The end of a lifelong battle
Carolyne Brazeau
Carolyne Brazeau suffered the heartache of having her weight yo-yo for 25 years. Her life revolved around restrictive diets that promised to help her find a balanced lifestyle.
Consultations with nutritionists started when she was barely eight years old. It was the same vicious cycle every time: try a new diet and lose a lot of weight, only to quickly end the diet and regain all those pounds after just a few months.
"I approached everything with a lot of intensity," she recalls with great emotion. "I'd sign up for the gym, I'd deprive myself of everything and then after a little while, for whatever reason, it would all go wrong. All of my best intentions would come to nothing and that would be that."
At one point in her young life, Carolyne weighed 280 pounds. She also suffered from hypertension and had respiratory problems. She realized she was going to have to make a 180-degree turn.
"As the mom of two boys, I was finding it very difficult to continue along the same path, particularly because I wanted to set a good example for my children. I knew that I had to act fast and find a long-term solution," she says.
Carolyne before her surgery
It was under those circumstances that Carolyne decided, in May of 2014, to call the Department of Bariatric Surgery at the McGill University Health Centre's Lachine Hospital for a consultation. "I received an invitation to take part in a group meeting in March 2015. Honestly, I was expecting a four-year wait, so I was ecstatic when I attended the meeting and learned more about the options I had."
After the meeting, Carolyne met with Dr. Sebastian Demyttenaere, who explained that gastric bypass was her best option. After that, she met with a nurse and dietician who made a detailed study of the key factors underlying her obesity.
The big day finally arrived on August 17, 2015. After numerous briefings and two weeks of surgical preparation, Carolyne went into the operating room and hasn't looked back since.
The start of a new chapter
"It was incredibly well organized," Carolyne enthuses. "They explained how to get to the operating room and the anesthesiologist came to reassure me. It did me a lot of good to know that everything was under control. I just had this feeling that this time things were going to change for the better."
The surgery marked the end of a long and difficult battle with her own body. In six months, Carolyne lost 115 pounds while eating well-balanced meals and training regularly. "It wasn't easy," she says. "The surgery was a powerful tool, but I also had to change my attitude and my lifestyle."
Today, this 34-year-old mother is concentrating on her future and approaching her life in a whole new way. After facing the challenge of changing careers, she recently signed up for a 5km run in September 2016. In addition, she goes to support meetings for bariatric surgery patients once a month and shares her experiences on various online forums. "I feel more comfortable with my image,” says Carolyne. “I was always a girl who was kind of a go-getter, but now that girl is no longer in a battle against life. She wants to make the most of every moment and she knows what to do to achieve that."