“Everything started to hurt,” said Gretchen Dietze-Johnson of the Care Coordination Department at Princeton Medical Center (PMC). “My joints, my feet. I wasn’t sleeping well. The ‘a-ha’ moment was when I was 60 pounds too heavy to go on an amusement park ride with my daughter. That was it. I didn’t want to be on the sidelines watching her rather than participating in life.”
For Janet L. Ready, RN, president of PMC and senior vice president of Princeton Health, the pivotal moment came in 2017, during an event at her alma mater, the Columbia University School of Nursing. She came to the realization that she was unhappy with how she felt and how she looked. “I told myself, ‘This is not who you are.’”
Donna Post, RN was at an education session, presented by PMC’s bariatric surgeons, when she realized she wanted to pursue weight-loss surgery. “I asked a lot of questions and then went back to my husband, who was also significantly overweight at the time, and said basically that we both needed to do something before we left our daughter, Emily, as an orphan.”
All three employees chose the gastric sleeve, a procedure in which the stomach’s volume is reduced by 75 to 80 percent, causing one to become full after a smaller portion of food. Another thing they have in common: Choosing to have their surgery and follow-up care at Penn Medicine Princeton Health.
Post not only had the surgery, she also signed on as the bariatric coordinator for PMC’s Center for Bariatric Surgery & Metabolic Medicine, serving as a navigator for patients who are considering their options for managing their weight.
“Many people are very private about bariatric surgery and don’t want to share they are having this procedure,” Post said. “I took the opposite approach. I wanted to change the bias that people, especially those in health care, have with regard to bariatric surgery.”
Post and her husband both had their procedures with Lisa Dobruskin, MD, director of metabolic and bariatric surgery at PMC. At the time, Post said, she and her husband dealt with health issues such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and high cholesterol.
“This has totally changed my life for the better,” said Post, who has lost 130 pounds since her surgery. “I am more confident and my energy is through the roof. I am a Jazzercise nut.”
Ready said she struggled with her weight for many years.
She had considered bariatric surgery previously. In fact, before becoming president of PMC in 2014, she went through the pre-surgical processes and education with another health care organization before ultimately deciding not to move forward with it.
Her weight struggle continued and led to health concerns, such as high blood pressure and poor circulation that would cause her legs to swell by the end of the day.
Following the 2017 event at Columbia, Ready decided to re-initiate the process preparing for bariatric surgery. She had her gastric sleeve procedure on February 27, 2018 with Dobruskin.
Ready has lost a total of 70 pounds since she began prepping for her surgery. Her blood pressure and the vascular issues improved greatly.
The surgery requires a long-term commitment to changing your lifestyle, particularly the amount and type of food you eat, Ready said, but the benefits are worth the effort. Since the surgery, Ready feels much less self-conscious.
“I wear dresses now,” she said. “I almost never wore dresses before, and if I did I would always wear them with opaque stockings.”
Ready also is more active these days. “People who want to lose weight know that exercise would help,” she said, “but a lot of times they don’t do it because they are so self-conscious about exercising in front of others.”
Dietze-Johnson, who had her procedure in 2015 with Wai-Yip Chau, MD, said she also became more active after her surgery.
“It changed everything: my health, my relationships, my self-esteem,” she said. “I’m more conscious of how long it has been since I ‘intentionally moved my body’ — that is, exercise without feeling like it’s a chore. I never would have thought (before the surgery) to go horseback riding or complete 5K races. I never thought I would crave being active.”
Dietze-Johnson, who has lost 110 pounds, said she did not hesitate to have the procedure at her workplace.
“I had my daughter at the old hospital, and all of my doctors are here, so I’m very comfortable with being a patient here,” Dietze-Johnson said.
Ready said her surgery and overnight hospital stay made her proud to be part of Princeton Health.
“It was truly the best experience I ever had with a health care organization, from the moment I arrived to check in until discharge,” Ready said. “I am sure that staff members on the unit knew I was the hospital president, but you can’t fake the kind of experience I had. Everything was perfect. It was a tribute to the entire staff.”
“I have worked here for 24 years,” Post said. “I was born at this hospital, my daughter was born here. The people are like family to me, and I have trusted them with all of my family members through the years. I understand that some people might be worried about privacy and having the procedure at their hospital, but then you realize they are professionals who provide the most amazing personalized care.”