At 14, Krista Magnusson was active in sports and looking forward to high school. She was usually the first called on to plan class parties and get-togethers. But, instead of enjoying high school classes and parties, Krista became bedridden when a bout with strep throat turned to mononucleosis, then to Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS). 

Not your normal adolescence.

Krista says, “This isn't a normal progression and CFIDS is unusual in a person of my age. It changed my life.” In fact, this little-understood disease stole her quality of life. One of the ways it changed her was that she quickly gained a large amount of weight. “I tried everything to get rid of the weight – Weight Watchers, Fen-Phen, Redux and Xenical – nothing worked. My doctor told me that if I only ate apples, I would still gain weight because of the effect of the disease on my system.” 

Her health gradually improved enough that she could earn her GED and start college, part time. She was there when her mom heard about Carnie Wilson’s gastric bypass surgery. Krista recalls, “We immediately began researching. I was on the computer all day, every day, trying to learn about the surgery. I got into chat rooms on Spotlight Health and asked questions of people who’d had it. At first it seemed scary and weird and very extreme – but my situation was very extreme.”

“When we talked to my doctors, they supported the idea. My CFIDS specialist knew I’d tried everything to lose weight, without success. He felt that surgery might ‘jump-start’ my metabolism and force the weight to come off – which it seems to have done.” Both Krista and her parents had separate conferences with her doctors prior to going forward. “They wanted to be sure we all understood the risks and that I was going into it with the right expectations and attitude.”

Her doctor recommended Dr. Frank Mitchell of Surgical Associates for her weight-loss surgery. Since Dr. Mitchell had successfully performed Krista’s earlier laproscopic gallbladder removal, she was comfortable with him. She attended one of the earliest educational meetings and joined the support group at Surgical Associates.

One of the first.

“There were a lot fewer people there than attend now,” she laughs. “Even though I knew the weight wasn’t my fault, I was still kind of embarrassed and uncomfortable at that first meeting, but they were wonderful. Tracy, Sandy, and Janna put me at ease right away.”

“It took about a year for my dad's insurance company to agree to cover the surgery, even with both my doctors’ recommendations. I really wanted it done laproscopically. I didn’t want a big scar and I’d heard that the recovery was a little easier, so I kind of insisted on it. I’m sure there are pros and cons on both sides. The surgery took longer than expected; around seven hours. My parents were really concerned until they knew it was over and I was okay,” she says. 

Getting back to life.

She had the surgery on Tuesday and went home Friday evening. The lengthy surgery, combined with her weakened system, required a longer than usual recovery time. She suffered from muscle spasms and was extremely sore, but had no other side effects from the surgery. 

Krista couldn’t walk up the stairs to use their treadmill but, with her parent’s physical support, she began walking through the house. Within a few months, she was able to extend those rounds each day and began recovering her strength.

She recalls her first weigh-in after surgery. “I was reluctant to go back for my two weeks’ checkup because I didn’t think I’d lost anything – I felt like ‘I can’t tell anything – it’s not working!’ Everybody says this, but I really thought I was going to be the one person that it didn’t work on because of my illness. My system wouldn’t let any other plan work, what if it won’t let this work? “

It's working.

“I went in and weighed. I’d lost 22 pounds and I was just ‘Oh, my gosh!  Are you kidding me?’ I was so excited! The weight just kept coming off. I’ve lost between 115 and 120 pounds since my surgery on April 14, 2002.”

She is careful to take the necessary vitamins and supplements and to get plenty of protein and fluids. She says she is experiencing some new sensations. “I had never had dumping syndrome until recently, because I was very rigid in following the (food) plan. At school it was harder because we would go for pizza and make cookies. I don’t do the full-blown syndrome, I just feel kind of yucky for a while, but enough that I wish I hadn’t eaten whatever caused it. If I overdo sugar I feel bad the next day. I don’t really feel hungry. It’s more like my body tells me when I need something – I’ll suddenly realize that I haven’t eaten and need to.” She says she is determined not to undo all the good progress she has made. 

Krista hit a plateau when she moved to Abilene, TX, in January (2003). She says, “My brother and his wife attend Abilene Christian University and I decided to go down there for the social aspect. My mom and dad have been amazingly supportive, but I missed out on quite a bit by not going to high school and wanted to be around people my age and to start over a bit. I guess I overdid things and my illness flared up again.” 

Support is the best.

She says she’s not discouraged. “Recently I’ve been fluctuating up and down between the same 5-7 pounds, but my fat percentages and BMI are still going down, so that’s good.  I haven’t measured in a while because my tape’s still packed from my move back home; but my clothes tell me the inches are still coming off.”

Before the flare up, she had been working out with a personal trainer and really enjoying the exercises, but had to stop since symptoms of her illness are extreme tiredness and insomnia. This recent episode also brought on a month of unrelenting migraine headaches.

She says, “This was a real problem because the surgery limits the medications we can take; especially anything that irritates our stomach. The doctors finally prescribed a liquid anti-inflammatory, which I could take after coating my stomach with Prevacid. This broke the cycle of headaches.” 

Krista thinks that being away from the Surgical Associates support group may have contributed to her weight fluctuation. “The support group is so wonderful. I’m probably the youngest person there, but they treat me as an equal – I did have surgery before most of them, so I can help them with questions. I got to be a Bari-buddy to Lynda Blevins when she had surgery. It was great to help someone else. I didn’t have that kind of support in Abilene, although my family members there were wonderful. My sister-in-law brought me into her group of friends. It helped that she had explained my surgery to them before I arrived. Because I eat slowly and chew carefully, I’m always the last to finish my food, but no one seems to mind.”

Having the group’s support is a consideration in Krista’s pending decision to move back to Texas. “Even if I found a group there, there’s no guarantee that they would be a great as the people here,” she says. 

Shopping -- one of life's little pleasures.

One of the new joys of Krista’s life is shopping with her girlfriends. “At size 14, I can shop at Gap and Old Navy now.” She sometimes slips on one of her size 24 outfits to visually remind herself how far she has come. “I’m working hard on my self-esteem. I have to remind myself that I’ve changed. I just don’t see myself the way I am now.” She laughs, “I sometimes see pictures of myself and wonder WHO that person is.” 

The habits of an overweight person are hard to break. Krista says she still occasionally picks up a pillow to hold in her lap when she sits on the sofa, and marvels that she can see both legs when one is crossed over the other. 

When asked what she would tell an overweight person considering the surgery, she says, “I’d be very positive about it because I’d do it again. But I’d also want to make sure they knew the whole situation. It is life-saving and life-changing, but it is also life-long.  It improves your quality of life – but you do need to be aware of the complications that can happen; hopefully they won’t, but you need to know what might happen.”

These realities are talked about openly at the support meetings. “We don’t sugar-coat it,” Krista says. “Often the prospective patient ‘filters out the negatives’ so it is especially important that their support person attend meetings and listens carefully to all the information. We all tend to think ‘that won’t happen to me’ – but it can.”

Now a beautiful 24 years old, Krista is ready to make up for those lost years. She sums up her experience, “I think I’m coming back to myself. My confidence is coming back and I’m feeling better about myself. I’m getting my personality back. The surgery has given me back the quality of life that I had lost.”