Dr. Amit Trivedi began offering surgery as a form of weight loss to local patients late last year. Based in Hackensack, New Jersey, he is on-Island once a month to perform lap-band or gastric bypass procedures. When we spoke last month he had performed nine surgeries in total all on women. He said he's changed people's lives for the better. Bermudian Carol Marie Harvey is one of his patients and she calls him her angel. She was candid with me on her battle to shed hundreds of pounds. She said she had been trying all her life and finally found success after having lap-band surgery last August.

Q: What prompted you to get surgery?

A: Are you serious? What prompted me? I am FAT!!!!! And so scared of being really, really sick. Diabetes, cancer, heart disease, they all seem to run in my family, on both sides. My mom and one of my sisters is diabetic. My mom also had high blood pressure. An aunt died of cancer, and another close family member has prostate cancer.

Q: How long have you been trying to lose weight?

A: I have been overweight as long as I can remember. I think I started my first diet ever when I was about 16. The doctor gave me diet pills; they worked, but I hated feeling loopy!!! And I had problems focusing on my schoolwork. So I stopped taking them and of course, put the weight back on. I have been yo-yo dieting most of my adult life.

Q: How much weight did you need to lose? Was it medically necessary for you to lose weight?

A: Before the surgery I was the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I (still) need to lose about 200lbs and yes, it is medically necessary for me to lose weight if I want to live a life of quality. I was headed for a life of poor quality due to poor health.

Q: Did you suffer any other medical conditions as a result of your weight?

A: There was the high blood pressure, bad knees and bad back. I was also a smoker, so I couldn't breathe when I walked. I couldn't walk anywhere without feeling like I was going to pass out. Now don't get me wrong, I am still not where I want to be, as my weight loss is only about 62lbs at this time; but I feel SO much better! I don't have a problem walking up steps like I used to. And then there are the social aspects of being overweight. Being afraid to sit in those plastic lawn chairs because of being too heavy. A big girl sits in one of those things and CRASH!!!! There she is, on the ground, with her legs in the air, and all the skinny people standing around laughing. Or being too big to sit in the hairdresser's chair. Or the opposite sex not giving you a second look. Socially, I became an outcast, because I wasn't comfortable with my weight.

Q: How long were you overweight? Do you know what caused it?

A: I have been overweight all my adult life; been fighting it all that time too. I have done just about every diet there is. My slow and steady weight gain was and is a result of a sedentary lifestyle. I have always had desk jobs. The only time it was managed, was when I was in boot camp I was in the US Army. After boot camp, I went to my duty station in Kentucky, where things slowed down a lot. But every year I had to pass a physical and I did everything I could to keep my weight down. That was when I started binging and purging. Now that mess scared me. The binging and purging was only one other way that I tried to lose and keep my weight down.

Q: What were some of the lengths you went to to lose weight?

A: There was Jenny Craig; Weight Watchers; NutriSystem; the Scarsdale Diet; the Cabbage Diet; the protein diet; the Grapefruit Diet trust me, this list is just a few of the things I did to my body.

Q: How did your family and friends feel about your weight?

A: My family and friends have always loved me as I am. They know who I truly am inside. I remember growing up, my mama and my daddy have always told me that I am beautiful, and they still do, but it's how other people make you feel. Society is cruel to big people; they see your fat first.

Q: What made you choose lap-band over other choices like gastric bypass?

A: After researching for about three years, I chose the lap-band procedure. I was terrified to have my body rewired in any way. With the band, although it is permanent, it is reversible. The risks are lower and it is adjustable. That's my favorite part it is adjustable.

Q: Were you at all apprehensive about having the surgery?

A: Nope, I was not apprehensive at all. I had researched it so much I felt I had sufficient knowledge of the procedure that I could do it myself. I knew what to expect.

Q: Did you have any support after the surgery?

A: My family are my support system. I have a friend at work who is very supportive. She even joined the same gym! At first, I didn't tell anybody, only my family, because I knew the reaction I was going to get. One 'friend' is very unsupportive of any kind of surgery for weight loss, so all I get from her is negative comments. Everybody she knows is getting sick from bariatric surgery.

Q: How has your life changed?

A: My life is ever-changing! People are now starting to notice the difference. I am getting compliments. Some people can't quite put their finger on it, they think I changed my hair!

Q: How long did it take you to notice any change?

A: I only noticed that my clothes are getting baggy. Other than that, I still see same old me in the mirror. I have always loved the inner me, the outer me is starting to shine!

For more information on lap-band and gastric bypass surgery, see the September 16, 2008 edition of The Royal Gazette online, www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?sectionId=111&articleId=7d8982f30030024.