“Now I can cross my legs, and my husband can hug me with one arm.”
Cindy Valente, 48
Kenilworth Borough employee
Year of surgery: 2019
Pounds lost: 85
Biggest benefit: Improved health. I suffered from uncontrolled high blood pressure, severe sleep apnea, anemia and arthritis. Three years post-surgery, I’m off all meds and don’t need my apnea machine. I even had to gain a little weight, because I’d become too skinny.
Lifestyle change: I’m on a high protein diet, almost keto. My tastes have changed. I used to eat fish only rarely but now I have it more often, and I rarely eat red meat. For exercise, I take brisk walks with my dog. And I love to go out on the motorcycle with my husband, who doesn’t have to put extra air in his tires anymore!
“Bariatric surgery changes a person physically, but patients find it transforms their lives as well,” says Anish Nihalani, MD, Medical Director of the Surgical Weight Loss Program at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Rahway. “They develop new habits and new attitudes, as well as the understanding that surgery is the first step of a journey.”
To learn more about weight loss surgery at RWJUH Rahway, call 732-499-6300.