The big
weight:
Matilde Tysz'
story
A beaming Matilde Tysz walked into the waiting room
and smiled at the patients around her, most of whom
were there for the first time.
She had been coming there for more than a year now.
As she approached the reception desk and greeted the
familiar staff, she pulled a glass frame out of the red
bag she was carrying. She proudly showed the carefully
arranged photos in the picture frame. All of the pictures
were of a different woman, a different Ms. Tysz.
"I was not happy in these pictures. I almost felt that
I was on the outside of my body as opposed to being
inside my body."
Ms. Tysz was unhappy because of her weight.
"I had been dieting and exercising all my life. I was
turning 49 years old, and my knees were hurting me, my
back was hurting me. I was on two high-blood-pressure
medications, my sugar and cholesterol were high.
Everything was off the charts. I didn't like where my life
was going."
Ms. Tysz says her weight was creeping up towards
300 pounds and that scared her. So the married mother
of two made an appointment to see Heather McMullen,
director of bariatric surgery at Syosset Hospital.
Comprehensive changes
"When someone comes in to talk about bariatric surgery,
they need to know that surgery alone is not going to
do it," said Dr. McMullen. "They have to be able to make
significant lifestyle changes with diet and exercise to
make it work. The goal of this surgery is to make people
healthier. Improving their medical conditions will enable
them to engage in more activities with their family
and friends. Patients undergo a number of medical
evaluations to ensure their safety. We also provide pre-
op education with a nutritionist, and everyone is seen by
a psychologist."
"I absolutely love Dr. McMullen," said Ms. Tysz. "She is
not the kind of person to sugarcoat anything. When
I came in for the consultation, I remember she told
me everything I could expect from the surgery and
everything that could go wrong.
Weight-loss surgery changed her life in more ways than one.
By Andrea Mineo
Weight loss
4
northwell.edu
