric process. Due to her diabetic complications, it was decided that gastric bypass would be the best route for her to lose the amount of weight necessary to benefit her health long-term.
A few days after the surgery, Wilson said, “I finally have mental clarity, no more fog from lack of sleep.” Along with the disappearance of her sleep apnea, Jonnie’s asthma disappeared and she no longer needs to take insulin for her diabetes. “For the first time in my life, I felt healthy,” Wilson said, “I even mowed my lawn without any trouble breathing!”
