Couple Discover Surprise Benefits of Having Weight-loss Surgeries

Betsy and Gary Appelsies had an easy cure for a bad day: Load the dogs into the car and head to a nearby ice cream shop. A vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles for her, a cup of chocolate ice cream with hot fudge and peanut butter cups for him, and they both felt better.

Until “quite literally,” Betsy says, “We looked at each other and agreed, ‘We can’t do this anymore.’”

Before long, each had signed up to have weight-loss surgeries. They scheduled their procedures for the same week, only three days apart.

Betsy chose a gastric bypass because she had few risk factors and needed to shed her Stage 2 obesity. Gary opted for the less invasive sleeve gastrectomy. In his case, absorbing nutrients is crucial since he has both Parkinson’s and cardiovascular disease; he needed to drop fewer pounds.

They locked in December dates for a pragmatic reason: They’d reached their annual insurance out-of-pocket maximums.

Pairing Up for Bariatric Surgery

For the Appelsies, teaming up for this journey benefitted them in unexpected ways. “We continually had different emotions and could go to one another,” says Gary, director of operations for Orlando’s Senior Resource Alliance. “We encouraged each other.”

“We’d remind each other what the whole point was,” echoes Betsy, a medical and pharmaceutical marketing writer.

Being in the same surgical boat helped them both with their success.

“If I did the surgery and Betsy was eating pasta, I would have been tempted to eat some,” Gary says. “Then my stomach would have expanded and I would have gained weight back. Now we don’t bring those foods into the house.”

The Appelsies, who live in Winter Garden, aren’t the only couple to attempt a weight-loss twosome. “We’ve had couples have bariatric surgery on the same day,” says Dr. Andre Teixeira of the Orlando Health Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Institute, who performed both their procedures.

“We even had an entire family of four divide their surgeries over two days a week apart. It’s better because it puts everyone on the same wavelength,” he says. Dr. T, as he’s known in the office, has watched couples reboot their relationships, in a way, as the tandem trim-downs bring bonding.

A New Way of Living

Food has always been central to the Appelsies’ lifestyle, and it still is. “It did change our relationship with food, though,” notes Gary, who has degrees in integrative nutrition and the culinary arts.

‘We looked at each other and agreed, ‘We can’t do this anymore.’ – Betsy Appelsies

Today, the Appelsies buy chicken tenders instead of whole breasts, then cook three and freeze the rest for another meal. They eat one-and-a-half tenders each along with vegetables for dinner. Since they need to take small bites “the size of your fingernail,” Gary notes, they invested in little cocktail forks and espresso spoons to keep their food portions miniature.

Nights on the town are as delightful as ever. “We’re foodies, and we still go out,” Betsy says. In restaurants, the Appelsies order one entrée and split it. They don’t even consider visiting buffets.

“For Gary’s birthday, we went to an upscale restaurant in Dr. Phillips,” says Betsy. “Instead of ordering an entrée, we arrived for happy hour and split three small dishes. That way we experienced the amazing service in a beautiful setting, and we saved a ton of money, too.”

Thinner and Looking Ahead

The Appelsies laud the tremendous progress they’ve made since their procedures nearly a year ago. Betsy has lost 75 pounds so far. At 5’2”, she started at 235 pounds with a BMI of 42 and is down to 160, slimming from a size 18-20 to a 10-12. “I feel better in my body,” she says, “and am amazed when I look at myself.” Her new challenge is tinkering with migraine and bipolar meds so they adjust to the new bodyweight.

Gary, who at 6 feet started at 267 pounds with a BMI of 36.2, is 106 pounds lighter with a BMI of 21.6. His blood pressure has come down considerably. 

Both have plateaued. In an effort to lose another 20 pounds, Betsy plans to up her exercise beyond a nightly 2-mile walk with friends. Gary has reached his goal weight and hopes to maintain it.

Mutual support, self-discipline and surgery all get credit, but that’s not all. “The Orlando Health Bariatric Institute has a support system,” Gary says. “You can talk to their staff nutritionist for ideas and to their nurses if you don’t feel well, for example.”

Just as important, telling friends and family their plans made a huge difference. Gary had resisted, in part because he has a visible job, but is glad to have opened up. “We told everybody what we were doing and it was so helpful,” Betsy says. “Right after the surgery, they were like, ‘Can we walk the dogs for you? Can we run to the grocery store?’” That emotional support is super important.”

The Appelsies still have bad days, and they still zip up to the ice cream shop sometimes. “Now it’s three or four licks, Betsy says, noting the cone itself is off-limits. “Then I don’t even have the craving anymore.”