Emma-Louise Brown

My name’s Emma Louise Brown and I work for Bunnings and I have two fur children. I had the mini bypass with the minimizer in. So before losing the weight I was a fairly negative kind of person. I was tired all the time. I had sore joints and I didn’t make plans with friends. I didn’t really go out to make friends, so it was very restricting. So I couldn’t sort of walk long distances. I’d get very out of breath. I was on asthma medication and stuff like that. So I just didn’t really need a house because it was tiring, too tiring!

My mom and my dad were actually really concerned about my health because my breathing was actually really bad. So like I couldn’t walk up a flight of steps without getting sort of halfway up and having to stop. I kept telling myself I was going to be able to do it myself. But it’s a fairly drastic thing to have done. And I kept sort of doubting that I’d be able to cope with the whole not being able to eat what I want when I want that kind of thing because obviously you are restricted in what you can eat. So, yeah, I think I just spent months and months convincing myself that if I just try harder, it will happen. But at some point, I just had to realize that I needed a bit of extra help, that dieting wasn’t working. So yeah.

I went to go out to dinner with mum one night and we walked, it wouldn’t have even been five hundred meters down the foreshore in Mandurah, and by the end of it, I was out of breath and puffing and I had chest pain at the same time. So I kind of got scared that I was going to have an early death. So it was pretty much after that weekend, I booked in with my GP and went from there. It was yeah, fear.

I’d done a fair bit of research and I’d talked to my sister who had exactly the same surgery that I had done. So the procedure itself, I didn’t have any worries about and especially after seeing the surgeon, the first appointment I had with him, because just he explained everything perfectly, I wasn’t worried at all. The first time you see your surgeon, it’s running through like how to eat, the amounts and how slowly you’re supposed to eat initially and things like that. And he takes you through, obviously, what step by step through what the surgery is going to be.

The first appointment I had with my surgeon. I knew that I was doing the right thing. And now that’s when I stopped worrying about it and just looked forward to my day. Before surgery, I was wearing I think I was a size twenty-four pants and a twenty top, I think it was. And I’m down to sort of a sixteen pants and a 14 to 16 top depending on where I shop. So, big difference.

Obviously, I made a lot less. I don’t obviously can’t have big meals anymore, but other than that it’s I don’t like emotionally eat anymore. That’s all gone. So it’s I used to use food for happiness, sad, angry. Now I don’t, it’s just, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner. So if I want to go out and do anything, go shopping or something like that, it’s I don’t have to think about it. I just do it. So playing with the kids when I go to picnics and things like that, I don’t hesitate to get up and run around with them and play with them, which I miss doing. Just yeah, I just don’t have to think about doing stuff anymore. I just do it. Now I’m less scared of putting myself out there, which is massive and makes a massive difference. And I’m just a lot more positive about life in general. I don’t…I’m not angry anymore. I’m actually quite a lot happier in myself. So a lot of self-confidence has come back as well.

Definitely recommend anyone who’s considering having the surgery to get it done. I don’t have any regrets.