But each time she quit a diet, she gained back more than she had lost, until she reached her high of 230 pounds.īefore the surgery (from left): Pam, Cindy, and Lee AnnĪlthough she had considered stomach stapling (an early form of gastric bypass) as long ago as 1984, she dismissed it as too dangerous. Food was my buddy." And like her sisters, she tried anything and everything to get thin-ephedra, Metabolife, Fen-Phen. "I absolutely used food emotionally," says the 5-foot-2 former Federal Emergency Management Agency employee in Phoenix. Her free-falling self-regard worsened the problem. Lee Ann, the last to really pile on the pounds, could see in her two sisters the fate that would soon be hers. At 255 pounds, 5-foot-4 Pam-who lives 5 minutes away from Cindy in Allentown-dreaded walking by the close-set tables at Saturday-night auctions, her wide body knocking things to the floor as she passed. Both gained weight in their 20s during pregnancies, and every year they got heavier. (Rodale publishes Prevention.) Her doctor put her on diet pills, the first of many regimens she tried, including fasting, purging, Overeaters Anonymous, macrobiotics, exercise, drugs such as Fen-Phen and Redux, and-as her sister Pam says-"every diet known to man." Any weight she lost would simply pile back on, and Cindy would reach a new high. "What filled everybody else didn't fill me," says the former vice president and associate publisher of Rodale Trade Books in Emmaus, PA. By the time Cindy was 15, she was 5-foot-2 and weighed 145 pounds. Then again, weight has always been front and center in the sisters' lives. "It was like trying to hide an elephant." "For 20 years, I wore black," Cindy says. As the sisters have discovered, the surgery has radically changed not only the way they eat-and even think about eating-but every aspect of their lives, from their health to their relationships. The benefits are substantial, but so are the dangers it poses and the compromises it forces. That the technique is in demand is no surprise: Of the 6 million Americans who are morbidly obese (more than 100 pounds overweight), nearly all are candidates, and more than 200,000 have already had the procedure. What has created this miraculous yet nightmarish existence for the sisters? Gastric bypass surgery -a 40-year-old operation with a surging new popularity. "All I want is a good greasy piece of garlic bread, but I know that afterward I'd have to lie down and throw up." "And noodles make me feel like someone's hit me in the stomach," she says. If Cindy eats more than two chocolate malt balls -which she still craves-she gets heart palpitations, a symptom known as "dumping." Pam couldn't drink coffee for 6 months after she began losing the weight-the taste and smell made her sick. Explains Cindy, "Now we're just eating like everyone else." But they don't eat like everyone else. Hunger, says Lee Ann, is more like a small tap on the shoulder. The menu pages flip back and forth as the sisters discuss their new lack of interest in food. When one overweight friend saw Lee Ann, she said: "Oh my God, you skinny bitch." Another called Pam an "anorexic whore." In the world of dieting and slimming down, their transformation was sudden and extreme. She's lovely now, with squared-back shoulders and a soft figure in feminine, bright clothes. Though she "felt like crap" when she was fat, she also always felt beautiful inside-like Susan Lucci. Cindy Ratzlaff (in the middle), 52, is introspective, thoughtful, and the most talkative. Pam Marks (right), 49, is rangy, lanky in a way that fits her former life on a sheep farm. She's tiny, with a flat stomach, a broad smile, and sparkling eyes. Lee Ann McAndrew (on the left in the photo above), is the youngest at 48. The sisters look strikingly healthy -partly because they are now roughly half their former sizes. In a way, it is: What can they choose that won't make them sick, that will be easy to chew and swallow, that won't give them heart palpitations or sudden sweats? An insignificant error for anyone else-swallowing an overlarge piece of food, say-can incur a 2-hour penalty of gut-busting pain for these women. They study the menu with intensity, as if a test is coming. Three sisters sit at a table in a sleepy, intimate restaurant outside Allentown, PA.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |