My name is Meredith Woods and I am from Austin, Texas. One year and six months ago I had the sleeve gastrectomy procedure and since then I’ve lost 106 pounds. I have struggled with obesity since I was 10 years old. I have tried every diet known to mankind. I have tried every exercise program, doctors programs, calorie counting, meal replacements, appetite suppressants and nothing has ever worked.

When daily life became too difficult to do on a day-to-day basis by myself when being overweight was just a struggle to make things work that’s when I decided I needed more professional permanent help.

The fear you have with anything especially when you talk about surgery is that it’s surgery and there’s always the possibility of things not going well at all. The great thing about this office is that they’re very open and honest about everything. They don’t shy away from the scary part. They put it up front and then they talk about the precautions and the things that they go through to make sure that that is minimum for you. I personally had to do a lot of additional testing prior to the procedure to make sure that I was physically sound in order to even go through it and that was really important to me that I did they weren’t just going to say yeah you can have the surgery they wanted to make sure that I was a viable candidate and that it was going to be the healthiest option for me and that made me feel really at peace when I made my decision.

I researched a lot of different surgeries before I chose the sleeve gastrectomy procedure. There are many different kinds but I knew after my research that sleeve gastrectomy was the way to go for me. It’s the safest of all the procedures and the easiest in the long term and when I did my research on doctors I found so many of my friends and colleagues who had spoken to Dr. Ganta about having weight loss surgery and he does all of the different procedures and when I met with him I knew that he was the right choice. When I did all of my research I checked out what life would be like after surgery and his team was very helpful with that as well.

Dr. Ganta and his staff are very knowledgeable and very professional but they’re also very warm and caring and I know that they have my back. I know that they will always be there to help me succeed. They genuinely want me to succeed and I know that even if I have any questions or concerns even years later I will always be able to go to them for assistance and so when I was doing my research and getting prepared for surgery I had several appointments with Dr. Ganta and his team to talk about nutrition and weight loss, how my life would be like after surgery and of course any possibilities of problems or challenges going on and I was very confident with their help that I would be able to get through it.

Now that I’ve had weight-loss surgery I feel so much lighter both physically and mentally. Before I had surgery I would have to take the elevator just to get up one flight of stairs but now I can walk up three flights of stairs and not be winded. I love shopping because clothes fit me better. I’m not afraid to travel anymore because I don’t have to ask for the seatbelt extender on the airplane. The possibilities are endless when you feel healthy and good about yourself. I would say that weight-loss surgery was life changing for me.

Many of my colleagues and friends had spoken to Dr. Ganta about weight loss surgery and I saw other doctors as well to make sure that I did my thorough background checks. He’s very zen if that makes sense. He just makes you feel good and confident that he knows what he’s doing and when you look at his history in surgical procedures you can see that he does know what he’s doing. His staff is very knowledgeable and very helpful and really really wanting to help you succeed in what you do.

My number one piece of advice for anyone considering weight loss surgery is to do their research. I can recommend Dr. Ganta highly enough. He and his team are awesome I definitely think they’re the right team for this job but you still really need to research what your life will be like after surgery. It’s very hard. Weight loss surgery is not magic. You still have to do all of the hard work. You have to eat right. You have to exercise and you have to stick to the plan. You just have this powerful tool in your arsenal now to help you stay on the path.