Read her story
My name is Alicia Williamson. I had a mini gastric bypass with Dr. Michael Snyder back in April of 2021. I’m down 120lbs in seven months. I knew Dr. Snyder was the right doctor for me after I had my first visit. It with him, which was a televisit, and his personality just was perfect. It made me feel so comfortable and he just really made me feel like I wasn’t just a number to him. I was a person to him and he made me feel like I was important and that my story was important and he wanted to be there to help me.
When I decided to share what I was wanting to do with my friends and family, it wasn’t something that I felt was hard to do. I think most of my family and friends knew that I had struggled with my weight and so they knew that I had looked at other options. I’ve tried many different things all my life. It’s always been a struggle from pretty much middle school on. One of the older patients of Dr. Michael Snyder’s was my hairstylist at the time and her story really inspired me. And so I started considering having the weight loss surgery over two years ago. At the time, I had just had my son and I didn’t know if I was done having kids and I was concerned about, do you have surgery now or do you wait till you’re done having kids? And so I kind of went back and forth. But everybody has been really supportive the whole time, even before I had surgery, just with my weight in general, I’ve always had a really good support system with my husband and my mom and my family and my friends. Everybody has always been really supportive of everything.
My life has changed in many ways. I have two little kids that I can actually be a part of their life and just mentally. It has made me happier with myself. One thing that I do now that I never did before surgery was riding a horse. Since I’ve had my surgery, I’ve been able to ride and get on. And my husband has been so supportive of it because we have horses. And so that was something that was really a big thing for me. I just have new confidence that I never had. The advice that I would give to someone that is considering having any kind of bariatric surgery would be to go tomorrow and do your appointment. Don’t wait. Don’t put it off. The only regret that I have that everyone else also told me they had was that they didn’t do it sooner… because your life just changes. And honestly, the way that my life has changed has been amazing. The things that I can do now that I never used to do just emotionally, mentally and physically. You feel so different and I wouldn’t go back for anything if I could tell Dr. Snyder one thing, I’d tell him, “Thank you. Times a million.” This has been the best decision of my life.