Mr. Mario Estevam, 45y

Q. How old are you and what is your job?
A. I am 45 years old, and I work for Embraer Aircraft Customer Services (USA) as a Customer Account Manager.

Q. How was your childhood? Were you a fat child? If no, when did you begin to fatten and why?
A. My childhood was as normal as most kids, always doing something with other kids or playing sports. Growing up, I was taller than most of my friends and never heavy. Started to build up weight when i began my College years along with a full time job with not much time for exercises. I was 21 years old.

Q. How was your adolescence? How were your social relationships?
A. I was always busy, going to high-school in the morning, playing basketball in the afternoon (tournament) and taking English classes at night. I had many friends from different activities, and that was never a problem. Everything changed when I met my beautiful wife and got married at 21, had to give up some of my activities and replace that with college and parenthood.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your eating habits? What did you eat at your meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner? Do you like sweeties?
A. I didn't eat much at breakfast or lunch, however, it doesn't mean. I was eating right. I replaced sugar with artificial sweetener, and regular soda with diet ones. Always liked a nice sandwich in the morning or lunch. A big dinner meal was always on the dinner table, just too much food, and on weekends, the food quantity was tripled. In summary, I didn't have a descent eating habit, and I enjoyed eating good food, bottom line is: I would eat like there was no tomorrow.

Q. What were the treatments you were used to do to loose weight, like diets, for instance? Were you successful? For how long?
A. Few years back, I was on a low calorie diet, prescribed by my Doctor, and also taking some appetite inhibiter. Through eating discipline. I was able to loose 30 Kgs and kept them off for nearly 5 years, until. I moved out of town, and my habits changed with that.

Q. When did you decide to do the obesity surgery? What kind did you do?
A. I decided to do the surgery when I learned my cholesterol was way above normal, and was border line for diabetes (end of 2004). I have a friend that had the surgery done, and she couldn't be a happier person, she was a great encouragement to me. I had the gastric by pass procedure (Roux en Y) with the esophagus restrictor (ring).

Q. How did you discover Dr. Almino?
A. I was looking for a Doctor at the internet, who would do the Video Lap Band procedure, and I found his website by accident. When I had my first visit with Dr. Almino, we decided that the gastric bypass procedure would fit me the best.

Q. Why did you prefer to do it here, in Brazil?
A. I did it in Brazil for two main reasons, Being the first one that my American insurance provider would not pay for the procedure; and secondly because Dr. Almino knew how tight my schedule was and he did everything in his reach to help me get it done under my time constraints. Also important to mention is that his price was very reasonable compared to US prices.

Q. When did you have surgery done?
A. I had the surgery done on January 3rd, 2006

Q. How many quilos did you eliminate since then?
A. Before surgery, my weight was 140 Kgs, and the BMI was 41. I have lost 31 kgs since, and am looking forward to loose much more during this coming summer. This time of the year is very cold in Pennsylvania, and for this reason, I didn't start exercising until couple of weeks ago.

Q. How do you feel now?
A. I could not feel any better. I sleep much better, I don't have back pain anymore, my blood test results are back to normal, I do not need any medications. I am slowly getting my life back.

Q. Do you have the aid of a multiprofessional group (psychologist, nutricionist…) there, in USA?
A. No I don't have. I still use Dr. Almino's team for whatever needs i might have, and what a great team he has to support us.

Q. What is the message for the people that are reading the interview?
A. Surgery is a risky procedure and should only be used as your last chance to get better. The surgery will not work if you don't change your eating habits and that's where your psychologist will add value to you. The procedure will certainly give you a good head start, because for 60 days you can't eat at all, and you will loose weight for sure. You will learn again how to eat better, by taking baby steps, and getting used to your new body. If you asked me, Yes, I would do it again, and i did with almost no support from my family, don't let that get into your way, once you go thru the surgery and they see the results, everybody will agree that you were right in first place.