Dec 14, 2018

Dear Dr. B,

You’ll remember that last year at this time, right before Christmas I was in a very familiar place of giving up and not wanting to continue trying. I had lost about 20 pounds with Enara and thought that I should have done better, so I guess that was my excuse to start eating again.

You noticed that I was cancelling appointments and called me late on a Friday evening and talked me off the ledge. Using empathy and basic logic, something not available to me in that state of mind, you laid out a few very logical choices.

“You have done well so far and lost almost 20% of your body weight, now you can keep going and next year have lost another 20 pounds, or go back to your usual pattern and probably gain it all back and most likely even more. Haven’t you been here before? Don’t you know how it will go? Why keep repeating the same pattern. Why don’t you come in and we can try a few things to get you going again?”

So I did come in, and we talked and where I was resistant to trying drugs before I was now more trusting and open to trying your suggestions. And the drugs and everything else in the Enara program helped. A lot. Now one year later, I’ve lost almost 50 pounds in total, instead of gaining what would certainly have been more. My cholesterol is down to a normal number and I am no longer in a pre-diabetic state. I’ve taken my old clothes out of cold storage that have been too small for years, and now most of them are too big! (Excuse to shop?)

I realize that I need a lot of consistent, ongoing help in order to someday get to and hopefully maintain a normal body weight. I’ve been very overweight for most of my adult life, with a few brief periods of near-thinness:

• after trying every diet imaginable from my teen years on
• after a year in Overeaters Anonymous abstaining from carbs and sugar
• after having stomach sleeve surgery (but I was even able to gain most of my weight back after that, even with a smaller stomach)

So I know I’m an advanced case with a serious disease.

I consider myself similar to people who accept that they need allergy or asthma meds for the rest of their lives in order to breath or people who need antidepressants for the rest of their lives to be able to face the day and be productive. I’m like them in that I need to stay on my meds too in order to not gain weight and become diabetic, have a heart attack or promote the chances of getting cancer, not to mention the physical body pain and depression and all the rest of the extreme shame that comes with being fat.

– Thank you for being a doctor who actually cares and for showing it and being tenacious.

– Thank you for your deep learning on the subject of weight management and the new drugs related to it.

– Thank you for opening Enara in San Mateo with your excellent staff and especially Danielle!

– Thank you for being there for me!

Your appreciative patient,

– Suzan B.